How I Have Put A Stop To Procrastinating

You know how it is, you sit down to reply to those emails and before you know it you have travelled down the instagram rabbit hole and somehow know everything about your neighbours cousin, have ordered two new mugs from Anthropologie and have started up an in-depth conversation on your WhatsApp group about who is better looking – Thomas Shelby or Arthur Shelby. (A conversation I think you will all agree is one I would totally invest a lot of time into.)

I have tried being more structured with my time recently. In particular wanting to be that mother who only works when her children are at school or nursery. Yet time and time again, I get to the end of the day and my ‘to do list’ is longer than when I started. You will be pleased to know that despite my spiralling panic of being behind with work and the ‘will I ever earn money again’ internal dialogue, I am, in fact full of wonderful information. I know what Nicolas Cage’s most expensive purchase was. (If you are new to procrastinating I would recommend having a read about all the crazy shit this man has bought in his time.) Did you know Elvis Presley was naturally a blonde? Can you guess the kind of information I fill awkward silences with? No wonder I don’t make friends in the school playground!

Jumper Hush Jeans Asos Hat Misguided Boots Asos

I fear that I am not alone when it comes to spending my time a little too unwisely. So I have put together the tips that have been shaving at least an hour of procastination time out of my day.

The Forest App

I discovered this app when I was watching Violet and Percy’s Instagram stories. It is an app where you plant a tree on your phone when you wish to be productive. Setting the amount of  time required for you to focus on a task. During this time a tree will grow on your phone and should you open your phone before the time is up, it dies. The idea is to grow a forest and to stay away from all those apps that lose you minutes and hours so regularly. I have even managed to start reading books again thanks to this app!

Bag Grace Gordon 

The Two Minute Rule

This is my newest and most successful addition to my screw you procrastination life. Basically if any task takes less than two minutes to complete then you should do it immediately. Reply to that email, put your dishes in the dishwasher (I’m looking at you Si). Also you should commit two minutes to any bigger task. For example, you know you have that blog post to write. Commit to two minutes starting it. I guarantee starting it will be enough to push you into getting it done. Said you were gonna start running this year? Put your trainers on and start running for two minutes. It is rare that you will turn around and quit after two minutes (and if you do then you have done two minutes more than you would have done if you hadn’t stuck to the rule!)

Prioritise

Make a list of what needs to be done and number them in order of importance. Make sure you tackle these items first. That is easier said than done because I tend to do the stuff that needs doing but I like doing before any other task. You can always carry jobs over to the next day. (Or does that completely miss the point of getting them done?) The process of doing this will highlight whether you are burdening yourself with an unmanageable list. Whether you are prioritising the stuff that is more fun over what is more important.

And finally you may have noticed (though you probably haven’t) I am not on instagram as much. I am storying less and stalking less. I feel out of the loop a little bit and missing some of my favourite accounts uploads but I am achieving more. I wanted to give the blog greater focus this year. I know less people read my blog than who engage over on my instagram but I wanted to give it some dedication this year regardless. As a creative outlet if nothing more.

Let me know if you have found out anything that works for you, if not I would love to hear the stuff you find yourself doing in those moments of procrastination!

Photography by Jess Soothill