If I just had a couple more hours in the day

How to gain some free time and avoid procrastination

"If I just had a couple more hours per day I could get everything done"

Sometimes it feels like you just need a couple more hours per day in order to get everything done.

Those emails from clients keep coming.

The phone keeps ringing.

Procrastination kicks in.

And suddenly, it's 5pm and you've not done half of what you meant to today.

So it's another evening on the laptop. And even then you probably won't get it all done.

If only you had a couple more hours in each day.

But is your problem that you don't have enough time?

Or is your actual problem that you've got too much to do?

On the surface, they sound like similar problems. But underneath, they've got very different solutions.

Most of us actually have too much to do.

Our brains recognise it, fight against it and that's why we procrastinate. That sounds counterintuitive, but our unconscious brain works hard to protect us and it can see the stress and misery that overwork is piling on us. So it tries to avoid it the only way it knows how.

Procrastination is a symptom.

Think hard about the underlying cause.