By Leo Babauta

I have a friend who is self-employed, running his own business and doing a great job … except that he finds himself procrastinating on important tasks like writing.

No, I’m not talking about myself! Although, to be honest, I do the same thing too.

We all do, I think: we know there’s something we should be doing that’s really important for our careers, personal lives, businesses … but there are other less important we do instead. We check our email, respond to messages, read news, find interesting things to read online.

Our problem isn’t that these important tasks are that hard … it’s that we don’t feel motivated. So we procrastinate.

It’s hard to motivate yourself when you’re self-employed, or when no one is breathing down your neck making you do things right now. Especially when there’s a world of fascinating things online, or a million little tasks you can do instead.

What can we do?

Here’s what I suggest: