To procrastinate or not to procrastinate - that is the question

If you're running a business you are probably running at between 110% and 130% over commitment in your work and life – essentially that means you will never catch up.

So the bad news is that your to-do list just gets longer and longer, the good news is that you’re not the only one!  However. the problem is that it’s easy to become completely stuck – a rabbit in the headlights – at the sheer amount of what we have to do.

And then we procrastinate…

You might be interested to know that experts believe there are six types of procrastinators and I’m pretty sure you will identify yourself as one of these…

Last Minute Mania

You leave things to the last minute, you rush around at the end, exerting extra effort to complete the task – the pressure is mounting, you become stressed and short-fused – but, ah, the relief of having done it! Great!

Apart from that nagging feeling that ‘of course, I could have done better if I’d had more time’… 

Paralysis by Analysis:

You’re convinced that you can achieve this task. You just have to find the right and most effective way of doing it first.

And there is only one way.

And until you found it, there's obviously no sense in starting…

The Lone Ranger:

You can or must do everything yourself – because asking for help or delegating any responsibility is a sign of weakness and not being able to cope.

There’s just this small problem – you are constantly feeling isolated and in reality you can’t actually deliver everything at the same time. So you resort to delaying…

Focusing on What’s Missing:

You become completely stuck by dwelling on your present state.  While you are busy dwelling you're not changing anything of course. Its that old thing about accentuating the negative instead of the positive...

Avoiding Effort:

Actually I’d rather take a nap;  the thought of having to exert myself to find that piece of paper is just too much…

Choosing to Lose:

You tend to use an impractical approach to a practical problem.  So if you're a perfectionist you will avoid a situation unless you have already worked out how to ensure that there is the guarantee of a perfect product or service.

And if you believe you always underachieve you will avoid moving forward unless there is a guarantee of immediate success.

If you recognise yourself from one (or possibly several!)of these  scenarios then at least you now know for sure that you ARE procrastinating.

So what can you do about that? Well at that point you might like to ask yourself one question  - and that is one posed by management guru Peter Drucker

“What can I and only I do that, if done well, will make a real difference”

You might even want to stick that question on a sticky note which is right in your eyeline where you work. Do let me know if it helps!