If you are a chronic procrastinator, or your work partner is one, there is never enough advance notice to get things done without a crisis. You can’t get things done on time unless you get started on time. Otherwise, your business and your career suffers, and you may never even see it coming. Luckily, this is a malady that can be cured if you are willing to make a few adjustments.
As a long-time business advisor and entrepreneur mentor, I see this problem all too often. The reality of running any business or startup is that there are always things you don’t enjoy doing, and it’s always tempting to focus more on items you have a passion for. Other things, like hiring and firing people, raising money, and building a strategic plan get pushed off until it’s too late.
The solution is to recognize that we all have bad habits, and ask for an honest assessment and recommendations from a business advisor you trust, before the pain is severe. It’s easier for an outsider to recognize the symptoms and guide you through a series of techniques, including the following, to get you back on track:
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Plan your reward for completing a challenging task. It’s more fun to look forward to the reward rather than the work. For example, instead of dreading the necessary business plan creation, plan an afternoon trip to a ball game after finishing to look forward to. It’s important to reward every small success, rather than delay for a big reward later.
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Maintain a bulletin board work list and prioritize it daily. The worst form of procrastination occurs when you pretend the work items don’t even exist, or you don’t remember the important items. Documenting your work list will help force you to prioritize and schedule it. Many people find great satisfaction in just checking off completed items.
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Schedule a tough task as the first of the next day. Tackle your biggest challenges when you have the most energy, rather than starting with the easy things. If you get one priority thing done early, you will be more motivated all day to stay ahead of the game. You will find that you are never too tired to do the things which take no thinking.
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Block out time in your schedule for priority work. Things happen in businesses that you can’t predict by name, but need to be resolved quickly. If your assistant books ahead every hour of your time for meetings and scheduled functions, you will tend to procrastinate and fail on late-arriving priority items. Be proactive rather than reactive.
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Periodically do an audit on how your time was spent. If your procrastination is driven by being “too busy,” it often helps to look hard at how your time for a given day was actually spent. You may quickly recognize your tendency to work on the wrong things, or identify work that should be delegated to others, on contracted out to an expert.
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Find a location where you can work without distractions. These days, it’s popular to schedule a work-from-home day per week to better focus your efforts on key strategic tasks, versus the chaos at the office. On the other hand, some people find that the home distractions of children, pets, and chores are worse than the office. Know yourself.
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Enlist a confidant to keep you accountable. Most procrastinators keep their failures and slippages close to the vest, to minimize their embarrassment. If you share progress and commitments with a trusted partner, it can be motivating and helpful for both parties. For group projects, expectations need to be clearly delineated and communicated.
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Be diligent on rest, health, and family balance time. Trying to cure procrastination by putting in more hours and skipping time off is counter-productive. It’s common for procrastination to spiral in the wrong direction when you are in a bad mood, overly tired, or sick. Maintain a positive attitude and maximum productivity to get things done on time.
Overall, many procrastinators are their own worst enemy, by insisting on perfectionism, putting obstacles in their own path, or fearing their own adequacy to get the job done. In all of these cases, it helps to work closely with trusted team members, and celebrate small successes to build momentum and confidence.
Remember that only you can change yourself, and you will always be the biggest beneficiary of all improvements. Secondarily but equally valuable, your business will improve, as will your relationship with all the others who are counting on you. Don’t procrastinate.
