Are you a serial procrastinator? Do you often find yourself wasting your time on social media, not even knowing how you got there? Hi, my name is Andres, and I am a procrastinator.
To give you an idea of my procrastination powers, I have wanted to start my own blog since before high school (we are talking 2007 or 2008) but I kept postponing it for 14 or 15 years. That might be an extreme case, but even starting this particular post has been difficult. It took me over 1 whole hour of sitting here to actually type the few sentences above. I would get distracted by my phone every few seconds, or succumb to the temptation of checking my email for the tenth time before 8 AM.
If you can relate to some of the scenarios above, you might be a procrastinator as well. Technically, you and I are people who procrastinate. The book Stop Doing that Sh*t by Gary John Bishop helped me change my perspective on this way of identifying myself.
I’m paraphrasing a bit, but essentially Bishop mentions that we should not think of ourselves as “procrastinators”. Instead, we are people who procrastinate. We are not characterized by a single activity we do. He compares it to how everyone poops, but we do not go around telling people that we are poopers. That one single facet of our lives should not define us.
I find this point of view very inspiring. Framing it that way, as something we do instead of something we are, gives us the power to change it. Therefore, I am writing this post to share the steps I am taking to become a more focused and effective person. These are my tips to increase productivity and stop procrastinating (it’s still a work in progress for me).
Table Of Contents
- How to block distractions from technology
- My early morning routines to increase productivity
- How you can consume information faster
- When to relax and distract yourself
- Final thoughts
1. Block Out Distractions From Technology
Social media might be one of the most insidious time-wasters in our daily lives. It is all too easy to fall prey to the recommendation algorithms employed by such sites.
Traditional social media is not a huge problem for me. I barely check Facebook or Instagram now. However, I do spend a large amount of time watching Youtube videos. Granted, these are educational videos about finance, programming, or productivity. The problem is that I rarely take action on what I learn from the content I watch. Even worse, the act of watching gives me a false sense of feeling productive and that I am accomplishing my goals.
It is important to be honest with ourselves about our progress and how we use the information we consume. We might be reading, watching, listening to a lot of great content, but if we do not put it into action, it is really no different from simple entertainment.
Another big time-waster for me is checking my email and scrolling through phone notifications.
Practical steps that I am taking to block out distractions from technology include:
1.1 Set Up Times To Check Your Email And Unsubscribe to Unnecessary Sites
I’m still working on this point, but I have seen my productivity increase when I set a specific time to check my emails. I struggle with being strict because sometimes the allure is just too much. In general, I do not want to check my emails any time before noon. You can also set a timer so you don’t spend more than a certain amount of time on your inbox (say 15 minutes total).
I also started unsubscribing from certain newsletters that I rarely opened. In some cases, you might want to still get newsletter emails, but at a reduced frequency. Fortunately, many sites have settings for this. For example, if you notice that Quora emails usually lead to you spending an hour on their site (true story), you may want to limit the chances of that happening.
You can go to the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email. Then, on the page that opens, you are able to stop emails completely, or just get one summary email per week, or even per month.
1.2 Stop Taking Your Phone With You To The Bathroom
I get it. I really do. When you go to the bathroom you might feel like it is several minutes of unproductive time. To combat this, you take your phone with you and start browsing the web or getting up to date with social media. Since it is wasted time anyways, then you can use it to take a break. I used to do that (still do, but much more infrequently) and realized that it was costing me a lot of time per day.
I noticed that I could easily spend half an hour in the bathroom when I carried my phone with me. On the contrary, when I went by myself, I would usually be done in maybe a couple of minutes. I still can’t wrap my head around how much time I used to waste in the bathroom. This is time that you don’t even notice is gone.
So, my recommendation is that every time you go to the bathroom, purposefully leave your phone behind. As a bonus, other people in your household will thank you for it (especially if your house has only one toilet).
By the way, this suggestion can be extrapolated to many other activities where your hands are free and you perform them on autopilot. Just keep your phone away from you and see how it goes.
1.3 Reduce App Notifications On Your Phone
Go through your phone apps and disable notifications for most of them. This includes social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.
There is no need for most of those notifications. They only pull you into the app and entice you to spend as much time as possible there. You can reduce your time wasted by eliminating potential distractions. Only allow notifications on emergencies and real issues (use your best judgment here).
One added benefit of this tip is that my mind is less cluttered now. Before, even if I did not tap on a notification, just seeing it there would keep distracting me in the back of my mind, like a pending task. I can now focus more and be more present in what I do.
2. Start Your Day Earlier And Set Up Routines
Waking up earlier has given me a lot of time to get things done, especially with this blog. Starting your day earlier will allow you to get to work before day-to-day distractions get in the way. I find it very peaceful to sit at my desk when the sun is just coming up.
Currently, I’m cultivating the habit of getting up at around 6:30 AM to start my day. I exercise with an indoor bike for 30 minutes, keeping my heart rate above 145 bpm on average. After a shower, I make some coffee and eat an apple. Finally, I am ready to sit at my desk before 7:30 AM.
Among the benefits is that I feel more energized and excited each day. I also feel more confident about myself because I am creating a system of habits and sticking to them. If you want help with self-improvement and habit formation, I would recommend the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Many productivity books touch on similar points, but so far, Atomic Habits seems to be the most actionable of them in this regard. Set up a system that makes your desired habit easier and your undesired ones a bit harder to do. Also, when you are building habits, do your best to not stop the chain of repetition.
In my case, I get up early and exercise every day, even if I feel tired because I want this to become part of my routine. If you want to start your day earlier, here are my suggestions:
- Go to bed earlier. I started going to bed at midnight (used to be 2 or 3 AM) and will try to move it to 11 PM little by little. You can start a bit earlier than your normal bed time until you get use to it and then repeat. Don’t look at your phone when you go to sleep. Ideally, you would not be exposed to bright light to your eyes one hour before you hit the sack.
- Set an alarm a few minutes before your desired wake up time. It takes a bit of motivation to wake up early, so account for that internal struggle in the morning.
- Get out of bed before you can talk yourself out of it. Before you have the time to decide if you want to procrastinate on your goals, get out of bed and do something. For me, this is exercise but you could also skip directly to taking a shower. It’s hard not to feel awake after that.
- Find a Quiet Space to work in. Set up a space that inspires focus. You can be much more productive if your environment is already optimized to avoid distractions. That way your brain does not need to work too hard on blocking them out.
- Define your 1 or 2 most important tasks of the day and do them. This part is the cornerstone of this productivity tip. You need to define what is the most important task you want to get done today and work on that FIRST. Do not get distracted by other less important work.
- Stop drinking coffee after noon. As a coffee lover, this was very painful to me at first. I used to drink coffee without any concern on its effects on my sleep patterns. Sometimes I would drink a cup as late as midnight. Now, I drink a cup of coffee in the morning (7:30 AM) and at around 6 PM I drink a cup of decaf coffee, so all in all, I don’t feel like it was a big sacrifice in the end. It just takes a bit of getting used to.
3. Learn To Consume Content Faster
When I talk about content, I mean useful, educational content. Although you can certainly use these tips on any type of leisure material as well. Below are some of the ways I am speeding up my information acquisition.
3.1 Switch to Listening to Audiobooks At 2x Speed
I am quickly transforming myself into a more productive person with the help of several books and training videos. In fact, I finally started this blog after being motivated by the book Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. I finished it in a couple of hours, on December 7th, 2021. Since then, in just 5 or so weeks, I have completed 14 books.
How did I accomplish that milestone? The answer is audiobooks. I used to disregard audiobooks because I was clinging to the idea that paper books were better. It was a slow transition from me first from physical books to digital ones (using a Kindle tablet) to now fully embracing audiobooks.
The beauty of audiobooks is that you can hear information much faster than you can read it. However, that alone will not cut it for me. I like to listen to books at 2x speed (that’s the maximum my book app will allow me to go).
The result is that I can finish an 8-hour book in 4 hours, and if I split that over a week, it is just over 30 minutes per sitting. I plan to continue “reading” more books and will aim to consistently finish at least 5 per month. By the way, this is also close to the number of books successful CEOs read every month.
One recommendation is that you actually pay attention to the book you are listening to. Give it the same concentration as you would if you were reading it. It is very easy to think that because your eyes and hands are free you can engage in other complex activities.
I listen to books before I go to sleep and while I exercise. However, during exercise, I have to make sure that I am directing my conscious attention to the book, and let my body move on autopilot, not the other way around.
3.2 Watch Videos At High Speed (2x or more)
Whenever I watch videos on YouTube, Skillshare, or other places, I do it at at least 2x speed. I got into this habit many years ago. In general, I watch videos at close to 3x speed or sometimes higher. It depends on the content.
Youtube and other video streaming sites typically do not allow you to accelerate content more than 2x, but I found a workaround. For that, I use a simple browser plugin called Video Speed Controller. It is open source and a great tool for productivity. There is also a version for Firefox.
The plugin allows me to speed or slow down a video by pressing a button on my keyboard. By default, pressing the “s” key will slow down the video by 0.1x, while pressing the “d” key will accelerate the video by 0.1x. You can configure all those details. You can go as fast as you want, but you stop getting audio above 4x.
My advice is to start at something like 1.5x and once you feel comfortable, you can increase the speed. Since you can change the speed quickly by pressing a button, it means that when there are complicated parts in the video, you can slow down, and it makes consuming content much more dynamic and effective because you go at your own pace.
The other advantage is that this extension will work on any video on your browser. It may be a Facebook video, or Youtube, Skillshare, etc. Even the video ads that show up in the middle of other videos. Any video on your browser is under your control now.
3.3 Learn To Read Faster
I’m a relatively slow reader. One technique that I am still practicing is increasing my reading speed by not sub-vocalizing. Sub-vocalization is when you pronounce the words you read in your head. This massively slows you down since you can only read as fast as you can talk.
4. Take Breaks And Waste Time
It is good to separate time for leisure activity. For instance, I watch a few episodes of The Simpsons while eating. Sometimes I play online shooter games or chess. Since I consider this an important part of being productive, I guess it is unfair to call it “wasting time”.
I would probably feel burned out if I did not have any recovery time. I just can’t be productive and efficient all the time. However, I think it is important to create good habits around those activities or they can become overpowering.
Make sure that you are not turning to those distractions because you are avoiding facing an issue or hard task.
It is easy to feel productive in a game when everything else is going wrong.
I take breaks to allow my brain to have a variety of experiences throughout the day. This is also a work in progress for me because I tend to focus on one activity during the whole day without stopping.
Maybe my brain will be more effective by taking calculated and rewarding breaks along the way.
Final Thoughts
I’m not a productivity expert, but the strategies I shared above have helped me accomplish several of my goals. By reading many of the books I mentioned, I found the motivation to finally start this blog and refocus my efforts on my Youtube channel.
To recap, the steps I use to stop procrastinating are the following:
- Block distractions from your routine (especially in the morning)
- Wake up earlier and reinforce positive habits and routines
- Get used to absorbing information faster (speed up videos, audios, learn to read fast, etc)
- Create time to decompress and de-stress yourself
Let me know what you think of these tips. If you have a suggestion that I have not considered, I would like to hear from you in the comments. Also, you can sign-up for my newsletter. I don’t have any subscribers yet but when I do, I will send out maybe weekly emails with interesting or useful information about personal finance, productivity, or even software projects.