Many people procrastinate. They know they aren’t being productive and they do nothing about it. I was, till a while back , like one of them. And this goes out to all people of the “non-productive” kind. And no, this is not some kind of psychological – science-y thing. This is just a pragmatic approach that really worked out for me, and yes, that means it may or may not work for you.

There are some prerequisites that I recommend for complete participation in this process. Number 1, you need a smart phone (Android/iOS preferably), a laptop with Google Chrome browser on it, and internet access 24X7. Number 2, you should have the interest to do things effectively and efficiently. Number 3, you need to be attentive when someone instructs/briefs you on a task. That’s It!
I would like to elaborate more on number 3 – which is to be attentive when you’re instructed on tasks, let it be your teacher asking you to do an assignment, your boss asking you to do a plant visit, your son asking you for a new iPhone, etc. Pay attention! Number 2 – this comes naturally. Interest. You may be interested in going out with your girlfriend on a candlelight dinner, but not into helping your mother in doing groceries. I don’t know how you’re going to find the interest in a particular task, but like i said, it comes sometimes naturally. You can try to “eat the frog” too. You try to do it artificially, it may not last however . Number 1 – it’s pretty much like how a new born baby gets his/her mother’s breast milk, in this century; you ask for it politely, repeat that a couple of times, you get emotional, and you get it, Eventually at least.
‘Nuff said. So to the tip as such.
There is this developer on Google Play called “Any.Do”. Get to their profile and download the Any.Do app, plus Cal (a calendar application, recommended) and register. Get the Google chrome extension too and enable it on your laptop browser. Now read prerequisite number 2 and create a new task every time you are assigned of one.
This is how it works for me - Say, I had a dozen of things to do tomorrow and I made tasks on Any.Do and I wake up the next day and by 8am (preset time) I get a notification on my phone from Any.Do app asking me to plan my day with some instrumental in the background along with smooth and swift animations. The fun part is you can make all the tasks you are assigned on the previous day, in any order and the next day, the app lets you sort/plan the day in a way that goes with your schedule for that day, even before you set out for office! How cool is that? So imagine you got caught up with something else, and you missed out on a plan you already had set on your phone. Any.Do pops out a menu which lets you reschedule/snooze the plan, once you don’t “mark it done” on time. May be for 15 minutes or for even hours and days, with just 2 touches on your screen max. And that’s why i like this app so much! Its hassle free. It doesn’t eat up your ram or screen space. It displays your stuff in a neat and clean manner.

This thing pops out from the bottom of your screen when its time for you to do, and it takes 1/4th space of your screen. If you click on Play, it lets you reschedule your whole days plan.

So why do you need to have the Google chrome extension? Imagine you get a mail from your customer requesting support via email, and you’re busy with something else, and you reply that you will get back to him/her soon since you’re busy with something else; and to make it much more severe - you’re not allowed to use your private phone during working hours. Any.Do is made in such a way that it syncs both the extension on your laptop and the app on your phone instantly with the magic of internet.

Okay! So how do you mark it done? Well, Once you’re done with the task, swipe across right and to undo, swipe across left. There’s much more to say but it might sound to you like someone is paying me to write good things about Any.Do (app). But trust me, I’m not.

Alright! So this tiny little app really helped me out in planning and getting things done effectively! The app makes sure that I do something that i planned, some day or the other – because procrastination is something that this app comes bundled with (as a feature to postpone); but in the end, it’s all about getting things done eventually, at least in my case. Hope it works out for you too.
Also do try and get a copy of Getting things Done by David Allen It doesn’t matter what kind of a person you are - doctrinaire or empirical – this book is worth a read. You just have to be willing to change your lifestyle a bit.

Links: Any.Do App (Android) Any.Do Extension (Google Chrome)