Procrastination is more than about putting something off until tomorrow. If you don’t learn to manage it early in your career, it can plague you throughout it.
Have you ever kept putting something off until it became so big in your imagination it took on a life of its own?
It worked in university. It won’t work in the workplace.
Maybe at school you procrastinated on term papers, on having difficult conversations with your group project team or beginning the career search. In school you can get away with that, because often the only one impacted by your actions is you.
In the workplace, however, it’s a different story. Your work is collaborative, and interdependent. Waiting until the last-minute to meet a deadline means you can’t get input or information from others that need to contribute. Your performance, reputation, and confidence may suffer.
Also, when you’ve waited until the last-minute at work, there’s no room for “going the extra mile.” You don’t have the time! Procrastination keeps your work ordinary, at best. You’ll waste a lot of time getting nothing done, and you probably won’t be the only one who notices.
Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. ~William James
What makes us procrastinate?
Perhaps understanding a bit about why we procrastinate will shed some light. Whether it’s a big work project, a sales presentation, or a major life change we want to pursue, here’s what typically makes us delay.
1. A sense that we have to be perfect, which makes beginning harder.
2. Self-doubt about our ability to complete the action, so we feel better not starting at all.
3. Inability to persevere through the completion of an action, often because we don’t have a good plan.
4. Low self-esteem: feeling we’ll be exposed as a “phony” once we’ve completed the action and need to defend it.
Severe cases of procrastination can lead to depression, anxiety, and a depleted sense of fulfillment. Ultimately it can be one of the reasons that we never reach our full potential in life. Yikes!
7 ways to manage the procrastination monster
1. Identify that you are procrastinating!
The best way to start correcting a behavior is to acknowledge that it exists.
2. Set clear intentions and identify the goals you intend to accomplish.
Understand why they are important to you. This gives you incentive to move forward and creates meaning in the work (or life change) you are approaching.
Of course, ending procrastination would be a good goal to set!
3. Break your goals into smaller, specific steps.
Do you ever hear yourself saying you need to get your “stuff done?” Well… be much more specific than that!
Identify the tactics you will use to accomplish each task: how will it get done? When? Where?
This breaks the big scary goal into bite sized, digestible chunks, and makes it less overwhelming. It also helps kill the fear factor and anxiety over beginning a BIG project when you instead think of them as a series of small projects.
4. Tolerate the nausea of starting.
It’s uncomfortable to begin, which is part of the reason why you procrastinate in the first place. It’s that ambiguous space between where you are, and where you want to be. Tolerating the discomfort of starting something is part of the process. Resolve to begin and take it one step at a time.
5. Phone a friend.
Having a friend, co-worker or mentor to report in to and update on your progress helps you feel a sense of accountability for the work you are doing. They can also serve to encourage and inspire you on the way. Often, others see greatness in our progress that we fail to see in ourselves.
6. Evaluate
As you work on addressing your tendency to procrastinate, stop once a week or so and notice how you are doing. What’s working? What’s not? Where are you making progress and where you finding setbacks? Bring this feedback into the next week and course-correct where you need to.
7. Create a reward system.
Once you accomplish the steps you’ve set out to, go treat yourself to something. Whether it’s a workout, ice cream or a round of gaming, build a reward system into your goal setting and celebrate your accomplishments.
Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin. ~Victor Kiam
More than helping you “get your stuff done,” tackling procrastination builds your confidence and your effectiveness in the workplace. Bonus: you might be a lot happier too!
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