In short the way to complete a crucial task is to convince yourself it is not as important as something else, therefore making it easier to tackle.
All procrastinators put off things they have to do. Structured procrastination is the art of making this bad trait work for you. The key idea is that procrastinating does [...]

An article at Hicksdesign about the amount of work, or more like lack of work, most of us complete in a typical eight hour day, started me thinking about what constitutes actual, or real, productivity.
We might spent eight hours a day working, but what do we actually achieve in real terms? Not so much [...]

Could this explain why there are apparently large numbers of people – in Western societies – who feel they are living unfulfilled lives? In trying to cram some sort of activity into every spare minute, there’s no time left to contemplate anything.
There are different species of laziness: Eastern and Western. The Eastern style is [...]

This is interesting, people who procrastinate aren’t actually doing nothing, they’re often busying themselves with a plethora of smaller tasks, which are usually less relevant, or not relevant at all to what they are meant to be doing.
From outside, it sometimes appears that I manage to produce a lot of content. At least, [...]

The prospect of having to carry out a task you loathe may be just the motivation to complete something that you (usually) enjoy…
Penalties are more effective than rewards. So set up a penalty for lateness, and enlist your spouse or partner to enforce it. For example, tell your beloved that if you fail to deliver [...]

A time management idea to try. Set a goal, work in 25 minute blocks (or pomodoros), and then take a break. After four “pomodoros” take a slightly longer break.
For many people, time is an enemy. The anxiety triggered by “the ticking clock”, especially when a deadline is involved, leads to ineffective work and study habits [...]

When it comes to brainstorming I find the “let go, use the force” approach the most conducive to spawning ideas.
Brainstorming is not risk analysis or decision making so I consciously set aside all judgments and evaluations. This is often the hardest obstacle as we are more used to decision-making in business. When I catch [...]

Time management, getting things done, and how to work more efficiently, are matters that are frequently on my mind.
Each evening before I finish work for the day I draw up a list of what needs to be done the next day. I often find myself managing to cross off maybe only two-thirds of the items [...]

Getting Things Started, or GTS, is Raj Dash’s alternative to David Allen’s GTD (Getting Things Done) time management system.
The principle is that if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re not going to get there. GTS is a relatively easy way to kickstart a project. That is, by realizing the source of your procrastination and [...]

I often find myself lapsing into the form of multitasking that Toby Somerville describes. And true, it’s not much use.
Multitasking is great if you want to fill your time doing a lots of things not very well, over a long period of time. Sure you can: flicking between checking your email, Twittering, writing a report, [...]