Zoochblog

Procrastination is almost a disease in my book. It can take a task and turn it from something very simple to a stress filled, anxiety ridden burden which brings fear, sweaty palms and a dry mouth at the mention of it. So, why do we put things off?

In our multi-tasking society it’s easy to understand how some things on our desk keep sliding down the pile instead of up and out the door. We are over-worked, over-stressed and under vacationed. In fact, some people I know dread vacations because of the pile they will discover residing on their desk when they return.

So, the question still goes unanswered, why do we procrastinate?

I can’t speak from any authority, I can only address the topic from my own situations. I most procrastinate when I know the task is non-creative, laborious, boring, time consuming, etc. It quite often includes something to do with accounting, billing, or dealing with customer service at another company like the phone company or public service. I just don’t want to do it.

I can see this in friends and business associates who do the same thing. With too many fires to put out sqweaky wheel syndrome sets it.

Of course, all conventional wisdom and motivational training says the we “should” tackle the tough jobs first to boost our esteem and gain a sense of accomplishment. Sure, when you practice this philosophy continuously it works extremely well. But, the pain of facing those tough tasks first thing out of the box in the morning just doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Well, take it from me, if you don’t, the pain of playing catch up can be far worse and have repercusions that last a long time. You can lose clients, friends even spouses if procrastinating isn’t brought under control.

Here are four steps that have helped me:

1. Take time at the beginning of the day to prioritize your jobs on paper in two columns: “Calls & Do’s”.
2. Don’t leapfrog over tasks.
3. Finish each task completely, if possible, before moving on.
4. Cross them off your list with fanfare in red ink.
5. Celebrate in some small way that you did what was necessary, have a latte’ or fries at lunch.

Life is too short to lose sleep over work that’s not getting done, just plan to finish it with your own process, you and your
boss will be glad you did.

In the end, it’s just one man’s opinion, mine.

Keith……