5 Tips to Prevent Procrastination in the Workplace

By f4group, May 8, 2019

A recent survey by rebootonline.com reveals how much time we really waste in the working day. In a study of 865 office workers, employees would spend 2 hours and 2 minutes a day procrastinating – that’s 10 hours and 10 minutes a week!

Have you been known to pull a coffee-fueled all-nighter to finish a project? Or submitted a half-hearted assignment because you left it until the last minute? We have all been there and the team at Force Four are certainly no strangers to the world of procrastination. So, how do we avoid distractions and start concentrating?

Success Magazine cleverly pointed out “the science of physics recognizes two laws of inertia, both of which can be related to procrastination. No. 1, “Standing objects tend to remain stationary” and No. 2, “Moving objects tend to stay in motion.” With this in mind, we have thought about small changes to our daily routine that will get us moving forward in our tasks, our productivity and our goals.

1. Manage your distractions – This is a biggy!

Fun Fact: We are all biologically geared to self-distract, ultimately leading to procrastination.

How do we manage this? Firstly, you need to learn what kind of procrastinator you are. Think about what you find yourself doing instead of tackling your to do list. Checking your emails, team members bursting into your office for a chat or endlessly scrolling through social media? Once these are identified you can consciously avoid these activities. Try turning off your phone – yeah, we said it! Ok fine, we’ll accept aeroplane mode!

2. Take a focused break

Stress management is not about avoiding it entirely but about learning how to manage it. Before you get overwhelmed with the thought of all the jobs on your list, take a step back and focus your mind on a simple exercise. Try learning to juggling, a spot of yoga or going for a walk. Breaking up your work with as little as 10 minutes of focused activity helps to channel your productivity

3. Set realistic goals

“Don’t sacrifice good for perfect!” – a favourite line of our CEO Martin Smith. Meaning simply that the quality of your efforts is worth more than getting faultless results. If you push yourself too hard to reach unachievable goals, then you will most likely end up feeling overwhelmed and disheartened, with no goals reached.

4. Reward yourself

Having something to look forward to at the end of your hard work will make you want to get started sooner. The good news here is that you get to choose your own reward. Just think how much chocolate you can munch on or how many episodes of your favourite TV show you can watch if you invest the same amount of time into focused work.

5. Tell someone about your goal

It’s easy to forget or put jobs off if you’re the only person holding yourself accountable. If you really want to get something done, tell a friend or family member. They will then hold you responsible for your goals and this will naturally motivate you to focus. As a bonus, you will also have someone to celebrate with when all your hard work pays off!

We cover procrastination and time management in more detail in our one day training course “Overcoming Distraction to Supercharge your Productivity”.

To find out more about how you can improve your team’s productivity levels, give our friendly F4 Training Team a call on 0800 470 4441.