 You know, one of the easiest things to do is to procrastinate, sometimes we all want to be lazy. However, we cannot achieve anything brilliant by lazying around, we have to work. For most people, this is where the challenge lies. Okay, maybe we understand the importance of working, but we want to do it only when we feel like. But hey, life wasn't designed to work out for us based on how we feel. We can only get the things that we want by working hard to get them. Anyway, let's get back to the subject of procrastination and productivity. What Disney, an American entrepreneur said, the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Productivity is knowing what to do and doing it at the right time. Procrastination on the other hand, is knowing what to do and delaying it to a later time for no particular reason. The difference between those who are productive and those who procrastinate is that only productive people accomplish their goals because they take action. According to Tony Robbins, an American author, philanthropist and life coach, you see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people do what they know. Knowing is not enough, you must take action. So let's get back to being productive. How can you achieve productivity? Well, in this video, I'll share with you 7 tips on how to stop wasting time and be more productive. If you are new here, consider subscribing so that you won't miss other exciting videos like this. 1. Start by creating personal goals and deadlines Benjamin E. Maze, an American civil rights leader, said, the tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. Sometimes, the problem isn't a lack of vision, but failure to set goals and deadlines. For instance, say you have a work deadline that's still about a month away. It's easy to assume that you'll have a lot of time on your hands and while you wait that time attending to things that aren't important, or maybe not as important. The problem with this kind of behavior is that you end up wasting so much time that you eventually carry out the task in a rush. As a result of this, your productivity is likely to be affected because you won't deliver as effectively as you thought. However, if you have created a personal goal and deadline to attend to that work before the set time, you'll find out that the results you get will be applauding because you must have had enough time to focus and work more on the project. Setting personal goals with timelines to it will help you avoid procrastination. As a result, improve your productivity because doing this helps promote a sense of urgency. The truth is that sometimes, we overestimate what we think we can do a week, month or year while underestimating what we think we can do in a very long time. 2. Prioritize your day Don't start your day without intentions of what the entire day should look like at the end. When you plan out your day, including the steps needed to accomplish those daily goals, you'll be able to maximize the day better. You will not leave any tasks undone, neither will you have to carry them over to the next day, compounding the day's work. Also, because you have a set of activities that you must complete before the day runs out, you will spend less time indulging in activities that will only serve as a time wister. So, not only are you spending your time being productive, but you're always getting rid of unhealthy habits that get in the way of accomplishing your goals. 3. Identify your distractions and put them away Now that you have a personal goal and daily action plans to help you accomplish this goal, you need to identify the things that are likely to serve as distractions and get rid of it. In some cases, it might mean putting your mobile device out of sight when you need to work to avoid scrolling through your social media apps. It could also mean putting out your video games and staying away from people who are likely to engage you in conversations that are not work-related to avoid getting carried away, thereby wasting time. So, you can set aside a midday break to catch up with your friends and follow us on social media or move these distractions to the end of the day. 4. Do the most important things first Dale Carnegie, an American writer, said, Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves To hear something the majority of us do, we create a long to-do list for the day and then we start taking out the easy ones first so that it can be on record that we completed at least 75 of our to-do list. Even though it was the seemingly unimportant or least important task that we spent the entire day doing, you see, the big tasks are usually the most important and most challenging. Doing them and getting them out of the way first will help you accomplish the smaller tasks in no time. Improving your productivity level So, instead of starting with the easy ones, start with the challenging ones. Also, even though starting with the easy jobs can feel productive, it distracts you from your larger goals and might leave you with too little time to devote to your priorities. So, focus on the important task. 5. Make decisions and stop stalling According to Bruce Lee, a Hong Kong-American actor, if you spend too much time thinking about the thing, you will never get it done. Indecisiveness is a form of a time-waster. So instead of stalling, now might be a good time to make a decision and take action. When you don't make decisions early enough, you will only end up delaying your work and prohibit yourself from moving forward with your work until you take action. The thing about stalling is that it can weigh you down so heavily that it takes your eye off the ball, the important stuff. It also clutters your mind and gets in the way of your thinking clearly and it can prevent you from focusing on your priorities. Pablo Picasso, a Spanish painter and sculptor said, Action is the foundational key to all success. So take actions. 6. Do not multitask The idea of multitasking might seem like a good one. I mean, that way, you can achieve a lot more within a small time frame. However, when you multitask, you make little progress on anything and the quality of your work drops. Instead of thinking about how you can carry out all the tasks at once, decide what should get your best and most undivided attention to improve the quality of your work. 7. Learn how to say no While helping others and spending time with them is a good thing, pleasing people at the expense of your own productive time is the wrong decision to make because the more time you engage with other people, whether you are trying to help them out with the task or just catching up with them, the less time you get to spend working on what matters. So you need to learn how to say no to people sometimes. However, instead of saying no bluntly to a person, you can come up with a strategy for how to say no. For instance, it would be more appropriate to explain what you are working on and what your priorities are to demonstrate how you are busy and why you can't take anything else on. There you go. With these 7 tips, you can improve your productivity, the quality of your work and also cut out time wasting activities. Thank you very much for watching our videos. If you like this video, watch more videos on our channel and subscribe. We love you.