Re-arranging your life to overcome the procrastination habit

It may seem like a silly thing to say - change your environment. It may sound like I am advocating procrastination - change your environment, means you can waste time cleaning and not completing the tasks you know you should be completing.

No, that's not what I am advocating at all.

Changing your environment may mean closing the blinds in your office so you are not distracted by what goes on outside. I have my office blinds closed for two very good reasons
1) solar gain - 2 huge windows makes it very hot in my office during summer, if I'm too hot I can't work
2) glare - too much glare may give me a migraine.

So I keep the blinds closed during summer and open them in the cooler months.

I also rearranged my office so that the windows were over to my right, that way I didn't have to stare at them all day. I also (with permission from the boss) put pictures of wonderful scenes around the office, interspersed with a couple of boards for my creative output. When you are in the business of marketing a business you need space to be creative, so I do. Which makes me luckier than most - but until I took over the job - it was just a very normal office space - hardly inspiring at all.

Music - can change your mood in an instant. I rarely listen to country music, nor jazz and blues - especially when I am working....find something that suits your mood, uplifts your mind and your soul...and sing whilst you work....this one is good if you work alone, or work from home - some people don't appreciate how good singing can be!!! even if it's out of tune and out of synch - it doesn't matter.

Office furniture - You need to bear a few things in mind when it comes to ergonomics, but any good OH&S site will tell you what you need to do for your health and posture. But beyond that, move your desk around, choose a chair that supports you - you're going to be sitting in it for a considerable amount of time each day - so be comfortable.

Desks - If your desk looks like a snow storm (who said we were going to get the paperless office was obviously lying) then it's time to do the filing. I'm serious. One of the biggest things we hide behind every day (allowing us to procrastinate to our hearts content) is because we can't find things. Putting things away means we can find what we need, when we need it - raising productivity and profits.

Email inboxes - this may seem like a strange one to have in changing your environment - but it's one of the biggies. Apply the same principles to your email inboxes as you do to your paper filing trays....do it, delegate it, then file it and delete the rubbish. Get as much filed straight into folders - especially the canned meat substance variety....

Take a good look at the amount of open windows on your computer. How many are there - do you need ALL of them open, do you need to have 2 news and current affairs sites, all your email accounts and the weather channel? Make a new habit - especially with email - answer your important email first. Filter off any messages you don't have time to read - for the daily dose - yes it's important, but why not set up a folder and get them sent straight there. You can then make a conscious decision to set aside some time and read a couple of the posts. Do that with all your newsletters and e-zines - and you won't be tempted to delete without reading because you are too stressed and busy today. I do the same thing with a couple of friends who send me copious amounts of funnies - once a week, or when I need a giggle, I go to the folder and read a few.

Unclutter your life and you will find you won't be so overwhelmed you feel the need to procrastinate.