The Behaviour Effect

Procrastinators are made not born. You need to first identify some of your causes of procrastination so you can begin to understand how to overcome it.

Procrastinators can change their behaviour—but doing so consumes a lot of psychic energy.

Knowing why procrastination happens can help us overcome it.

For example, procrastination comes when we think a lot about what we need to do and how difficult is, we start thinking of multiple other thinks we can do or have to do before starting the work. Focusing on a limited number of activities at once can improve your completion success rate.

Therefore, just focus on accomplishing your goals.  Anytime you think of something else you should ask yourself “Is this going to help me accomplish my goal now?”  If not then don’t get sidetracked with that thing and continue with your work.  Seems simple, but focus takes practice and this takes proper engaged focus.

Playing to what we know about human beings may aid our avoidance of procrastination.

As human beings we will always do much more to avoid pain than we will do to gain pleasure.  So, how can we make the procrastination more painful than the task?  If we can focus on the negative consequences of not doing a task then the potential pain may actually motivate us to complete the task.

If being more knowledgeable about the origin of your procrastination, increased self-awareness and focusing on limited goals doesn’t work…then you need some more hints on how to tackle procrastination?

1. Make a list of everything you have to do.

2. Write a statement of intention.

3. Set realistic goals.

4. Break it down into specific tasks.

5. Make your task meaningful.

6. Promise yourself a reward.

7. Eliminate tasks you never plan to do. Be honest!

8. Estimate the amount of time you think it will take you to complete a task. Then increase the amount by 100%.

Once you complete one task, keep that as motivation going. Before you know it, you will have overcome the challenge of procrastination!

Procrastination is not a problem of time management or of planning.  Procrastinators are not different in their ability to estimate time, although they are more optimistic than others.  “Telling someone who procrastinates to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just cheer up,” insists Dr. Ferrari, associate professor of psychology at De Paul University in Chicago.

People procrastinate for different reasons.  Below is a brief description of Dr. Ferrari three basic types of procrastinators:

1. Arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush.
2. Avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.
3. Decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision.

These types highlight some of the common causes as to why people procrastinate.  Though first we need to ask ourselves if we have properly considered the time required to complete a task successfully.  It is procrastination of time management?

Also, there are so many distractions today, not least the social networking sites, that we can easily get sidetracked in to something that we didn’t intend to do or spend considerable time upon

The most common cause of procrastination stem from three key concerns.

What if I do it wrong?

This is a reasonable concern. When we do things wrong, will it be fixable, expensive? But if this is your fear you have a few choices – you can hire someone else to do it for you, you can learn how to do it or you can let it go. Try to see this objectively – without the guilt about what you should do. What makes the most sense? No more procrastination.

What if I make the wrong decision?

Do you realise that in life there is rarely a right or wrong decision? It’s usually more about what is right for the people involved in the situation. With that in mind, we can learn from it when we make the wrong choice and then try again. What feels like the right choice for you? Again, no more procrastination.

What if I fail?

The fear of failure is one common cause of avoiding doing a task. We think of the different problems and weakness we have and how complex the work is. As we think in our mind the complexity of the project, we start thinking of the different reasons why we can’t accomplish it and the many other things that you need to do it.  What if you do fail? Think it through. What will happen if you fail? Often when we procrastinate, the things we tell ourselves reflect epic failure, huge mistakes and earth shattering damages.  Thankfully, most of the time we are wrong in our imaginings.

The next time you see yourself putting something off, take a moment to determine why. Try to address the fear and you may no longer feel the need to procrastinate.

Procrastinators are made and not born. This is good news as because it’s a learned response, and what’s learned can be unlearned.

So, in the next post – how to overcome procrastination….

Ever put something off until tomorrow?  It is a fact that we tend to put off those things which have a negative emotion attached to them.  Perhaps the task at hand is ‘too hard’, will ‘take too long’, is too ‘boring’ or requires ‘too much effort’.  Twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators.  And it’s a lifestyle.

The essence of procrastination is very well reflected in this quote by Bernard Meltzer:

“Hard work is often the easy work you did not do at the proper time.”

Procrastinators tell themselves lies, such as, “I’ll feel more like doing this tomorrow.” Or “I work best under pressure.” In reality they do not get the urge the next day.  In addition, they protect their sense of self by saying “this isn’t important.”

Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that don’t take a lot of commitment on their part. Checking e-mail is almost perfect for this purpose or reading the news online.

Maybe you tell yourself you perform better under pressure. Or that you have to be in the right mood at the right time. Or you think that you can’t do anything well unless you’re feeling at the top of your form.  Even though you might not feel like doing a work you still need to make efforts to start. No matter in what mood you are, the more involved you get into your work, the less you are going to think in other problems.

There are many ways to avoid success in life, but the most sure-fire just might be procrastination.  Procrastinators sabotage themselves. They put obstacles in their own path.

So, are you a procrastinator? According to Joseph Ferrari, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at De Paul University in Chicago, real procrastinators tell themselves five lies.  Answer these questions honestly and see how you measure up.

• Do you overestimate the time they have left to perform tasks.

• Do you underestimate the time it takes to complete tasks.

• Do you overestimate how motivated they will feel the next day, the next week, the next month — whenever they are putting things off to.

• Do you think that succeeding at a task requires that they feel like doing it.

• Do you believe that working when not in the mood is suboptimal.

How did you score?  Next time…why we do or in fact, ‘don’t', do it?

I was recently at a Customer Service workshop and during a conversation on what we expected as customers,  action within reasonable time frames was mentioned.  One of the ladies in the group mentioned that she is forever procrastinating.  She explained that she’ll read documents or emails any number of times before actually dealing with them or replying.

She reminded me of a suggestion I was once given which helps us measure how mad our procrastination of this type is and motivate us to postpone procrastination and act!

“Draw a black dot on a document or email each time you handle it”.

Simple.  Easy.  Effective?

Well, it certainly surprised me how many black dots appeared on my documents.  It was a visual demonstration of ineffective working. And its surprising the effect that mild shame will have on motivation

Procrastination can cause us anxiety, sleepless night…or put us in a perpetual state of catching up.  There is even evidence to suggest that it damages our immune system.  So my interest is pricked and I will be developing this topic over the next few posts.  First I will ask whether you are indeed a procrastinator, next we will examine why we procrastinate and then we will look at ways we can avoid it.

The reasons why we procrastinate are pushing for attention inside my head at the moment but considering the importance of time management on this very topic….I need to complete a more urgent task….so watch this space for the next post…