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What is a slacktivity?  

verb; Busy or vigorous action or movement that makes no progress, but gives a false sense of self satisfaction

Ok, so I made it up! But it’s a great word that we all can identify with and we need to eliminate them from our lives! It’s the illusion of being busy. Sometimes we do things that look like ‘important’ work, things that might fool our co-workers into thinking we’re busy doing great things. And too easily we end up fooling ourselves into feeling productive, when in reality it has nothing to do with the work we need to accomplish.

Too many of us find ourselves faced with piles of daunting work, difficult tasks we know we need to get to and instead of focusing, we distract ourselves with minute things just to waste a little time and ‘look’ productive.  

When you feel like procrastinating from your ‘real’ work, check in with yourself. Admit it! None of us are immune to slacktivies. We all do it. But there are a few things you can do to avoid them.

1. Ask yourself: What is the 1st thing you need to do today that gets you closer to your goals? It’s not always easy, but you have to address it immediately, first thing in the morning. Don’t let that thing drag on all day, get it done right away.
2. What are your 5 crutches. Is it cleaning your desk? “Organizing” your notes? Write down 5 things that you do to make you feel active. What are the things you do that make you feel productive but are actually a waste of time?
3. Don’t give yourself permission to avoid starting large projects. When you feel overwhelmed by a big project or task and you don’t even know where to start, don’t fall on those activities that ‘feel’ productive. If you’ve got to eat an Elephant, you have to do it bite by bite.

You have to eliminate slacktivites from your life! Focus on what you really need to do and get started now. Stop jeopardizing your productivity with ‘active’ tasks that are not important. Just Start. You will thank your future self for it later!

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