1 min readWhat Procrastinators Don’t Know

by Guy Gage | February 28, 2016 | Uncategorized

Procrastination is an insidious habit that undermines the work and reputation of too many professionals. Some of the best in the business diminish themselves by putting things off. Yet they aren’t alone. To be truthful, everyone procrastinates. We all periodically put things off until later when it would be prudent to do it now.

Even if it’s an adrenaline rush for you, it’s a problem for others. You stress them because they wonder if you will come through. You frustrate them when you aren’t timely, which happens all too often. You disappoint them when they can’t count on you.

There are lots of reasons why you put things off. Regardless, everyone benefits from reducing the habit. This tip has helped hundreds of procrastinators to up their game. It goes like this:

You’ve got something to do that you don’t particularly care to do. It’s not about the amount of time it takes or the importance of doing it; you just can’t get started. You say to yourself, I’ll do it later. This is especially true with things that have to be done on a repetitive basis. Something like inputting your time daily. Or producing a weekly status report. Or finalizing your monthly billing. Or completing your expense reports. It doesn’t really matter. If your thinking is, “I need to do it but I’ll get to it later”, it’s all the same. So why do you do it?

What’s really happening is that the task overwhelms your brain because you think of it a one operation when in fact, it’s two operations that require separate thinking patterns. When you try to execute them both simultaneously, your brain goes into overload and freezes. However, when you break up the task into separate operations, you’ll be surprised at how much easier it is to finish.

The 1st operation is to prepare. Organize your task by getting everything together. For instance, you could track your time as you go through your day. Or circle all the info you need from each receipt for your expense report. Or organize your WIP reports before you prepare your bills. You can prepare as you go or schedule a “pre-execution” step. Just keep the preparation apart from execution. Then schedule when you will actually execute to enter the data or write the report.

It’s not that difficult; you just have to do it. Two operations for one repetitive task. The real question is, will you?

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