Have you ever had the joy of procrastinating on a really boring task?
….How did it feel?
Well, you may have enjoyed not having to do the task but chances are….that procrastination took up a bit of your sleep, took you on guilt trips and stressed you out a little…
Isn’t that what procrastination is like? Kind of like Caffeine..you feel slightly good when you do it and then you sit back and have to deal with all the “after effects”..
And when it comes to procrastination there are tons and tons of reasons why we procrastinate…today’s topic is procrastination caused by boring tasks…And let’s face it…boredom is probably one of the biggest causes of procrastination (and it’s the one that’s most often ignored too!)
So..you have a task, that is slightly (or immensely) boring and you need to get it done …you’ve got it in your agenda and planned everything but when it comes to execution…something’s not working around there…
What do you do?
Freak out? (..maybe just a little 
)
How about using this little tip?
Mini Vacations
I don’t know about you but I love mini vacations. It feels incredibly good to be able to declare a day a “holiday”…
I hear ya….Saturdays and Sundays are technically “holidays”..but let me ask you something…how many of your weekends have been a true holiday?
It just seems weekends mean more stress, more stuff to get done, more bills to pay, more laundry to do..doesn’t it?
Would you like weekends where you get to simply relax and do nothing?!?
I sure do! And I call those weekends my “mini vacations”
Here’s what I do during my “mini vacations”
- I stay away from work 100%…I don’t even think about my projects, my emails or the people I’m waiting on or the people who’ve annoyed me
- I don’t do laundry, bills or anything that sounds “boring” or like a chore
- I sit back and watch movies or read books (fiction)
- I do what I’d like to be doing not what I *should* be doing…
And that’s what makes the mini vacations good…getting rid of the *shoulds* and the pressure to produce results..
Sound like a good idea?
If you like the idea of a mini vacation…just hang tight, that’s our topic for this week…but for today if you think the whole thing sounds like rubbish…here’s another attempt at getting you to try the concept..
It’s one of those things like a clear and empty head, you don’t get to see how good it feels until you experience it once…
So, try it out…just once and I’ll guarantee you..you’ll love it!
How many mini vacations
Ok…this depends on your schedule..If you’re too busy with things falling out of place everywhere let me be honest and say you might be able to squeeze in one every two or three months..
If you have things under control (at least on the weekends) you maybe able to squeeze in a couple each month..
How taking Mini Vacations can make you more productive
There is one condition to taking mini vacations…are you ready?
You get to take mini vacations only when you’ve been good all week…i.e. when you’ve been productive all week and got your most important tasks done…
Why?
Because frankly, even if you do take a mini vacations when you have tons of things that are behind schedule or when things aren’t working..you’re just not going to enjoy it!
And when it comes to dealing with boring tasks that make you want to procrastinate…enjoyment is the most important thing!
You need to be able to look at the boring task and say…”Yeah, I’ll hate this BUT when I get it done…I get to take a mini vacation which is going to be a ton of fun”
So..there you have it…
If you’re sick and tired of boring tasks…pump in some excitement with mini vacations..
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