How to Stop Procrastinating: a simple Guide to Mastering Difficult Tasks and Breaking the Procrastination Habit

that require your immediate attention. By leaving parts of
your calendar open, you can take care of these issues without
derailing your plans to work on the important stuff.
5. Set aside time to process any ideas that came up during
the week. If you’re like me, then you probably have dozens of great
ideas every week related to your goals. The question is, how do you
follow up on them?
My advice is to process these notes, making one of two choices: (1)
take action on it immediately and (2) schedule a time when you’ll
follow up on it.
Here’s how that would work:
If the idea is actionable, write out a step-by-step plan for how you’ll
do it. Simply write down a series of actions you’ll take on this idea
and then schedule these ideas into your week.
If the idea is not actionable, put the idea into an archive folder
that’s reviewed every month. If you do this for every idea you have,
you won’t forget to follow up at the right time.

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If you want to see an example of what my weekly schedule looks like,
then
check out the visual walkthrough that I provide in the free companion
website
.
Action #4: Practice Batching and Create “Theme Days”
If you want to take your time-blocking efforts to the next level, then you
can create a weekly schedule where you focus on one type of activity for
an extended block of time. This is often called batching tasks.
The benefit of batching is that you remove the stress that often comes
from having too many tasks on your to-do list. Instead of trying to tackle
everything on one day, you set aside time each week to singularly focus
on similar tasks.
For instance, you can batch activities like responding to email, posting on
social media, returning phone calls, going to appointments, and handling
administrative tasks. These can be done in blocks throughout the day.
Any task that you regularly do can be batched with similar tasks.
Now, if you want to take batching one step further, you can create what
are known as “theme days.” The idea of theme days is to create multiple
categories for your career and then block out time each week where you
focus on just these activities. This focus block can be part of a day or a
whole day that’s dedicated to one activity. It’s the perfect strategy for
anyone who needs to wear multiple hats for their job and feels
overwhelmed by all that they need to do daily.
For instance, besides my daily habit of writing, there are a few areas of
my business that can be grouped together into a single block of time.
Here’s what this looks like in my typical week:
Mondays: writing (extra writing in addition to my daily habit).
Tuesdays: book marketing.
Wednesdays: conversations and interviews.
Thursdays: blog optimization.
Friday: writing and administrative tasks.

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Saturday: family time.
Sunday: family time.
The beauty of themed days is that they remove much of the stress you
regularly experience. When you know that on each day you have to worry
about only one thing, it becomes much simpler to ignore all those other
obligations that weigh on your mind. Your job is to simply focus on one
type of task and work diligently on it.