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“Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin” Victor Kiam
Procrastination has plagued every individual reading this article. Now more than ever, we face the problem of never-ending distractions as a society. Whether it be Netflix, Instagram, Tiktok, or any other app, we now have entertainment at our fingertips that has shortened our attention spans. Instant gratification has made it a million times harder to follow through on longer-term goals. I’ve personally experienced this too many times to count; when I’m not given a strict deadline to complete an essay or project, I wait until the very last minute to complete it. Remember, you can view my other articles through the Blogs section at the navigation bar.
We’ve all muttered the lie “I work better under pressure” as a response to putting off our undertakings. As creatives, we have a harder time logically planning out our projects to fit a timeline. We tend to be more flexible about when we work and have bursts of productive inspiration and lulls where we feel we are stuck in a rut. It is for this reason that creatives can benefit from having more structure in their process. In this article, I will outline the different methods by which we can implement logic-based planning into our development. Often you’ll find similar suggestions through various online resources so it is my goal to provide them to you in one place in a concise manner by which I myself have tested out and eliminated the methods that were less effective for me as a creative-minded person.
This first step may seem like an obvious one, but it is one that is often overlooked. That is to establish a detailed timeline that helps you outline your responsibilities to complete each day. This “chunking” can help make daunting or overwhelming tasks seem smaller and reasonable in comparison. You can take your project and break it down into smaller tasks and goals in a way that provides gratification for each one accomplished. Set an estimated time for each task so you know the time you’ll block out each day for your project. You’ll also want to ensure to allocate some buffer time that accounts for possible obstacles you face while working, you won’t always be able to stick to your schedule so it is important to allow yourself that time. Remember you don’t necessarily have to work in a linear fashion, whatever you set out to do can be organized in a manner that best suits you. Lastly, you’ll want to have time dedicated to reviewing your final product in case of adjustments or final edits that would improve the quality of your overall product.
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Creatives can greatly benefit from using project management tools that appeal to their visual learning. Project management tools can help prevent procrastination and improve productivity as they help plan, track, and manage your creative projects. One of the most-used project management tools is Trello. It is an entry-level easy-to-use tool that uses boards, lists, and cards. Its intuitive interface and functionality make it easy to track your progress and reduce procrastination.
There is a wide variety of applications dedicated to project management tools at our disposal which vary in features, functionality, and advancement. One I’m the most familiar with is Monday.com, which is widely used in Canadian governmental departments and is best used in a group project setting. Others include Asana, Todoist, Notion, and so many more. Everyone should try out multiple different project management apps to see which one best suits them. If you need any advice on what performance management tool to use first, or what would work best for you, visit my contact page to reach me directly.
One mistake I have made as a creative is to not dedicate a workspace where I can work on my projects. More often than not, I would work in my bedroom on my bed. This meant I had no way of separating my work from my leisure which made me procrastinate while working and stress when not. For this reason, it is incredibly important to have a workspace to focus and completely immerse myself in my projects. If your house is like mine in the way that there is no room without noise, you can instead go to the library, university, or café. I tend to use Starbucks as there is free Wi-Fi and it is a quiet, aesthetically pleasing place to study or work.
I’ve decided to create a routine to better acclimate myself to completing my work in a productive manner. I’ve made a habit of going to Starbucks at the same time every day I decide to work and dedicating usually about 2-3 hours to each visit. During this time, I’ll have my notifications off, and use an app on my phone that locks me out of my social media to take away the option of distracting myself.
Lastly, my favourite finding through my research was the “Eat that frog” method. Spawning from a quote from Mark Twain saying “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”, the Eat the Frog technique is a method that encourages people to identify their most difficult tasks and get them out of the way. The way it works is simple: you identify your most difficult tasks of the day (your frogs), you do them first thing in the morning (eat them), and repeat this technique every day until it becomes a habit (Timeular, 2023). Once you’ve overcome the obstacle of finishing your hardest task, everything else seems less daunting. You can then feel gratification at the beginning of your day that encourages you to press forward with a positive attitude.
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Ultimately, preventing procrastination is something we have control over. Creatives may be faced with additional challenges for scheduling and planning as their brains are typically wired to function in a right-brained manner. By using structured methods to help define our goals and timelines, we help ourselves improve our work.
Contact me today to discuss your own personal productivity and what works best for you. What works for me won’t ever directly translate but these general methods help us identify what does.
Timeular. (2023, July 17). Eat the frog technique: Everything you need to know. Timeular.
https://timeular.com/blog/eat-frog/