Procrastination is the major enemy of time management. If we plan,
and do not follow on with focussed activity we have wasted a valuable
resource, and might just as well have not planned at all.
Procrastination can be constructive when applied to unimportant items,
but when we procrastinate over Quadrant I and II items we diminish
productivity and increase our level of stress.
A driving motive in our daily lives is the avoidance of pain. When we
procrastinate, we choose inaction over action as a means of avoiding
the pain of fear. Fear of criticism, of failure, and even fear of
success.
Fear of criticism and failure are obvious corollaries. Most of us care
too much about what others think of us and our level of achievement. In
so doing we magnify the possible bad effects of taking action and we
tend to procrastinate to avoid them.
Perfectionism is yet another manifestation of fear of failure. If you
wait, until "the time is right" or for that final revision because "it
isn't quite right", you are merely trying to overcome the fear of
failure; you are procrastinating.
Fear of success is a bit less obvious. If we succeed, then we raise
others' expectations of our performance, increasing the pressure for
us to perform at higher and higher levels of achievement.
A way to prevent procrastination suggested by Vince Panella is to
concentrate on visualising where you will be in all levels of your
life, over one year, five years, 10 years and 20 years if you take
regular action. I don't suggest putting the negatives into your mind
by visualising the opposite.
Some tips to help you tackle procrastination. (You can put them into practice
now, tomorrow — or how about next week!)
1. Plan the coming day the night before. The old cliché is still
as true today as it was when it was first quoted— "People don't plan to
fail but they sometimes fail to plan". If you do not have a plan of
action before you start work you easily drift into Quadrant III. You
start paying attention to other peoples' priorities rather than to
those priorities in Quadrant II, where you should be spending the
major portion of your time.
Primed by a plan you know what each step of the day ought to be to
provide productive action and avoid procrastination.
2. Keep a clean desk. Stuff piled on the desk becomes a focus for the
mind and we cannot help but be distracted. Our mind gets directed to the
less important and easy tasks. The end result being we procrastinate over
the more important tasks.
Work with a clean desk and clean work environment. We can then
focus all of our attention on the more important tasks without
distractions.
I found a set of reports which included strategies for keeping my
desk clear — worth every cent. I suggest that you go to
http://tinyurl.com/64ag2 for more information.
3. We have to contend with those Quadrant III interruptions and so we
often wind up procrastinating over working on the important, planned, task.
An essential key to getting things done is to break them down into
convenient, controllable, parts — like eating an elephant, one bite at
a time. You should be able to devote just 15 minutes to getting started.
So, instead of scheduling the entire three-hour project for tomorrow,
schedule a small bite that might take 15 minutes. Then put the next
15 minute step on the next day's "To Do" list and the one after that on
that next day's list, and so on. It could very well take several days, but
eventually you will get that elephant eaten, one bite at a time.
4. Plan around interruptions. Most interruptions occur early in the week
as opposed to later. So, planning a major project for first thing Monday
morning is asking for trouble and creating stress because as soon you start,
the interruptions arrive.
So plan those larger projects for later in the day and later in the
week when you are reasonably certain that you will tend to get fewer
interruptions.
5. Assign deadlines. Deadlines move you to action. Without imposing a
deadline projects will drift to "eventually". A goal without a deadline is just a wish.
Some Quotations
"Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do." (Liz Smith)
"You will never stub your toe by standing still, but the faster you go the more chance you have of getting somewhere!" (Charles Kettering)
"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind!" (William James)
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The Vorfeld household received a special New Year's present: a tiny
bundle of fur and bones that parked on the threshold of the patio door
and wouldn't leave. Shadow Vorfeld. Our veterinarian thinks Shadow was
born around Thanksgiving Day. How appropriate. On December 30, Shadow
weighed one pound, 3 ounces. On January 20, he weighed three pounds,
10 ounces. 