I’m going to let you in on a little secret.  I’m a huge procrastinator and sometimes the only way I can get anything done is with a reward.  You know — a light at the end of the tunnel type thing.

If you have nothing to look forward to, your workload can quickly overwhelm you. So I’m a big fan of rewarding yourself after completing a time-consuming task.

However, it’s also important that the reward matches the progress that you’ve made.  So if you spend 20 minutes replying to your emails, you probably should treat yourself to a marathon Netflix binge.

But put a limit on it.  Will you watch 1 episode of House of Cards or 2?  If you plan out your reward in advance – it will be much easier to stick to it and get back to work.

There’s the thing though — a reward doesn’t have to take hours to be effective. There are some quick ones that will do the trick just as well.

Here is my list of small rewards you can treat yourself to without feeling guilty:

1. Make a cup of tea.
2. Go for a walk for 15 minutes.
3. Listen to your favorite song.
4. Watch a cute animal video for 4 minutes.
5. Send a silly text to your friend.
6. Eat some dark chocolate.
7. Go on an adventure via Periscope for 10 minutes.
8. Look up something you want to buy online for 15 minutes. (But don’t actually buy it until you’ve finished all your to-do’s for the day!)
9. If you like to exercise, you could go for a quick jog or do some 10-minute yoga.
10. Read a chapter of a good book. (Sign up here for a free chapter of Listful Thinking!)

How do you like to reward yourself?