Procrastinating at work is easy to fall into. You sit down with a full day ahead, answer a few emails and messages, and suddenly it's lunchtime and the important task hasn't been touched. It doesn't mean you're bad at your job. Work is full of small things that are easier to do than the big task that matters. Here are eight ways to stop putting things off at work and get things done.
Choose your one important task before you open your emails
Your inbox is full of other people's priorities, and once you open it, it's hard to get back to your own. Does your morning disappear into emails? Write down the one task that matters most today before you open your inbox, and work on it for the first half hour.
Make the first step small enough to start now
"Write the report" is hard to start because it feels like a whole day's work. "Open a blank document and write three headings" takes five minutes. Has a work task sat on your to-do list for days? Rewrite it as the very next thing you'd physically do, and do just that.
Book time in your calendar for the work itself
If your calendar is full of meetings, the real work only gets the gaps between them, and the gaps are usually too short to get going. Do you keep running out of time for the important task? Put it in your calendar as a meeting with yourself at a set time, and keep it like you'd keep any other meeting.
Close what you don't need
Every open tab, chat window and notification is a small invitation to stop what you're doing. Do you keep drifting off to check messages? Close everything you don't need for the task in front of you, and turn off notifications until you've finished one piece of work.
Find out what's really stopping you
Often it isn't the whole task you're avoiding. You might not know exactly what your manager wants, you might be missing some information, or you might be worried the work won't be good enough. Is something about the task unclear? Send one short message to ask the question that's holding you up, then carry on with the part you can do.
Separate the tasks that are waiting on other people
At work, lots of tasks get stuck because someone hasn't replied, signed something off or sent what you need. They sit on your list and make you feel behind, even though there's nothing you can do yet. Is a task stuck because of someone else? Move it to a separate "waiting on" list with the date you asked, and send a short, friendly follow-up if you've heard nothing after a few days.
Work in short, timed blocks
A whole afternoon on one task can feel like too much, so you keep putting off the start. A short block of time is much easier to say yes to. Can't face a big piece of work? Set a timer for twenty-five minutes, work only on that task until it rings, and then take a five-minute break.
Leave yourself a clear first step for tomorrow
Starting in the morning is much harder when you can't remember where you got to. Do you lose the first hour of each day working out what to do? Before you finish work, write down the next small step for tomorrow and leave it where you'll see it first.
If you've had a bad day and got very little done, don't try to make up for it by staying late. Pick the first step for tomorrow, go home, and start fresh in the morning.