Why do we constantly put off things that we know we should do? What does it take to motivate ourselves to follow through on these activities?

One big part of the answer is identifying activities that we tend to procrastinate on.

Researchers found that in families where both spouses work, individuals who spent more time doing housework reported higher evening cortisol levels (a biochemical correlated with stress) and poorer afternoon-to-evening recovery.

While husbands often spent more time on leisure activities than their wives, the study also indicated that when husbands help out with housework this can lead to lower stress levels for wives (although slightly higher stress levels for husbands). In addition, husbands whose wives spent less time on leisure activities had better after-work recovery times.

There a couple lessons here. One is that a cooperative household where both husbands and wives share housework is better for overall reduction of stress rather than an uncooperative household (where one spouse has a significant more amount of work than the other). The second lessons is one that I frequently mention on this blog: leisure time is important for life satisfaction (and, my guess, probably overall productivity as well).

But here’s the thing. People always say they are too busy to enjoy themselves. They come home from a rough day at work to find more and more chores to do: pick up kids from school, help with homework, cook, clean, pay bills, etc. But I believe that however busy you may be, it is absolutely necessary that you find time for leisure and relaxation. Here are some suggestions to help get work done and still find time for relaxation:

• Find ways to divvy up the work (have kids do small chores, carpool, etc.)
• Try to only focus on tasks that are absolutely necessary.
• Don’t let your inner clean freak get the best of you. Cleaning the house once a week should be fine.
• Make a schedule and leave time to actually enjoy yourself.
• The kinds of breaks you take are important: 20 minutes of meditation may be more rejuvenating to you than watching 2 hours of TV. Try new things and find what works best.
• Conscious practice over time can build a stable routine.
• Try to see if you can make some chores more fun by blurring the line between work and play.
• Also lower stress levels by taking more quality breaks during your workday (start by checking out this list of 50 Stress Relievers That Take 5 Minutes or Less).
• Don’t be afraid to take a 30-60 minute nap (when done right, it can boost alertness and productivity).

Again, these are just suggestions. And I realize some of this stuff is commonsense, but it’s worth reminding people about. I find people often underestimate the importance of leisure, but it’s something that – in my mind – is crucial to both productivity and life satisfaction. We need to know how to recharge our batteries. I’ve seen people just try to “push through” ridiculous work schedules; maybe sometimes it’s necessary, but it shouldn’t become the norm. Focus on smart work, not hard work, and part of that intelligence definitely includes well-spent leisure time. Enjoy yourself.

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2. Start with the most important task first, so you can get it out of the way early and while your mind is most fresh.

3. Believe your will-power is in your control, and you can often motivate yourself to do more (study).

4. Bring work to do when you know you will have time to kill (such as in the waiting room at a doctor’s office).

5. Practice mindfulness meditation to increase your focus. (see 100 Breaths meditation).

6. Exercise periodically to keep your energy levels high.

7. Learn from your time management mistakes. Don’t be afraid to try new things.

8. Know the uses and abuses of setting deadlines (see here).

9. Define your values in life. Avoid meaningless tasks that don’t fit into your value hierarchy.

10. Be willing to take suggestions from friends, family, or experts.

11. Visualize process, not results. Imagine yourself doing the things you need to do to in order to accomplish your goals. This can often prime you to actually do those activities.

12. Know when you need to take a break. A well-timed break can be a healthy re-boost between activities.

13. Collaborate with the strengths of others to help you complete a task.

14. Learn that happiness is a more productive state than depression (see here).

15. Decorate your workplace or change your environment. (recent research shows it improves health, happiness and productivity).

16. Entice yourself with a reward (although incentives work best for routine tasks, not creative problem-solving: Dan Pink on motivation).

17. Focus on aspects of the activity you enjoy.

18. Be creative with aspects of the activity you don’t yet enjoy.

19. Listen to music, as long as it’s not distracting (for example, music makes us exercise harder).

20. Be more mindful of negative self-talk while working (“I don’t want to do this. This is lame. Why is Timmy such an a-hole?”). Replace these with something more inspiring (for more see quick tips for reframing).

21. Blur the line between work and play.

22. The presence of plants can increase attention and productivity (see here).

23. At the end of the day, reflect on your actions and how you can improve. Reflection has been shown to improve learning (see here).

24. Find a support group to hold you accountable.

25. Identify role models to motivate you and inspire you.

26. Keep a personal diary or blog to keep track of your progress.

27. Identify what activities put you in a state of flow.

28. Find stress relievers to help you re-energize yourself throughout the day.

29. Focus your complete attention on one task at a time. Multi-tasking can often be mentally taxing and deplete our cognitive resources quicker.

30. Prepare and cook dinner in a slow cooker. Set it and then go do something else.

31. Try going to the library, moving to another room in the house, or going somewhere else to maybe spark some new energy and creativity.

32. Try to dedicate one day toward all shopping errands (this also tends to be easier on gas use).

33. Create a schedule with other parents for carpooling to school.

34. Use a calendar (digital or paper) to track important events.

35. Call in refills for the pharmacy ahead of time so they can be ready by the time you get there.

36. Confirm your appointments before going.

37. Get chores done while watching TV or listening to music.

38. Do business meetings online over Skype (for convenience).

39. Do something while waiting on hold (on the phone).

40. Always have a pen and paper handy to write down things that come to mind (or leave voice memos on an MP3 recorder/iPhone/etc.)

41. Eat right and keep your body nourished. Without proper nutrition, cognitive sources will deplete much quicker. You need to feed your brain!

42. See your work in the context of a “bigger picture” and be proud and motivated by it.

43. Remember you only live once so make the most of your time here.

44. Find an encouraging quote to put up on your wall or read as a daily affirmation.

45. Try talking to yourself out loud when solving a difficult task. Or explain the problem to someone else. Making a problem understandable in words can often help us solve it better. (for example, see rubber duck debugging, a technique used by computer programmers).

46. Ignore the little things that don’t matter, but always seem to wrack up our brains. Don’t waste your attention and energy on things that you can’t change. If it is out of your control, it isn’t worth worrying about.

47. Re-visit your long term goals and aspirations.

48. Remember that money isn’t the only measure of productivity.

49. Pay attention to key signs of failure such as low self-esteem and only looking for a quick fix.

50. Consider keeping your goals to yourself to avoid a false sense of accomplishment.

51. Stop reading tips on how to maximize productivity and start doing things.

What tips do you find work best for you?

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Is that ticking clock in the background really helping us work harder and more efficiently? Or is it giving us incentives to rush in some situations, slack off in others, or even frustrate us to the point where we neglect our work altogether?

This article wishes to explore these situations and ask the questions:

1. When are setting deadlines productive and useful?
2. And when do they inhibit us from doing a good job or achieving a goal?

Setting a deadline for disappointment

I want to destroy the notion that we must set deadlines for all of our goals. Some things just aren’t conducive to time-related constraints.

Take for example your health and fitness – is it really appropriate to take some arbitrary date and say, “I must lose 10lbs within the next month.”

What if you don’t meet your goal? What if you only lose a single pound? Are you going to feel frustrated and give-up? Albeit it’s a small step, but does not meeting your quota really take away from the achievement of losing one pound?

What if instead you said, “It would be nice if I lost 10lbs within the next month.” That is a much less restricting statement because you aren’t telling yourself what you absolutely have to do. You are still maintaining an empowering vision of the future without setting a constricting deadline (and setting yourself up for a potentially crippling disappointment).

Can’t rush inspiration

For some people their creativity is their main source of livelihood. Their job depends on them to come up with riveting ideas that capture people’s imaginations. This is true for people like musicians, filmmakers, and artists.

When I think about this in the context of deadlines I am reminded of a scene in the Spike Jonze movie Adaptation. The whole movie centers around Charlie Kaufman’s struggle to create a film based on this book called The Orchid Thief. For those who don’t know, Charlie Kaufman is a real writer and director…he has worked with such excellent films as Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Synecdoche, New York.

In the movie Kaufman (who is played by Nicholas Cage) gets a call from his boss wanting to know how the screenwriting is coming along. He says he needs to see it on his desk in a couple weeks, and in turn Kaufman replies, “You can’t rush inspiration.”

Is this true? Can you put a deadline on creativity? I’m tempted to side with Kaufman on this one, especially since I consider him one of the most innovative writers of our time. Creativity can come at any moment. Imagine rushing a piece of art only to come up with an idea that is ten times better the day after it is due – that would be devastating.

“A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.”
- Rita Mae Brown

Working best under pressure

In defense of deadlines, there are some people I know who claim to work best when they are under pressure. They thrive off of the thrill of channeling their stress into a state of flow – getting in the zone – and working their butts off until they have finally finished their project.

This could be true for some creative endeavors, but I imagine that this strategy is most effective with work that is more do-oriented and less thinking-oriented.

If you already have a clear picture in your head of what needs to get done, then setting a deadline is a great way to motivate yourself towards action.

One example I will borrow from my own life:

I have been wanting to write an ebook on well-being and happiness ever since I first got interested in mental health and personal development. I have had ideas floating around in my head for years. Finally earlier this year I wrote an outline on the types of lessons I wanted to include. Now that I have everything comprehensively planned out, it all boils down to getting it done.

Realizing this, I now know it is a good time to set a deadline for actually getting this thing out of my mind and into the world. That is why I am giving myself until the end of the month to finish writing it. This is one case where I am OK with setting deadlines – even though I am the kind of person who usually prefers spontaneity.

A beacon of light in the distance

Because most people are so bad at time management, we often see deadlines as something that is always right in front of us – forcing us to get to work and get things completed.

However, deadlines can also be something we place in the distant future. For example, when I first started this blog in June of 09 I gave myself two years to turn it into a profitable enterprise. I am not even a year into it yet but this deadline has guided me to stay focused on what my bigger goals are. It is a beacon of light – a vision for the future – that is in the background of everything that I do.

When deadlines are used in this way they can become a kind of symbol for success, something to aspire towards, and dedicate energy to gradually over time. Deadlines don’t always have to rush us to be effective; they can give us room and be inspiring.

You may have already set deadlines like this without even being aware of it. For example: when you were a young adult (or if you are one now like me), you may have said at one point, “I won’t get married until I am 30.” This is one example of setting benchmarks way in the future.

Beware, however, that when we place these distant deadlines for the future, if we don’t revisit those goals and aspirations from time to time, we may forget about them or run too far off track.

When do deadlines work best for you?

This is my rudimentary analysis of deadlines. I don’t wish to rid the world of them completely, but I do think it is important we put them into perspective. In some contexts they can do wonders, while in other contexts they can inhibit us severely.

Tell me – what are your experiences and thoughts on deadlines? When do they work best for you?

Whatever we do, they are there; they are implicit in our conscious action. They are short-term and long-term intuition.

But if we don’t periodically ask questions like “Where am I going? How will I get there?” our goals begin to drift further and further away from our outcomes. We are no longer exercising our free will, we are instead like puppets pulled by strings.

Making a list

It has been exactly one month now since I wrote about goal-setting in my article, “Create A Progressive Timeline To Better Envision Your Goals.” In this post I emphasized the importance of writing down our goals, making ourselves more conscious of these aspirations, and getting ourselves in the mindset to achieve them. I also promised my readers that I would write a follow-up article touching on ways you can improve your timeline to make it more effective in helping you meet these goals.

Making a goal timeline is simple. All I recommend is that you list out the goals you want to achieve within certain time frames, for example:

Within the next hour,
• X1
• X2
• X3
• X4

Within the next day,

• X1
• X2
• X3
• X4

Within the next week,

• X1
• X2
• X3
• X4

Within the next month,

• X1
• X2
• X3
• X4

Within the next year

• X1
• X2
• X3
• X4

Within the next decade.

• X1
• X2
• X3
• X4

Once you write your list, save it, and try to update it every 3 months. Remember, your goals aren’t set in stone.

Re-visiting

Whether you have written them down or not, you probably have a decent recollection of the types of things you have wished to accomplish throughout your lifetime (at least the biggest and most important ones).

When you re-visit your goals there are several things you might notice:

1. Some of your goals may have already been accomplished.

One of the best feelings in the world is to finally accomplish one of your long-term goals. When I refer back to the list I made last month (and especially to the goals that I listed to complete “Within the month,”) I can already begin to sense some form of accomplishment.

2. You may have changed your mind on certain goals.

You may glance through the list and notice you aren’t as enthusiastic about some of these plans as you were when you first made them. Of course, as long as you have genuinely lost interest, and you are not just fishing for reasons to quit, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with changing some of your goals. We change (and many times for good reason).

3. You may want to add new goals to your list.

Just like the point made above: we are always changing. As some interests diminish, others develop.

4. Some goals are becoming less and less likely to achieve.

Some goals you may still be very interested in, but you simply don’t have the physical and mental resources to do them. They are becoming unlikelihoods. Maybe you’re simply “not good enough” to become a professional baseball player, or a local politician, or a model – so what, most of us aren’t. We have to sometimes accept our limitations, and if you can acknowledge which goals are becoming more and more unrealistic, then you can filter them from the list and divert your attention on more important things. Yeah, it sucks, and it can temporarily hurt your drive, but it is better than wasting resources on things that you stand little chance of accomplishing.

5. Some goals you are on your way towards completing.

You may already be on the right path toward some of these goals. Good job and stay focused.

How often should I re-evaluate my goals?

You want to be consistent, but not excessive. At least once every 2-3 months should be a healthy refresher. Doing things like this can really be a great exercise and it only takes 10 minutes. It is a way to take a step back, so that you keep your mind concentrated on the things you really wish to make out of life, and not letting yourself get lost in the hectic tides of a busy work schedule. When I reflect back on my goals, I like to think of it as a kind of meditation; a way for me to assess the karma of my actions (what they are leading to) and adjust them accordingly.

Good planning means adding details

Like Abraham Lincoln says in the quote above, “A goal properly set is halfway reached.” But what does it mean to properly set a goal? Making lists can be useful, but better planning requires that we add details to our goals. So, you want to be a doctor? That’s great! But what steps do you have to take to get there? For starters, you will probably need to maintain a high GPA all throughout college, then you have to take the MCAT exam, than get into a medical school, than pass medical school, find a job as a doctor, etc. And that is just the surface (I’m only brainstorming about how to become a doctor), eventually you need to actually do research, talk to professors and administrators, and then act out those plans.

Where are the best places to get the details?

Depending on your goals there are a variety of ways to seek advice or guidance. The internet has proven to be one of the most valuable resources within our recent history. If you are unsure about anything, you can go to forums to ask questions, search something on Google, find a blog of someone who is a professional, find a video of someone doing it on Youtube, or read about the subject on Wikipedia.

You can also talk to friends, family, coworkers, or fellow students who may have experience with what you want to accomplish. Maybe you want to learn more about recording and your uncle’s best friend owns his own studio. Maybe you want to get your grades up in a class, so you find a friend who is majoring in the subject to tutor you. Don’t hesitate to ask around, because a lot of answers may be right in front of you.

One thing I like to do to learn about a topic is go to my local library. As long as you live in the area you should be able to get a library card and take out books, CDs, and DVDs for free. This is a great way to find informational gems that you would otherwise not get on the internet or through friends. In many ways, the library is what sets you apart from the pack. I try to always keep myself in the middle of some book to keep my mind active.

Visualization and “seeing all the way through”

How often does it happen when we see people make a mistake and then say to themselves, “I just didn’t see my actions all the way through.”

Visualizing our actions and the consequences to those actions can help us to avoid making those mistakes. It is a great way to prepare ourselves mentally before we begin acting out our goals. Visualization has been used in Sports Psychology for decades now as a method of rehearsal and motivation. Also, this was recently reported by one psychiatrist and brain researcher at the Huffington Post,

“Although visualization was regarded as ‘new age hype’ for many years, research has shown that there is a strong scientific basis for how and why visualization works. It is now a well-known fact that we stimulate the same brain regions when we visualize an action and when we actually perform that same action. For example, when you visualize lifting your right hand, it stimulates the same part of the brain that is activated when you actually lift your right hand. This shared area of brain activation when we imagine an action and perform it has been demonstrated extensively in the scientific literature. A striking example of how visualization increases brain activation is seen in stroke.

When a person has a stroke due to a blood clot in a brain artery, blood cannot reach the tissue that the artery once fed with oxygen and nutrients, and that tissue dies. This tissue death then spreads to the surrounding area that does not receive the blood any more. However, if a person with this stroke imagines moving the affected arm or leg, brain blood flow to the affected area increases and the surrounding brain tissue is saved. Imagining moving a limb, even after it has been paralyzed after a stroke, increases brain blood flow enough to diminish the amount of tissue death. This is a very clear indicator of the power of visualization. “

Visualization can be great method for improving learning, motivation, and goal-setting. It allows us to consciously prepare an idea, even though we haven’t practiced it yet in the real world. Visualization is most effective when we take into account the different ranges of possibilities, and how different decisions can lead to different sets of outcomes. This is a big part of what it means when we say to “see things all the way through.” By imagining ourselves doing certain actions, and by imagining the consequences of those actions, we can check to see if they are congruent with our original intentions.

One caveat, however, is to not mistaken the efficacy of visualization in The Secret-sense of the term. This means that, contrary to New Age garble, merely visualizing your desires will never get you the things you want. It is only a form of planning, and eventually you need to consciously act out that plan.