6 Strategies To Eliminate Distraction, Find Motivation, and Beat Procrastination

This is a guest post by James Frankton. James Frankton writes about motivational and time management topics on his blog “Why Am I Lazy?”. Check it out at www.whyamilazy.com – and feel free contact him with any feedback or questions

Do you feel like you are prone to procrastination? Are you worried that you lack motivation in life, and drift from day to day like tumbleweed down a deserted road? Are distractions – Facebook, video games, your mobile phone – distracting you from completing work?

If so, then you need to keep reading.

Today I’m going to teach you six effective strategies that will help you to eliminate distraction, find your inner motivation, and ultimately beat procrastination for good.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to extract more out of life, then this is your opportunity.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at the best techniques you can use to become a more motivated, inspired, and productive person:

Block Out Digital Distractions

Digital technology, such as the Internet and mobile phones, is fantastic for a diverse range of reasons. However, for those of us that are prone to procrastination, it can also be a frustrating Achilles’ heel.

If you find yourself wasting countless hours on social media websites, message boards, or watching cat videos on YouTube, then you’ll know the frustration that digital distractions can bring.

In my experience they are one of the biggest causes of procrastination – so let me help you say no to distraction.

The first step in the process is to identify exactly what your biggest digital distractions are. For example, do you waste most of your time on Facebook, or browsing online shopping sites, or maybe playing video games on your Playstation? (Note that I’m including any kind of digital technology in the digital distractions category).

Once you have identified your digital distractions, it’s time to set about banishing them from the times in which you need to be productive.

My suggestion for websites that distract you is to deploy a site-blocking tool. I use the Google Chrome browser, with an extension installed called “StayFocusd”. It’s free to download, and easy to install.

Basically, this app (and it’s numerous doppelgangers that exist for most browsers) allows you to create a blacklist of websites … I’m talking things like Facebook and Buzzfeed. You can then set a daily time limit for how long you are allowed to browse any of the sites on your blacklist. Once the timer stops, you’ll be blocked from visiting any of those sites again until the next day.

The great thing about these site blocker programs is that you can often set them to block all social media/forum/video sharing sites – leaving you nowhere to run but into the loving arms of productivity and hard work!

If you’re distracted by your mobile phone (especially the constant hum of incoming texts, calls, and Snapchats) then you need to do try and distance yourself from your phone when you ought to be working.

Mobile phones are a demon for causing procrastination – especially smartphones with their endless litany of apps that seem tailor-made for mindless distraction.

Try switching off your phone, and then leaving it in a different room while you work. The world isn’t going to end because you can’t see your new text messages. And you’ll get a whole load more work done in the process.

Create The Illusion Of Work

What should you do if you find yourself in an office or study environment, in which co-workers are constantly interrupting you? After all, there is little more frustrating than actually trying to work, only to be interrupted by those around you.

The solution in this situation is easy: You need to create the “illusion” of being deeply engrossed in your work. The hope here is that passers-by will see you hard at work and decide that it’s best to you leave you alone.

In my opinion one of the best ways to create this all-important illusion of work is to chuck on a pair of headphones. As soon as you’ve got a pair hiding your ears, it automatically looks like you are hard at work (and using music to block out distractions).

I’ve used this technique for donkey’s years, in order to prevent those around me from interrupting my working space and breaking my flow.

Finally, if you work in an office where face-to-face distraction is a regular problem, then consider politely asking your colleagues to avoid interrupting you unless the issue is of great importance. A friendly email sent around the office should probably suffice … and will hopefully reduce the risk of you becoming distracted from your work.

Set Meaningful Goals

One of the most common causes of procrastination and laziness is a lack of direction. If you have no idea where you want to go in life, then it stands to reason that you won’t make it very far.

If you feel that you are lacking direction and need better focus, what can you do?

The easiest solution is to set meaningful goals that will guide you from one productive task to the next.

Always have at least one goal (but preferably multiple goals over different time frames) that inspires you to take action and give you something to work towards.

Just ensure that your goals are actually attainable and realistic. There is no point in setting goals that you cannot achieve, as these will only lead to disappointment.

It’s no different to how police tracking dogs need to be successful in their pursuits every so often; if they consistently fail, then they become despondent and less likely to succeed in future operations.

So to beat procrastination you need goals that will challenge you to develop, but they also need to be realistically achievable.

Create A Daily Game Plan

One of my favorite strategies for stamping out procrastination is to go into each day equipped with a rock solid game plan.

This is really just fancy terminology for a “to-do” list, but I’m sure you’ll agree that game plan sounds far more exciting!

Before you go to bed each night, I want you to create a list of things you must achieve the following day. When starting out don’t feel pressured to make massive daily lists; you can build up the volume of tasks in any given day as you become more proficient at taking action and dodging procrastination.

You can use all manner of smart phone apps to help you create a daily game plan. However, I’m still a fan of rocking the classic pen and paper.

What really counts is ensuring that when you go to bed at the end of the day, every single task on the list has been checked off as complete.

Overcome The Fear Of Failure

One of the BIGGEST (notice the emphasis) causes of procrastination is the fear of failure.

Let me explain: When you are presented with a task to complete – especially one for which you have little or no pre-existing experience – there is a tendency that we all have to worry about failing.

Failure, you see, comes with this nasty feeling (imagined or not) that others will judge us negatively. And this perceived negative judgment that accompanies failure is what can lead to oftentimes very severe procrastination.

For example, imagine that you have a desire to run a half-marathon in a few months’ time. I want you to visualize as intently as possible all those feelings of apprehension and dread that accompany.

You’ll probably find yourself thinking things similar to:

• “What if I’m the last person to cross the finishing line – how will people judge me?”
• “Can I live up to the standards I set myself, and how disappointed will I be if I don’t?”
• “Do I even know enough about running to make a good attempt at this half-marathon?”

In your mind you run through all the ways that things could go wrong (and, for some strange reason, there are always plenty). And as you ponder over the embarrassment and shame you will feel if you don’t succeed – which you’ve now convinced yourself is extremely likely – it dawns on you that not taking action is a much safer alternative.

After all, if you don’t try, then you can’t fail … right?

I want you to ponder on that sentence for a moment. When you understand what I’m trying to say, you’ll swiftly realize just how the fear of failure prevents you from taking action.

Basically, it convinces you that by procrastinating you can prevent yourself from facing up to the consequences (especially the social ramifications) of any perceived failure.

That’s why you MUST learn how to overcome the fear of failure. Do this, and you will find yourself taking action in a manner you never would have thought possible.

To overcome the fear of failure and procrastination, you need to beat the following messages into your brain:

1. Failing to try is much worse than trying, and then failing.  Don’t kid yourself any longer: The second you procrastinate a task and refuse to do it for fear of making a stuff-up, you’ve already failed. If you don’t try, then it’s no different to quitting a running race before the starter pistol has been fired. If you give it a try, then at least you have a shot at success. Furthermore, you will give yourself the opportunity to learn from your mistakes – which is extremely pertinent to the next point.
2. Proper preparation prevents poor performance. If you’re worried about failing, then counteract the risk of failure by preparing for whatever task you need to undertake. Whether it’s adequate training for the half-marathon I mentioned earlier, or laborious research for your next essay that you oh-so-desperately want to put off, preparation will help you mitigate the risk of failure. The better prepared you are for the challenge ahead, the less likely you are to procrastinate.
3. Dip your toes in the water and see that it’s safe to swim. Almost any task you wish to accomplish can be compartmentalized into smaller components. Use this fact to your advantage: Break down the seemingly gargantuan task before you into smaller parts, and then try the first. Chances are that the experience is nowhere near as scary as you might initially have thought. You’ve dipped your toes in the water, and you now know it’s safe to swim!
4. People appreciate an honest effort. As I mentioned earlier, what lies at the heart of procrastination is often a fear that if you are unsuccessful at a given task, then others will judge you negatively and heap scorn and shame upon you. However, the opposite is far closer to the truth. People appreciate and respect someone who has the guts to give an honest effort. Provided you try your hardest, you’ll more likely garner praise than criticism.

Just Do It – The Simple Solution

A wise friend once told me that the easiest way to beat procrastination is to pick something, and then do it.

Frankly speaking, he was right: The fastest way to stop procrastination is to take action, because as soon as you are doing something productive, you’ve ceased to procrastination.

Pick a task you need to complete, and then have a good, honest crack at seeing it through to the end. I bet you’ll quickly find that getting stuff done isn’t as hard as it might first seem.

From there, it’s just a case of making a habit of taking action. As soon as you’ve reached a state where you no longer have to think about getting stuff done (i.e. you just automatically do it) then you have successfully beaten procrastination.

Conclusion

To recap, in this article you’ve learned six different strategies that will help you to:

1. Eliminate distractions of all kinds
2. Find your inner motivation (i.e. goal-setting)
3. Beat procrastination so that you can take action effectively and decisively

I hope you’ve enjoyed what I had to say. Remember that all of us have the power to do amazing things in life; you just need to put in the hard work before you can see the results.

Don’t give up until you’ve banished procrastination from your life.