Procrastination & Productivity

Are You Bringing Your A Game? (a Super-Simple Strategy to Get More Done)

Do you have the feeling that you could be accomplishing soooo much more than you are?

I had a day like that recently.

I did some important things—had an awesome foundation session with a new client, Skyped with my mom (we are determined not to fall out of touch!), and completed some writing…but I still felt a little underwhelmed with my productivity.

Looking back on the day, I knew that some potential had slipped through my fingers.

So I woke up the next day determined to GSD*.

I used a strategy that I think might help you too. …

Why You Need to Share Your Scary Goals

Who’s cheering you on?

I’m gearing up for an opportunity I never imagined I’d have, and it got me thinking:

How do we take care of ourselves when we’re venturing into new territory?

When we’re going for something that we really want?

If you are doing something a little scary that really matters to you (and I hope you are—because that means you’re growing!!), tell at least one person what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and that you are scared.

Here’s why: …

My iPhone, Myself

Baby's first Instagram...
Baby’s first Instagram

This may shock you, and it’s a little hard for me to admit…

…because I don’t think of myself as a tech dinosaur.

But here’s why there was no article yesterday:

I left my house to meet a new friend for coffee in the morning, and ended up finally—unexpectedly—completing a project that has been incomplete for over a year.

When you can feel in your gut that you’re on the verge of completing a long-procrastinated task, sometimes it’s good to accept the gift of inspiration and allow your day’s plans to change.

Though I had different plans for my day (including writing to you), I knew that I should ride the wave of motivation to complete this epic (hey, one gal’s mountain is another’s molehill) task: …

How to Stop Wasting Your Time

If you’re like—oh, just about anyone—you’ve had that moment.

Perhaps you have it many times a week.

One minute you’re sitting down “just to check something real quick,” and what seems like the next, you’re an hour or two in.

An hour into Facebook commenting and sharing, Hulu clicking, TV watching, or thumb twiddling, you realize that you have just completely wasted an hour of your time.

You’re not recharging, relaxing, or replenishing.

Instead, you’re procrastinating, and further draining yourself, sinking further into inertia.

Stalling on taking action—any action—that will actually move you forward, feed your soul, or enhance your relationships, business, or life. …

Ignorance isn’t Bliss: Why You’re Avoiding What You Need Most—and How to Coach Yourself into Action

What are you avoiding because you feel like a total newbie?

What physical pain are you not getting checked out, because it’s scary to think of what might actually be wrong?

What unmade phone call or inquiry is draining your energy?

How would it feel to have that action behind you?

What would you be able to do with that extra energy? …

How Bad Do You Want It?

I used to think that people who created certain things—who built businesses, or were on the radio, or wrote books—were fundamentally a certain kind of person.

A kind I certainly wasn’t.

As if there was some sort of predestination involved—and I was not one of those people.

Because who the hell am I to think I could do that?

I always felt I had something inside me to share on a bigger scale, but it seemed downright silly or deluded to even share that feeling with myself—let alone anyone else!

Everyone and their mother thinks they have a book in them, I thought.

But one day, I was in the shower, listening to an interview of a researcher/writer on NPR, feeling a slight twinge of envy, and suddenly, I had a Duh Moment (this is my term for an Aha Moment that seems obvious to the point of idiotic in retrospect): …

How to Break through Procrastination…by Procrastinating

Never in my life has my living space been neater than it was during college finals.

Truth be told, I have never been the naturally neatest person.

(Somewhere out there, my parents are laughing and thinking, “That’s the understatement of the year!”)

But you would not have guessed that to see my room in college.

For four years, everything had a place.

My bed was always made, my desk always organized, with nary a paper clip astray.

How?

How did I maintain such a neat and tidy space when my room at home was always a disaster area? …

Last Things First: One Quick Tip That Can Totally Transform Your Productivity (and Your Mood)

“Ugh!”

You know that feeling?

The feeling of having a task hanging over you all day? That one to-do that you keep bumping into in your brain—until you do it?

Maybe it’s that tricky email that you need to write…that phone call you’re nervous about making…that pesky errand you don’t want to run.

Now—approximately how many times throughout the day do you imagine doing that task, think, “Ugh!” and move on to something else…only to have it pop up again in your mind? …