We all do it—divert our attention to places it doesn’t need to be, like when we click through Aunt Sherry’s vacation photos instead of answer that email from Jeff in Finance. Sometimes we put entire projects in front of more important tasks, simply to avoid something difficult or unpleasant. Yes, we all procrastinate. But how we manage our procrastinating ways will determine our success!

These five tips can help you put off procrastination and tackle those tough projects:

1. Stay off social media. It’s so easy, even automatic, to tab over to Facebook or Twitter during a moment of downtime or a tough patch in a project. But stay away from this distracting time-suck! Try putting your phone in your drawer or purse, where you can hear it ring but it won’t beckoning to your wandering fingers. You can also proactively block social media sites from your computer’s browser, if IT hasn’t done this for you.
2. Apply the “10 minutes” rule. If a task rolls in that you can knock out in 10 minutes or less, take care of it right away. That way the little things won’t get buried under the big projects, and your responsiveness will be impressive! Of course, you’ll have to have those 10 minutes to spare for every right-now task, so try to budget breaks between meetings and at the start and end of your day.
3. Tackle the worst tasks first. Whether it’s sharing that unpleasant news with a customer, or transforming those 50 pages of data into a report, we all have tasks we dread doing and try to avoid as long as possible. But do you dread it less the longer you put it off? Of course not—waiting only increases the dread and the sense of inevitability—which is why you should tackle those sticky tasks first. You’ll feel better for crossing them off the list, and you won’t go through the week with that weight on your shoulders.
4. Call out what’s important. As above, it’s easy to put off a task you don’t want to do. Before long, this difficult, uncomfortable, or critical task that keeps getting rolled over is now the albatross on your to-do list. Find these albatrosses and write them down. Then choose one to tackle and spend a solid two or three hours working on it. If you’ll be happy with your day for completing this one project, all the other items on your to-do list can wait (even those 10-minute guys!).
5. Reward yourself. After you push through that project you’ve been putting off, treat yourself! A small but motivating reward—a walk, a second cup of coffee, or a chocolate candy from the receptionist’s desk—can help you feel good about a job well done, and can help you look forward to completing it faster!