Category: Productivity

Just do it! Overcoming procrastination

Linda

Most of us do it – put off a job that is perceived to be unpleasant, until the very last minute. Then it’s a panicked scramble as we try to get it completed.

It might be writing a report, a dreaded trip to the dentist or cleaning the car.  If we can delay tackling it, we will.

I recall pre-exam study periods when at university, in which cleaning out the fridge and investigating what alien life forms had taken up residence in sealed containers, assumed an urgency that surpassed that of revising for tomorrow’s exams.

Yep – I procrastinated and would then be studying in a panic until shortly before entering the exam room.

via GIPHY

So why do we put off doing a task we find uninteresting or unattractive all the while knowing that at some point we are obliged to tackle it?

With over 4.4 million views this short Ted Talk educational video examining Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad, obviously speaks to a lot of people.

In another Ted Talk social psychologist Ayelet Fishbach gives a presentation offering insights on the science of motivation along with tips and cognitive tricks to help you reach your goals while staying happy, healthy and engaged.

Fishbach is also the author of the book Get it done : surprising lessons from the science of motivation held in the Wellington City Libraries collection.

Get it done : surprising lessons from the science of motivation / Fishbach, Ayelet
“Based on research from the field of motivation science, this new framework for setting and achieving goals discusses how to attack the “middle problem,” battle temptations, and use the help of others.” (Catalogue)
Also available as EBook Overdrive and as an audiobook on CD

 

Here’s some further suggestions from our collection to help you overcome procrastination and motivate you to get things done.

Soon : an overdue history of procrastination, from Leonardo and Darwin to you and me / Santella, Andrew
“In the tradition of cultural historians like Sarah Vowell and Jim Holt comes a galvanizing meditation on the perils and pleasures of procrastination. While others are busy leaning in, crushing it, and trying to work smarter, faster, and better, Andrew Santella stops to ask why so many of our greatest inventors, artists, and scientists have led double lives as committed procrastinators. Santella examines great procrastinators from Leonardo da Vinci and Frank Lloyd Wright to Charles Darwin and prophets from the Old Testament. He also explores the modern-day ‘cult of efficiency’–its gurus, principles, and promises. Ultimately, Santella seeks to answer the following questions: Can procrastination lead to innovation? Can we draw a connection between delay and brilliance? And why do we often equate procrastination with laziness? A self-proclaimed procrastinator, Santella writes with candour and wit about his own habits, from painting a radiator to listening to sports talk radio just to avoid writing. [This] is a book for anyone who has ever put off a task, convincing the reader that time is our most valuable resource and ‘wasting’ it just might be the key to a happy life.”–Jacket.” (Catalogue) Also available as EBook Libby

Decision time : how to make the choices your life depends on / Alison, Laurence
“Should I change careers? Is it time to end my relationship? Can I move halfway across the world? We have to make choices everyday, big and small, but it’s the life-changing ones that often cause us to freeze or react too quickly, without thinking. What can we do differently? Laurence Alison and Neil Shortland have spent over 20 years helping soldiers, police officers, doctors and other professionals in high-stakes environments make tough decisions when lives are on the line. In Decision Time, they show us how those same decision-making techniques apply to everyday life, whether that’s deciding to take a new job or change career later in life, end a relationship, move across the world or declaring your undying love for your best friend. With tips, studies, interviews and observations from their training with police officers together with role-play scenarios for you to try, this book will help you identify and fight off the common enemies of good decision-making – inertia, procrastination and indecision – and empower you to make the choices that matter the most”–Publisher’s description.” (Catalogue)
Also available as EAudiobook Overdrive and EBook Overdrive

Big dreams, daily joys : set goals, get things done, make time for what matters / Cripe, Elise Blaha
“For those who feel overwhelmed by endless to do lists and the stresses that come with daily life, here is an empowering guide to establishing healthy productivity habits so that it’s easy (and fun!) to accomplish long-term goals. Brimming with simple-to-follow techniques, rituals, and exercises for accomplishing day-to-day tasks and making progress on bigger goals, Big Dreams, Daily Joys offers tips on how-to organize a productive day, overcome the urge to procrastinate, make space for creativity, and achieve a healthy work-life balance. For anyone who is tackling a creative project, running their own business, or simply trying to manage time more efficiently, this is the ultimate handbook to getting things done with clarity, joy, and positivity.” (Catalogue)

Start now, get perfect later : how to make smarter, faster & bigger decisions & banish procrastination / Moore, Rob
“Hardly anyone gets it right the first time, but many of us are crippled by indecision and fear of failure. The desire to get it right can inhibit us from getting started. In this book Rob Moore shows that the quickest way to perfect is starting right now and improving as you go. This book will show you how to launch your business or idea, begin the next phase of your career, and overcome self-doubt – right away. Get perfect later, get started now.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The end of procrastination : how to stop postponing and live a fulfilled life / Ludwig, Petr
“Learn how to stop procrastinating. A science-based toolset: Based on the latest research, The End of Procrastination synthesizes over one hundred scientific studies to create a program that is based on the way our brains actually work. By understanding exactly why procrastination happens and how our brains respond to motivation and self-discipline, the book provides readers with the knowledge to conquer procrastination on an everyday basis. The keys to overcoming procrastination are in this getting-things-done book: Insight into over 120 scientific studies; Eight clear, science-based and successful tools; Quick daily worksheets to shift your perspective; To-do lists that actually help you get things done; Everything you need to change the way you manage your time and live your life.” (Catalogue)

What motivates getting things done : procrastination, emotions, and success / Lamia, Mary C.
“Mary Lamia explores the emotional lives of people who are successful in their endeavours–both procrastinators and non-procrastinators alike–to illustrate how human motivation works and how to make the most of it. She illustrates how so-called negative emotions like distress, fear, and shame can drive the achievement of goals.” (Catalogue)

 

Start right where you are : how little changes can make a big difference for overwhelmed procrastinators, frustrated overachievers, and recovering perfectionists / Bennett, Sam
“Start Right Where You Are is an easy-to-read, easy-to-do guidebook for anyone who wants to change their life but doesn’t know where or how to begin. Her gentle-kiss-on-the-cheek and loving-thwack-upside-the-head attitude gives us what we all need: inspiration, shortcuts, and breathing room.” (Catalogue)

 

The procrastination equation : how to stop putting things off and start getting things done / Steel, Piers
“Dr. Piers Steel explains why we procrastinate – why we knowingly and willingly put off a course of action despite recognizing we’ll be worse off for it. What’s more, his study shows that despite procrastination making us poorer, fatter and unhappier, we’re putting things off like never before, procrastination is on the rise.” (Catalogue)

If you would like further information please contact the Prosearch team at the library. We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources. All enquiries are treated in confidence.

 

Time management

Linda

No matter how hard we try we can’t squeeze any more minutes or hours out of a day.

What we can do is introduce some good habits and practices to maximise how we use our time effectively and efficiently.

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”
Zig Ziglar 

In a recent Stuff article, How to create a time revolution, author Graham McGregor recommends the writings of Richard Koch.   Whether you call it simplifying or streamlining, Koch outlines how the 80/20 principle can work for you.

Feel you don’t have enough time to read that?  Try this article, 6 Habits That Help Successful People Maximize Their Time

“If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.”

Abraham Lincoln

If you do want a lengthier read we have plenty to choose from.  Here’s a list of suggestions, all available through the Wellington City Libraries collections.

The skinny on time management : how to maximize your 24-hour gift / Randel, Jim
“Time. We never seem to have enough of it. Time for all the stuff we need to do … and want to do! Everything seems to get in the way! Entrepreneur and award-winning author, Jim Randel, and The Skinny On team of writers, share their research and experiences in this comprehensive and humorous overview of the subject of time. The Skinny on Time Management is a thought-provoking analysis of the one resource we never have enough of. Presented with simple illustrations making this title a delight to read, the one hour it takes you to read The Skinny on Time Management will be the best investment you ever make! ” (Catalogue)

Boss it : control your time, your income and your life / Reader, Carl
“Do you dream of ditching the day job, doing your own thing and being your own boss? Are you ready to Boss It? In this invigorating and highly practical book, serial entrepreneur Carl Reader provides exactly the fire and guidance you need to get started. Designed to cut through the business jargon, this handy guide will take you through everything you need to establish and run your own business – from the mindset it takes to turn a dream into a plan, to the need-to-know practical stuff for running and growing a business. Featuring case studies, templates and exercises to help you put what you read into action, and turn that dream into a reality, this motivational book will enable you to be your own boss, to take control of your income, your time and your life… and Boss It”– Provided by publisher.” (Catalogue)

Change your life in an hour : don’t believe you can? you’re already doing it.. / Archer, Laura
“Are you stuck in a rut but don’t have the time, money or energy to get out? It’s simpler than you think. By encouraging you to make small, personal decisions, this book will help you stop scrolling through other people’s stories so that you can start focusing on your own. We have choice in every moment of our lives. We can choose to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to an invitation, a job, a partner. We just have to practise cultivating that choice. Change Your Life in an Hour urges you to take back control of how you choose to spend your time – and subsequently your life. Laura Archer first realised the power of small choices when she started reclaiming her lunch breaks and using them to achieve personal goals. In this, her second book, she inspires you to target your mental, emotional, and physical health through simple but empowering actions that can fit around any lifestyle.” (Catalogue)

Time smart : how to reclaim your time & live a happier life / Whillans, Ashley V
“There’s an 80% chance you’re poor. Time poor, that is. Four out of five adults report feeling they are time-poor: They have too much to do and not enough time to do it. And the consequences are severe. The time-poor experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy, less productive, and more likely to divorce. … How can we escape the time traps that make us feel this way and keep us from living our best lives? Time Smart is your playbook for taking back the time you lose to mindless tasks and unfulfilling chores. Author and Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans will give you proven strategies for improving your “time affluence.” Sometimes you can find time lost to thoughtless activity–like mindlessly checking your phone. Sometimes you can find time by buying your way out of time-consuming, unrewarding tasks–for instance, by paying for a ride to work. The techniques Whillans provides will free up seconds, minutes, and hours that, over the long term, become weeks of freed up time you can reinvest in positive, healthy activities. Time Smart doesn’t stop at telling you what to do. It also shows you how to do it, helping you achieve the mind-set shift that will make these activities part of your everyday regimen. At every step, Time Smart provides assessments, checklists, and activities you can use right away…”– Provided by publisher.” (Adapted from Catalogue) Ebook format

Time rich : do your best work, live your best life / Glaveski, Steve
“Business and creative professionals often dedicate long hours to their work, with limited rewards. This book can help you see where you might be sabotaging your own goals. Time Rich helps you identify where you’re losing personal time and mismanaging career time. You’ll discover practical productivity tools and techniques to get focused at work and achieve more in less time-so you can enjoy more time that’s really yours. This book explores how technology has affected our productivity and the way we work, helping you reconsider the nature of work. Technology designed to make us more productive can actually compromise our performance. Time Rich shows you how to avoid these pitfalls and offers steps for positive change. Regain your time!” (Catalogue)

Busy as f*ck / Nimmo, Karen
“We’re busy, busy, BUSY. But when did being busy become a badge of honour? When did it become our new normal, our measure of self-worth. If we want to squeeze the most from ourselves and our all-too-short lives, we need to be able to gauge when our busyness is drip-feed destroying our physical and emotional health, when we’re hurting people we love and becoming that person others want to hide from. Using simple and effective tools such as The Pizza of Life, New Zealand clinical psychologist Karen Nimmo takes aim at our busy as f*ckness in a fresh DIY approach to therapy. This book will help you self-diagnose your issues, cut through all the stress and striving and set up a plan to go after what truly matters in a busy as f*ck world”–Back cover.” (Catalogue) Also available in E-book format and Audiobook format

Anti-time management : reclaim your time and revolutionize your results with the power of time tipping / Norton, Richie
“Discover the answer to the age-old question of “work-life balance” and what to do about it.” — Book flap.” (Catalogue)

 

 

Time power : a proven system for getting more done in less time than you ever thought possible / Tracy, Brian
“One of the world’s premier business consultants and personal success experts, Brian Tracy has devoted more than 25 years to studying the most powerful time management practices used by the most successful people in every arena. Now, in Time Power, Brian reveals his comprehensive system designed to help you increase your productivity and income exponentially — in just weeks! Overflowing with quick and effective time-saving strategies, Brian Tracy’s Time Power lets you in on the secrets to being more productive, earning more money, and getting more satisfaction from life.” (Catalogue) E-Audiobook format

Four thousand weeks : time management for mortals / Burkeman, Oliver
“We are obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction. We are deluged with advice on becoming more productive, learn hacks to optimize our days. We rarely make the connection between our daily struggles and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use the time we are given. Burkeman rejects the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done” and instead introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude. He shows how many of the unhelpful ways we have come to think about time are actually choices we have made– and that we could do things differently. — adapted from jacket” (Catalogue)

If you need more information please contact the Prosearch team at the library.  We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources.  All enquiries are treated in confidence.

5 Good Ways to Construct Habits by guest author Alice Boyes

Linda

5 Good Ways to Construct Habits

Habit formation doesn’t need to feel boring or punishing.

KEY POINTS

  • We have more affinity for developing some habits than others.
  • Research shows that externally-imposed, short deadlines successfully influence our behavior.
  • Studies have found that when our existing habits are disrupted, we’re most apt to build new habits.

Many people are interested in establishing better habits. There are easier and harder ways to do this. We have more affinity for developing some habits than others. When you utilize this knowledge, it can make habit curation easier.

1. Use natural deadlines.

Have you ever tried to construct a “fake” (self-imposed) deadline to get yourself to do something? That rarely works very well.

In contrast, research shows that externally-imposed, short deadlines successfully influence our behavior.

This quirk of human nature can work against us when it leads us to prioritize relatively unimportant tasks with imminent deadlines ahead of more important work that has no or a far way deadline. However, we can also use this phenomenon to serve us. How?

Use natural deadlines to support your habits.

Two examples.

  • I currently have monthly doctor’s appointments. I get labs drawn the day before each appointment. I don’t like having blood drawn, so often I will put this off. However, I want to review the results with the doctor. That motivates me to keep up the habit. The doctor also complimented me on how conscientious I am about it, so now I want to keep up my ‘star pupil’ status!
  • My trash company picks up our trash and recycling on Wednesday mornings. That motivates me to tidy up and fill up the bins on Tuesdays. If I don’t use that space in the bins each week, it’s permanently lost as I can only put out what fits in the bins.

2. Observe when you already do the behavior you’re trying to make a habit.

My latest book, Stress-Free Productivity, is about using self-knowledge to personalize your productivity. Instead of adopting other people’s systems and suggestions, you can reverse-engineer your own. If there is a behavior you do sporadically, identify if there is any pattern to when you do it.

“When” could be related to time (e.g., day of the week, month of the year), or it could be related to circumstance (e.g., when your partner is out of town or when your kids go back to school after vacations).

If you already have a bit of a habit, you can strengthen it, including to built habits of doing behaviors you enjoy more. For example, I like listening to author Gretchen Rubin’s Happier podcast specifically on road trips. But, I don’t always think about doing this or downloading episodes ahead of time if I have poor service.

3. Observe your best windows of self-regulation.

Most of us have windows of time when we’re more focused and on-task than other times. My best windows are Mondays to Wednesdays, from when I wake up until about 1 pm.

Work with your natural rhythms rather than against them. If a habit is critically important, plan to do it within your best windows of self-regulation.

Too often, people plan to do their most important tasks when they’re already exhausted from other work. For example, you think you’ll work on your most important long-term project at 3 pm after you’ve finished all your urgent work to-do’s.

4. Use “resets.”

Research shows that when our existing habits are disrupted, we’re most apt to build new habits. You can engineer this through different types of “resets.” For example, periodically delete all your YouTube or podcast subscriptions, and see which ones you miss.

If you’re even more game, you can do the same with paid memberships, like Costco or Netflix. Periodically cancel all (or some) of them and try a habit reset.

What other ideas do you have for how you could “reset” your current habits and allow new ones to emerge in their place organically?

5. Use natural social regulators.

If you have friends who have good habits you’d like to adopt, then involve yourself in their habits more. For example, if your friend hikes every weekend with their hiking club, then why not join that club?

Advice on habits can feel quite trite after a while. Sometimes it can feel like yet another lecture on how we should all eat better, exercise more, and do more deep work. However, there are more fun and personalized ways you can construct habits.

Originally written for Psychology Today this article has been reproduced with the permission of the author, Dr Alice Boyes.

Alice Boyes, Ph.D., translates principles from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and social psychology into tips people can use in their everyday lives.  Alice grew up in New Zealand and now lives and works in the USA.

Stress-free productivity : a personalized toolkit to become your most efficient and creative self / Boyes, Alice
“From the author of The Anxiety Toolkit, a guide to creating your own personalized productivity plan, using self-science to make systems that work for you”– Provided by publisher.” (Catalogue)
Also available as e-book

 

The healthy mind toolkit : simple strategies to get out of your own way and enjoy your life / Boyes, Alice
“[The author] provides easy, practical solutions that will help you identify how you’re holding yourself back and how to reverse your self-sabotaging behaviors. Blending scientific research with techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy, this … book will take you through the steps to address this overarching problem”–Amazon.com.” (Catalogue)  E-book format only

 

The anxiety toolkit : strategies for fine-tuning your mind and moving past your stuck points / Boyes, Alice
“Drawing on extensive social psychology research, and the author’s training and clinical experience in Cognitive-Behavioral therapy, The Anxiety Toolkit offers actionable strategies that anyone can use to manage their anxiety–both personal and professional. Anxious people often think a great deal about why they think and behave the way they do. They seek self-improvement information yet often get stuck in applying it. They read popular self-help books for anxiety, but these books are highly simplified, to the extent readers can’t make the leap from the examples in the books to their more complex real world problems. They turn to business books because they’re motivated to achieve greater success, but since these books don’t address the reasons anxious people get stuck, they’re not especially helpful. The Anxiety Toolkit provides the information anxious people look for but can’t find. It draws on extensive social psychology research, and the author’s training and clinical experience in Cognitive-Behavioral psychology, addressing the core problems that impede people who are anxious–inhibition, biased thinking, rumination, intolerance of uncertainty, excessive responsibility taking, self-criticism, perfectionism, and avoidance coping–and providing readers with the tools to manage these tendencies”– Provided by publisher.” (Catalogue)
Also available as e-Audiobook