High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 6 Secrets to Preventing Procrastination

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 6 Secrets to Preventing Procrastination: "The hardest part of any project is often taking that first step. Once I’ve gotten started, it’s usually easy enough to keep going."

• The One Skill That Makes You More Employable: "Whether you’re communicating with partners, customers, or coworkers, the way you write influences how people view both you and your company. Clear communication builds confidence and creates more productive relationships."

• Top 8 Interview Questions & How to Answer Them: "The following are LinkedIn's most commonly asked interview questions, along with my take on the best way to answer them."

• How Smart Women Successfully Make a Career Pivot: "For anyone considering a career change or radically relaunching a career, here are a few things I’ve learned along the way that may help you get started."
• 6 Words You Need to Eliminate from Your Professional Vocabulary:"To ensure you’re being perceived in the way you want, begin eliminating these words from your professional vocabulary."

5 Work Habits to Support Your Personal Life

Our habits contribute significantly to our success in life and in our career. To be successful we need to develop the right habits that support who we want to be and the accomplishments we want to achieve.

Last week we discussed personal habits that can support you in your career. Today we look at those work habits you've developed and how they can be beneficial to your personal life.

Organization. The ability to remain organized amid complexity, chaos, and competing demands is a skill that is needed in the work place and, obviously, allows one to maintain order in your personal life when surprises inevitably come. Develop a system to remain organized at work and it can serve you well at home.

Effective listening. Demonstrating the ability to listen to others well is necessary for successful communication and builds healthy and successful relationships, both in your work situation and in your personal life. We all need to become good at listening and truly hearing others and the work place provides a great opportunity to develop this skill.

Avoiding procrastination. Developing the skill of addressing what is important without delay is critical to becoming a trusted part of your work team. It requires you to identify what is most important and addressing this task to meet the demands of your work schedule. There are always things we'd like to put off at home and learning to avoid procrastination at work can help us be more successful with these tasks in our personal life.

Never Say "It's not my job". You are a team player and are willing to take on any tasks necessary to get the job done, even if they don't fit your job description. The same is true in our personal lives: sometimes we need to take care of the garbage, paint the basement, fix the door, or do something else that we're not trained in or might tale us out of our comfort zone.

Avoid distraction. Staying focused on the task at hand, without getting distracted by coworkers or social media, is a key to success at work. This also helps our personal lives and prevents us from spending our weekend playing video games or staring at our phone when our friend or child is trying to talk to us.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 6 Rituals to Reach Your Potential

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• 6 Simple Rituals to Reach Your Potential Every Day: "Solo-task and do more faster by working in 50/10 increments. Use a timer to work for 50 minutes on only one important task with 10 minute breaks in between."


• 15 Ways to Make Your Life Better This Summer: "If you have dreams of being an entrepreneur but aren’t yet ready to jump in with both feet, try a summer experiment and see what works. .... See what resonates, learn and then decide if it’s the start of a hobby or a career change."


• Why Stress and Anxiety are Your Best Friends: "Anxiety is an inevitable part of life, and success typically requires embracing it (or at least tolerating it) rather than avoiding it."


• Enjoy that Vacation and Avoid Work Stress: "To maximize the relaxing benefits of your vacation, have a good re-entry plan. This can include arriving home a day early — or at least earlier in the day — so that you have some time to unpack, do laundry, and get a good night’s sleep."


• 3 Steps to Stop Procrastinating: "Take a baby step on an unwanted task by working on it immediately and then planning to finish the task by breaking it up into manageable amounts."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Job Interviewing Tips and Dealing with Difficulty

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• Dealing with Difficult Times: "Set small, simple daily goals ... every day and work to achieve them."


• 6 Bad Reasons to Change Jobs: "Feeling unfulfilled in your current role might make you want to take the first opportunity that comes along, but it might not be right for you."


• Things to Stop Doing in 2015: "Stop procrastinating, saving work for tomorrow, and waiting to be inspired to work."


• 6 Ways to be More Likable in the Job Interview: "Think of your interview as a time when you model the behavior you will exhibit after you are hired."


• Questions for the Receptionist While Awaiting the Job Interview: "The time you spend sitting in the waiting room waiting for the interview is a great opportunity to gather up some intel."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: More Networking and Entrepreneurial Tips

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share these every weekend so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• Don't Work For Your Boss, Work For Your Company: "Go the extra mile for your company. Use your special interests to make your company better from the inside out."

• 7 Things I'd Do Differently If I Started My Small Business Today: "One of the best ways to get noticed fast is by building relationships with influencers in your industry. In the times of social media this has become easier than ever."                                                      
• Winning New Networking Contacts in 6 Steps: "Success comes to people who are always seeking new knowledge and perspectives that will make them more well-rounded people, better thinkers and ultimately better employees."


• The Art of Accidental Networking: "When it comes to accidental networking, knowing exactly what kind of job you want is the first step in the right direction — even if you don’t have the experience in a particular line of work."


• 6 Things You Should Quit Doing To Be More Successful: "Delaying or procrastinating around something that you think is important means one of two things. You’re either scared to start because it means your life will change or you want it for the wrong reasons."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share these every weekend so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• 7 Quiet Career Truths That Speak Volumes: "The answer won’t always be there and it won’t be black and white – Sometimes in your career, you will find that you don’t have the answer you are looking for."

• How to Bring Up Salary on a Job Interview: "The more you stand for yourself in the job search process, the more employers will respect and value you."                                                      
• Put the Kibosh on Your Procrastinating Ways: "Disorganization is one of the top causes of procrastination, so eliminate this excuse by cleaning your desk or your computer files at least once a month."


• The Workplace Toolkit--5 Essentials You Need to Succeed: "In our attention-challenged society, you can make an impression at work by being someone who practices discipline. Can you tune out the noise of the many office distractions to stay focused on what matters the most in your job?"


• Want to Know What Really Makes You Happy? Try Tracking It: "Throughout our careers and lives, the big decisions we have to make usually lead back to a single, overriding concern: What really makes me happy?" 

Three Ways to Get the Important Work Done

This morning I was very productive. I got up early and threw a load of laundry in the washer. While my clothes were washing I set up the ironing board to iron out the wrinkles in my work shirts, taking a quick break to move the load from the washer to the dryer. My shirts ironed, I put the ironing board and iron away and folded my now-dry clothes. I then went downstairs to do some dishes from the previous night's dinner, recycle the accumulated junk mail on the kitchen island, and file important papers. A quick trip to the gym and the grocery store after that, I was back at home by 11am, surfing the web.

I thought I was being productive…except I wasn't.

The invoices for my business that I have been intending to get done for days hadn't been sent out, I did not update my LinkedIn profile like I had intended to, and I still need to write copy for my business website.

Welcome to the realm of productive procrastination. We tend to justify and rationalize the important things we put off by doing other "important" things that, really, are distractions.

What are you putting off to better your career? Perhaps it's completing your resume, talking with your supervisor about your future with the company, enrolling in that class that will provide the education to advance your career, or any other thing that will get you closer to where you want to be personally and professionally.

Distractions do not help. Yes, the laundry has to get done and you have to file. But not at the expense of your dreams. Here are three methods to make your time not just productive, but meaningful.

1. Jump In: Close your eyes and do it. Shut out the noises in your mind that are holding you back, focus on your breathing, and simply start what you have been putting off. You will probably find that it isn't as bad as you thought it would be; in fact, it is much, much easier.

2. Dwell on the benefits: Instead of dwelling on the pain associated with that important activity, think about the pleasure: what will you get out of it? What kind of future are you creating for yourself by doing this? How good would it feel to have it completed? Get yourself to a place of resonance, where you future is shining bright and you are excited about what you are to do, then act.

3. Get to know your saboteur: ah, the saboteur…the voice in your head that tries to protect you, tries to keep you the same and gets louder when you get closer to what you want. Spend some time getting to know your saboteur and its tells to know how to best combat it.

Just because you are doing something doesn't mean that you are doing something. Devote your time to those pursuits that will benefit your career long-term.

5 Steps for Overcoming Procrastination

All of us battle procrastination at some point in our lives. There are many reasons why we procrastinate. Maybe the task is unpleasant, you don’t have the resources you need, or you need more information to take action. However, if you constantly find yourself putting off tasks, you can benefit from some simple strategies to overcome procrastination.

Step 1 – Admit to the Problem
You must first recognize that procrastination is an issue for you. Do you constantly rush projects, complete things at the last minute, or find yourself missing deadlines? If so, you either suffer from procrastination or you are over-committing to an unmanageable workload. Try to define the root cause of your procrastination to help overcome the issue.

Step 2 - Get Realistic
The key to beating procrastination is to organize and prioritize your tasks. Make a list of everything you need to do the next day and prioritize the list before you go to sleep. When you write something on a list, you give it importance and are more likely to get it done. Break down complex tasks into simple steps so they don’t seem so overwhelming.

Step 3 – Focus, Focus, Focus
To increase your productivity you must avoid distractions. If you have a hard deadline, cut yourself off from interruptions from phone calls, emails, and visitors. Stay focused and get your work done. However, don’t forget to reward yourself for accomplishing tasks. When you finish an item on your list, take a short break and read a chapter in your book, go for a walk, or any small reward of your choice. Rewards are positive reinforcement for being productive. Celebrate your success and give yourself a pat on the back!

Step 4 – Visualize your Success
Visualize the end result of being productive and getting the job done. Imagine having the task off your to-do list. Visualize yourself turning in the finished product and focus on those positive feelings to motivate you to get started. When you expect productivity and positive results from yourself, that is exactly what is likely to follow. Don’t dwell on the negatives of procrastination, instead focus on the benefits of doing what you need to do.

Step 5 – Define the Cost of Procrastination
Ask yourself, what will happen if I put this task off until “later?” Will you have to work until midnight and miss sleep? Will you miss a deadline and make your boss or client unhappy? Will you have to skip a reward, such as spending time with your family or friends to make up the work? Knowing the cost of procrastination may motivate you to get the job done immediately.