procrastination

Effective time management means getting rid of bad habits that kill your time.  Probably the most common of these bad habits is procrastination.  It is the most common and most readily admitted self-inflicted time robber in our lives.  Some men and women experience procrastination as a seldom bother, while others experience procrastination like a never ending headache that just seems to pound them day in and day out. 

There are essentially two types of procrastination:

1. Conscious Procrastination:  Conscious procrastination is definitely the easiest to identify in people as well as the simplest form to offer solutions for.  This is where we are “awake” and aware of what we are doing.

2. Unconscious Procrastination:  Unconscious procrastination is where we are almost totally unaware of our actions and behavior.  This form is a bit more difficult because we must catch ourselves doing it as opposed to being conscious of our behavior.

Either way, the bad habit of procrastination carries with it a huge expense of your opportunity in every area of your life.  “Putting things off” more than likely has caused more failure, heartache, and misery, than all of the other time management problems combined.  Everybody wants more time but wastes away what they do have.  Let it be known that opportunity knocks just as often at the door of the procrastinator as it does at anyone else’s door.  The difference is that the procrastinator does not answer and misses out.

How come people procrastinate?  Why do we waste our time and put things off?  Perhaps the most common reason is that the tasks that lay ahead of these items may seem unpleasant or like an inconvenience.  Life is full of tiny little monotonous tasks of which we put off.  For example, most people do not like balancing their checkbooks, filing taxes, meeting new people, or exercising.  By doing these things it is necessary to move out of our comfort zone.  And moving out of our comfort zone day in and day out is the hallmark of high-achieving men and women.

The natural response to unpleasant tasks in life is to block them out and stay within what is more convenient at the time.  But by putting those things off, we then are letting the events control us.  And what happens next?  Our productivity drops and so does our confidence and self esteem.  The only way to escape this time-wasting habit is to put energy into controlling our lives, even if it means being inconvenienced or feeling unpleasant while doing it.  Eventually you can train your mind to perceive getting things done as positive tasks.

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Procrastination is probably the number one time management problem for all of us.  It hits just about everyone at one time or another and for some it’s a constant stress-inducer.  No matter how well you understand your life’s goals or organize your days, if you don’t get a handle on procrastination, you will be forever in the throes of a time-management crisis.

Does the following sound like you?  You devote serious energy to planning a project.  You create a schedule, set deadlines, organize your materials and tools, and attend to all of the preparatory work.  Some of this initial activity may even give you a feeling of accomplishment; after all, preparatory time is important and the better you plan a task, the easier it will be to accomplish it well.  You’ll certainly look busy to the people around you.

Once you’ve started the planning stages, you become caught up in the project even if you’re not actually engaged in performing the task at hand.  Your time has been dedicated and is no longer free for other activities.  In other words, the job is “hanging over your head,”.

You now feel the pressure to get this job done.  If you put off doing the actual work - spend excessive time planning, waste time at extraneous tasks, or let distractions or temptations lure you away from the work - the pressure mounts and you pit yourself against the clock to meet your deadlines.  Now the pressure turns to stress.

Why do we do this to ourselves?  People procrastinate for lots of reasons.  Oddly, at the top of the list is the need for perfectionism.  This problem comes in several guises but two types are especially common:

1. The need to perform flawlessly for fear of failure or looking foolish

2. The fear that less-than-perfect performance will send a job careening out of control.

Both types of perfectionism create considerable stress, but the first is more likely to lead to procrastination.  He or she is called the “impeccable performer”.

This person isn’t a procrastinator but a perfectionist with a driving need to excel.  The perfectionist imposes monumental expectations on every action and creates considerable stress.  Perfectionists usually set their own agenda, dive into a task early rather than late, and put in more time than others might find necessary.

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