The best thing I've ever done to make myself more productive was to start telling people to shake off the idea of "getting ahead of workload" and instead just stay neck and neck with it. You aren't meant to have free time.

I have found that when people shake off the idea of getting a "buffer" of work done ahead of time, and instead work hard to just be able to keep up with things, they have no excuse to procrastinate and are able to keep up better. If I finish work for the day and have free time, I'll go enjoy a movie (or two) because I can, and I have earned it. If I have a buffer, I will use that buffer to procrastinate. If I know I can get work done in 4 hours, I will spend 5 hours procrastinating and then do the task in the 6th hour.<br><br>The best thing I've ever done to make myself more productive was to start telling people to shake off the idea of "getting ahead of workload" and instead just stay neck and neck with it. I would go out of my way to help people get ahead only to see them blow it by spending all their free time playing games or watching movies. You aren't meant to have free time. We work to survive, and when you have extra free time, you don't put it toward getting ahead, you spend it relaxing.<br><br>Your happiness is not in getting "ahead", your happiness is in learning to accept that for as long as you draw breath and rely on yourself or others for food and shelter, you will always have a workload that you have to keep up with.