The More Time You Have, The Less You Do

There are many reasons why we procrastinate and it's not always due to fear, laziness or having too much time.

Some people work better when there's the pressure of a deadline to meet - even though meeting that deadline puts them under enormous stress and they end up working long hours to meet it.

If only they'd planned better, they could have avoided the stress and long working hours ... or could they? Change your mindset, set interim deadlines to avoid the last minute rush.

Problem: Trying to do too much all in one go can seem overwhelming and another reason to put things off.

Solution: Break a task up in to more manageable chunks - at least you can be one, two or more steps ahead as the deadline looms.

Problem: Lack of knowledge or skills can be another reason to put things off - you're not sure where to start, so leave it for another day or when you have more time to think about it or deal with it.

Solution: Let someone else do it who has the knowledge and skills or add these to your training and development plan.

Simply having too much to do - so your decision making process is the one with the closest deadline gets done NOW!

Problem: Perfectionism can be another reason to procrastinate and one I hear quite often. You either spend more time on a task than you should, because you're always aiming for 110% or you don't start/finish a task because you want it done perfectly first time and don't want to start unless you can finish it.

Solution: Think 80/20.  Your idea of perfect may not be the same as someone else's.  What's 'good enough'?  Get the job done without spending too much time trying to achieve 100%.

Think about the tasks you put off and look at what causes you to leave things to the last minute. This can help you to discover and address the underlying reasons.

Need help?  Get in touch and book a chat to address your procrastination problems.

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net