Procrastination Station

Everyone procrastinates. It’s one thing we can all relate to with one another. However, the amount we procrastinate or the way we do it may be different. Even if that may be the case, it seems like we all again relate to where we turn when we want to put off any kind of work for the day. That place is the internet. I’m sure the people who invented it back in the day never thought it would be so easily accessible(from our phones?) or that we would be using it to put off what we need to get done. Once you can come to the terms that everyone else procrastinates, how do you decide you’re doing it too much and how do you keep yourself from doing it? I mean, like I said a bit ago, it’s so easy its scary. It took me until the day before this blog was due before I even thought about opening my laptop to type it up. And once I finally did that? I spent around an hour downloading music and looking at reddit posts. So, back to the question, how do you keep yourself focused on and task when the device you need to get your work done on is also your procrastination station?

Of course, if you’re using a worthwhile web browser, there are extensions you can download. On Chrome and Firefox there are extensions to keep yourself from spending too much time on internet sites that you shouldn’t be on. Some of these extensions even block sites that you want them to so you can’t visit them at all. You can use these to lock up areas, and almost monitor yourself without actually monitoring yourself. This is a way for people who find it hard to get motivated to just get into their work to figuratively walk away from the procrastination temptation and  get into their work. There is a whole “productivity” section on the chrome extension store, and even though not all of them are really for helping with productivity, there are a good selections of ones that can help you stay motivated and on task.

An article put up on the site lifehacker.com talks about how to stop procrastination. They give the idea of rewarding yourself after getting a certain amount done, therefor motivating yourself to keep going. This is also a good way to get your on task, and we all work in different ways so one idea may work for you while another may not. Some people can simply motivate themselves and decide when to stop the procrastination without any outside motivators or helpers.

This all being said, you do still need to find some free time. It isn’t good to keep yourself working non stop, even if you have a full workload. Sometimes it’s best to just let yourself relax for a while. Especially when you’re doing something that requires you to be creative, stressing about it constantly or trying to force yourself will most likely not work. We need to have time to ourselves without worrying about workload. Of course, the main problem lies in trying to balance between the two. Finding a happy medium between relaxing and just plain putting things off without getting anything done can be hard at times. Hopefully these couple of ideas can help you figure out how to start getting things done more often and procrastinating a lot less. Either way, our laptops will be our greatest friend but at the same time our biggest enemy, being nothing but a big station for us to continue procrastinating, tempting us every time we open it.