Take action

I’m going to get out of credit card debt. I’m going to finish that major assignment. I’m going to learn to better manage my money. I’m going to ask for a raise. I’m going to pay off my student loans. Tomorrow.

This is the major problem. It seems like everything is going to happen tomorrow. Well guess what? Today is yesterday’s tomorrow. The problem with our generation is that were constantly delaying action. We want to do so many things at once. We all want to be productive. Yet we all slack off. I myself am completely guilty of doing this. I set up 11 different tasks to complete at once and I end up slacking on all of them. It really is much easier to say, “I’ll get to it tomorrow.”

If you’re tired of waiting around, here are a few tips for you to take action today, instead of waiting for tomorrow…

Get your rest. Proper rest.

There would be weeks in the summer where I planned on getting more done with my online work. There was just one major problem: my sleep schedule was a disaster and I wasn’t getting the proper rest that I needed to perform at optimal levels. A lack of adequate sleep can take a toll on every aspect of your life. From working out to studying to being productive on your side projects. I don’t believe in always sleeping 8-10 hours, but you do need to get YOUR ideal amount of rest before you can get anything productive done.

Small steps.

You won’t finish that term essay before lunch today. However, if you start early enough you can get a large chunk done for today. Then over the next few days you could finish the essay off. This is much more realistic than telling yourself that you’ll complete the essay tomorrow. I strongly believe in taking small steps to accomplish huge final goals (studying a few minutes a day for the final exam, instead of last minute cramming).

Work in one hour chunks.

I personally find that I work best in highly effective one-hour blocks. This means that if I turn off all of my distractions and focus solely on the task at hand for one hour straight, I can get much more done than hours of trying to get something done while dealing with millions of distractions (working on a paper while checking out Facebook). These one-hour blocks can do wonders for your productivity and the best part is that we can all fit in an extra hour of work here and there.

Consistency.

You need to be consistent with your tasks. Going for a 2-hour workout today and then not working out for the next week won’t benefit you at all. You’ll just be sore for a few days. When I have a major project looming, I try to chip away at it piece by piece over time. Making a major payment on your credit card debt once in a while won’t kill all of your debt. You need to consistently find ways to raise additional cash to put towards your debt. Consistency is key here.

What are you going to do next? What are your plans to take action?

(photo credit: redagainPatti)

Martin Dasko

Martin Dasko