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Issue #36: May 3, 2004
To our readers:
Most of us suffer from some degree of procrastination, the costs of which can be numerous. Among them: poor time management, missed deadlines, low productivity, poor workmanship, high levels of stress, and stress-related ailments such as sleeplessness and anxiety. The weight of the "not yet done," whether small tasks or large projects, can rob you of pleasure in your life and enjoyment of your work.
If you are one of the many people in desperate need of better time management, but think you have "no time" to invest in it, mastering procrastination could be your quick and easy answer to your problem. Until you decide to invest some time to save time, you can take a shortcut to better time use by conquering your tendency to procrastinate. When you stop procrastinating you automatically begin to get jobs done in a more timely fashion.
The best way to beat procrastination is to make a habit of doing the tough jobs first thing every day. Do this and you will have denied yourself a reason for procrastinating. You can actually build up a "need" to get the hard things done first, just as a runner develops a need to run and feels incomplete or cheated if he can't get out and run his 10 miles one day.
The key to building a new habit is to do it religiously for 21 days. That's it. Sometimes it takes even less time. Once something is a habit, it insists on being done; you have to break the habit to stop doing it. This applies even to tasks that are good for you! Experience the psychological pleasure of getting your onerous, difficult, complex, or weighty jobs out of the way first thing every day, and you'll refuse to go back to putting them off and dreading them all day like you used to.
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Five Tips for Mastering Procrastination
1. Set a target date for beginning to create your new habit of tackling the tough jobs first every day.
Prepare yourself psychologically to tackle the tough jobs first every day by telling yourself you will begin to do it on a particular date. Mark that date on your calendar. Think about it as you engage in your usual procrastination. Tell yourself, "I'm putting off (making my sales calls, preparing my report, doing employee performance reviews) today, but next Monday I will (make those calls, prepare that report, do those performance reviews) as soon as I begin my work day."
2. Plan your new routine, right down to when you get your coffee.
Decide what your new morning routine will be, including putting your briefcase away, turning on your computer, accessing your files, getting a cup of coffee. Allow yourself a civilized progression to work-readiness, which creates a pleasant way to begin your day and reduces distractions, as you limit yourself to those tasks you've included in your routine. If it's not in your routine you don't do it until you've accomplished the difficult tasks you've assigned yourself.
3. Decide if you want to tackle "tough jobs" in general, or one tough job in particular.
Some people have a particular task they habitually put off, which if they were to consistently complete right away would free up their psyches considerably. For some it's making prospecting and sales calls. For some it's writing up a report after a meeting. If you have a particular job you resist doing which weighs on your mind like an unpaid debt, you might want to focus on that task alone. If you suffer from avoidance of a variety of tasks every day, then you will want to make a habit of simply picking the most onerous of your tasks and addressing those first, each and every day.
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4. Remind yourself that your rewards will be wonderful and plentiful.
Remind yourself that once your tough tasks are out of the way your rewards will include a free spirit, a clear conscience, time to plan, the right to enjoy doing all those tasks that called to you like the Sirens called to Ulysses while you were forcing yourself to do the hard things, and more.
5. Reassure yourself you only have to do this for 21 days.
When you feel yourself coming up with reasons not to tackle a difficult job, tell yourself that after 21 days you are free to go back to procrastinating. When you catch yourself in the middle of filing "just a few things" to clear your desk before beginning to plan a huge and overwhelming project, stop filing and remind yourself that in just 21 days you can go back to doing mindless tasks first.
Few things in your life will mean as much to your psychological well-being and your career success as replacing the habit of procrastinating with the habit of tackling the important, but tough, work first. Begin now, and in 21 days you'll feel like a new person.
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