Home > Big Ideas > Business Outside of the Box > Breaking Away From the Bright and Shiny: Ways to Avoid Work Procrastination

“I wonder what my friends are up to today, I think I’ll lurk on Facebook for awhile.” “I’ve never heard of this guy, let me check out LinkedIn to see if I can find his profile.” “I really want to buy that blender for my mom, I wonder how much it is at Nordstrom.” 

Do thoughts like these plague your mind all day long? Don’t worry, you can confess your online sins (I won’t judge!). The truth is that there are so many distractions online, it’s easy to get lured in by all of those “bright and shiny” objects. The good news is that you can break these habits for good (promise!) with just a few simple steps.

• If you use Firefox, check out the LeechBlock add-on. LeechBlock is one proven procrastination tool that lets you actively block certain sites (some social media time wasters come to mind) at various points throughout the day.

For example, if you want to prevent yourself from accessing LinkedIn from 10am to 4pm, LeechBlock won’t let you near that site once you add a URL to your customization options. If you try to access a site that’s been blocked, you’ll see a “blocked” sign. How’s that for forcing productivity?

•  Swallow Your Frogs First. As Mark Twain once said: “If you know you have to swallow a frog, swallow it first thing in the morning. If there are two frogs, swallow the big one first.” Why all the frog talk? Twain was referring to those dreaded, difficult, and dire projects that you must complete…but don’t really want to. If you get your “frogs” out of the way first thing, the rest of your day will cruise by.
• Do you check your email more than any person should? If you are obsessively checking your email, you can put a stop to this by setting up an “out of office” notification or sending out an automatic “I read my emails at 5pm” note. Once that’s done, close your email and resist the urge to check it more than twice per day.
• If you have an iOS device (iPhone, iPod, iPad, or Mac), download the WriteRoom app. This app will provide you with a blank screen that you can use to write all day long. What you won’t be able to do is access any other pages or sites while you are writing.
• Schedule, schedule, schedule. Before you retire for the night, write down (yes, on a piece of paper) everything that you have to do tomorrow. Start with your frogs, and then list each task in order of importance. When you wake up the next morning, that list will be waiting for you. Organization is one of the best tools that you can use – and it’s also free!
• Get out! Go for a walk, stretch, hit the gym for an hour, and take a real lunch break. Believe it or not, stepping away from your desk for a little while is great for productivity. Once you return to your daily tasks, you’ll feel alert and refreshed.
• Last but not least, put your smartphone away while you work. It’s tempting to leave your phone on your desk, but checking emails, scanning social media posts, and texting your buddies all adds up to too many distractions.

Just implementing a few of these top tips will help to banish the “Bright & Shiny” syndrome we all experience as solo-entrepreneurs and small business owners. Here’s to your super-successful and productive week and month ahead!!