Beating Procrastination - Taking Action

If you routinely find yourself "waiting for the right time" or you're busy "getting back into the groove," chances are you have perfected your procrastination skills. The major drawback to this level of expertise is that you're most likely not participating in interesting events, projects or relationships. By implementing some basic time management and project tracking routines, you can kick the procrastination habit and surprise yourself with unexpected opportunities.

What is Procrastination?

Procrastination means to defer action until an opportunity is lost, and people put off their actions for a variety of reasons.

• Waiting for the "right" time or mood
• Fear of failure or success
• Unable to make a decision
• Inability to commit to a project, event or responsibility
• Overwhelmed by tasks
• Poor organizational skills
• Overextended schedules
• Perfectionism

Improving self-discipline through effective task management skills and easy-to-use, time management tools can help reduce procrastination. By simply stating goals and specifically identifying tasks, you can slowly but surely (and successfully!) become someone who is motivated and accomplished.

Just Do It - in Small Chunks for a Short Time

A favorite tonic for procrastination is a timed dash - a short burst of focused activity where you work on a specific task for a defined time period. By specifically scheduling 15-minutes to work on a task, you must break the larger project into manageable parts. In that amount of time, you can either complete the assigned task or gather enough momentum and confidence that you can finish the entire project. Transforming larger, unmanageable tasks into smaller piece-parts translates into immediate gratification. String together a number of small accomplishments and you've got one big win.

"Here’s another trick I've learned," says Ray White, President of Scoutwest, Inc, the developers of Standard Time®. "I'll pretend to ‘research’ a project I'm not thrilled about jumping into. Once the research is finished, the majority of the work is too. Then it's just a short jump to completion."

Make a To-Do List

An effective, specific to-do list is the prefect compliment to a 15-minute dash. Time management tools that link scheduled activities, defined tasks, specific jobs and deadlines allow you to see what you're accomplishing. This is a valuable tool for perpetuating momentum gained from dash activities. Linking to-do lists with a calendar ensures that you plan appropriately and allow enough time to complete specific projects. Scheduling adequate time offers two advantages. One is the psychological boost when you're ahead of schedule. The other is the flexibility to catch up without impacting overall deadlines. A calendar also allows you to see how projects link together, helping to manage resources so you don't over-promise or over-extend - two common culprits of procrastination.

Know Your Limits

Often procrastination is made worse by an over committed schedule. Determining - and adhering to - a reasonable timeline is key to success. When you're working on a project with others, allocating and managing their time and productivity is important to ensuring no one gets bogged down. Appropriately setting limits and saying "no" is also important. Setting unreasonable milestones can create procrastination and reduce the quality of the work produced. Managing your own, and your team's limits helps create tools that manage frustration and procrastination.

Avoid Being Perfect

Putting off a job until you can give an unchallengeable performance is unrealistic. It’s time to change your expectations. Instead of being perfect, be positive. Getting started with an average performance on a small chuck of the project means you're less likely to put off the task until another time. Focus on delivering the basics first, then the grand design. The pleasure of having something done (or at least started) often outweighs having something absolutely perfect. When you're hung up on being perfect think of this - in the Malaysian culture, only gods were believed to be capable of perfection. Whenever anything was produced, a flaw was left on purpose. To beat procrastination, pick a manageable task, get started and do your best. Then perfect it later.

Reward Yourself

Rewarding yourself for getting started or a completing a task is as important as, well, getting started. Schedule times to do your favorite things. By adding "reward time" to your to-do list, creating a visible block on your calendar and making "your" time a priority, your favorite activities become an empowering precipitous helping you complete tasks at hand.

Standard Time^®

Standard Time^®can help beat procrastination. StandaOur simple, intuitive time management tools help employees make work more productive. Our easy-to-use tools help employees create lists and link calendars while managing projects and tasks to beat procrastination. It reminds them of their tasks, deadlines and responsibilities and helps organize their work week into manageable, successful blocks of time. Download a copy today, and try it yourself!

Now, no more putting things off! Let's get started- one dash, one task and one project at a time.