HOW TO GET A GRIP ON YOUR DAY AND DEAL WITH PROCRASTINATION?

Take the reins of life by hand! Who doesn’t want to?

In this article I share some practical suggestions that you can add to your reality and thus achieve more and better results, taking charge of your day and at the same time managing the so-called procrastination.

1. My first suggestion: make the most difficult activity (or sometimes that seems more unpleasant from your point of view) in the first hour of your day. This suggestion is given based on the renowned author David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done Methodology (G.T.D.). Here’s a great way to make it happen in your reality! The idea here is for you to choose one activity at a time – possibly the hardest or most boring thing to do – and choose to dive into it in the first hour of the day. Reflect for a moment what this activity would be!? Think about what you are really having difficulty to sitting, focusing and doing!? Simply select this activity and dedicate the first time of your day just for it. That’s right, select, go and make it happen in the first hour. At the end of the day the feeling will be that at least… yay, I started it! So then, you keep pushing forward and add the G.T.D. method in your high performance coaching tool-kit, developing and improving your discipline towards achieving your goals.
2. Once you’ve decided to follow my first tip, let’s go to the next one: focus, with no interruptions! Here I suggest that you add into your reality the practice of mindfulness, in the sense of being present moment by moment, with the least possible judgment in place, and directing your attention, knowingly, to one activity at a time. I have several articles and videos on this subject, and here I want to point out that working through multitasking and acting as a superhero will usually bring you more anxiety, irritability, stress and dispersion. So… stop, breathe, and act with the mindfulness tool-kit in coaching! In practice, with my clients, what works a lot is to map the work environment (in the case of executive coaching) and through a coaching process, the client, with my assistance and supporting tools, will take some steps to manage distractions such as the simple act of deciding to put the cell phone down for a few minutes at least, advising his/her desk assistant not to interrupt him/her for the next 30 minutes, say; or maybe to use a meeting room – or another place less likely to be interrupted – to dedicate himself/herself to make that project turn into reality in that day, at that moment.
3. A third dynamic exercise in a coaching process that works great for my clients too, and I want to share here, is the method based on the work of the Brazilian author Christian Barbosa, The Triad of Time (free translation from its original title “A Tríade do Tempo”). Here, your job is to select your important, urgent or contingent activities within your own activities list, and create expectations of result deadlines for each block of activities. Anyone who has taken courses or training with me, being it coaching or mentoring, or follows my content in social and professional media, knows the importance of this work to reach previously planned goals. So, setting deadlines, establishing what your important tasks are (and separating the urgent from the circumstantial ones) and acting consistently one day after another, so that your goals are – in fact – achieved, will bring to you a unique sense of fulfilled. Try it!

These are some suggestions that I’d like to share with you in this article so that you can achieve your goals in a more organized way, better deal with procrastination and other obstacles that may arise in your day to day career or personal life, such as lack of discipline, proactivity, or even the difficulty in persevering; and at the same time can help you balance your emotional state of mind, experiencing self-control about your reality. After all, what’s the purpose of reaching goals, hitting targets and not feeling good, emotionally balanced about it? So, to sum it up, I’d like to ask you: what is balance for you? For me, it is unquestionably to live well, being responsible for our own reality, making the necessary adjustments to reach a balanced way of life.

So, let’s join forces here? Getting a better grip of your day and knowing how to manage procrastination may be what was missing for you to take your next step to your growing and sustainable success. Let’s do it, then?

The author Fernanda Alem is a Brazilian Lawyer (LL. M., B.U. Law), International Consultant (D.C. Bar, Brazilian Law), Professor and Speaker, with 20+ years of practice Brazil – USA, and currently works as Leader Coach & Mentor (In and Out of the Law). Fernanda assists individuals and organizations, in person or online, maximizing their growth potential through integrated practices and innovative tools in Coaching, Leadership Training and Mentoring. Fernanda manages her business Brain U Coaching and hosts its YT channel,with weekly videos and local and international series, all in a bilingual set. You can reach the author by Skype @coachfernandaalem or by E-mail: fernandaalem@brainucoaching.com