5 tips to stop putting off until tomorrow things you can do today
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Are you one of life’s procrastinators? Then this article is for you. Here are 5 tips to stop putting everything off until tomorrow.
Are you one of life’s procrastinators? One of those who say that things can wait until tomorrow? That in the end you have better things to do today….
It’s a good way to sort through what is important and what is not, but sometimes it can turn into a veritable nightmare: unpaid bills, unorganized papers, files delivered late, lost contacts….
At work, the procrastinator is soon caught by the patrol: a presentation to complete for the next day has not been started at 6pm, constant reminders from your boss…. It’s uncomfortable as hell, but we bet that you find ways to get back into step.
At home, it’s another story! The consequences are not immediate, although they can be annoying to manage: from a simple Sunday afternoon sorting through paperwork to the pile of washing, the accounts… not to mention unpaid bills and lost friends that you never called back!
If you have reached the stage where you are allergic to paperwork and you haven’t opened an envelope in months, here is some advice that will undoubtedly not be sufficient, and you may want to consider seeing a specialist, but if you are fed up with sacrificing your weekends to catching up, here are 5 tips suggested by our organisational pros.
The following tips all proceed from the same method:
If it takes 5 minutes, do it straight away,
If it takes 20 minutes, plan it during the week
If it takes 2 hours, plan in during the month
- Administrative jobs: sort through your mail every day (5 minutes) and set aside one evening to pay bills (20 minutes, or more if you are a small business)
AnneLise, an organisational coach, recommends early in the week “Fatigue hasn’t set in, and it’s satisfying to put a chore behind you. Take advantage of this to do your accounts quickly and plan upcoming expenses. I recommend using a computer or writing things down. Doing your accounts in your head is not doing your accounts: you need to write the figures down to make them real”.
- Tidy as you go… Any organisational professional will tell you: to avoid a mess, leave nothing to chance. We are planning a new article about optimising how to keep your home tidy, but the number one good habit is to put something away as soon as you have finished using it.
When I think about the pile of clothes that have accumulated on the chair in my room, I get the shivers…. Laundry basket and hangers at the ready (5 minutes!). Make this a rule for all family members who are old enough to walk as far as the laundry basket! I see your mocking looks – “In our house everybody puts their clothes away and wipes the table after dinner!” Everybody? Really?
- Social: Do you never call anyone back? Your girlfriends from time to time and other people never? Until the time comes when you need them: for an emergency or for friendship. At home, just as at work, having a network is important!
Guy, a communication advisor says: “Don’t let the day end without replying to a text message or a courtesy email (the Hi, how’s it going? or the Are you coming to the party on Saturday? emails). By tomorrow you will have forgotten them, because they will have been replaced by other messages. Our brains can only retain the important jobs. If you have private mails that require more time to think about them (organisation, discussion…), put a little flag beside them when you receive them and take 20 minutes in the evening to reply properly. The same applies to phone calls”.
- Taking care of the house: do you switch on the light in the hall every evening and say “I must change that light bulb”? It’s one of those things that can be done in 5 minutes: yes it is!
If you don’t have a spare light bulb (moth balls, stain remover, screw…), you can make a reminder list (Wunderlist, Errand or Rememberthemilk) or organise a team DIY session on Saturday.
Some organised mums recommend the same thing when it comes to spring cleaning or sorting through winter/summer clothes. We like the idea of working together as a team, while the teenagers tend to be far less enthusiastic, but if there’s a fast food / pancakes / cinema outing promised at the end of the day…
Everything else: if you continue to put things off, then they are undoubtedly not priorities for you. Our business coach already reminded us that the things we do not do are not necessarily important for our desires in the immediate future.
So, if over the past two months you keep jotting down the same thing on your list, or in your head, and things are still working out pretty well at home/at work, then it’s because you don’t want to give time to it. Yes, YOU!!
This leaves us asking questions about our motivations, and if you decide that it simply has to be done then why not delegate it to somebody else? It doesn’t work for the gym, I’m afraid, but it might work for that thing that you can’t seem to organise and your husband/friend/other keeps pestering you about it: let them take care of it then! Let’s co-organise!
You can also read the following on this theme: How to make shopping simpler.
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