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!

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…

Today is ‘National Sickie Day’, a day in which it is estimated that 350,000 workers will take a sickie.  This will cost businesses more than £30 million in lost business opportunities, reduced productivity and salary/overtime payments.

A survey by Employment Law Advisory Services (ELAS), shows that of the 1,500 bosses interviewed for the nationwide survey,  half said they did not believe staff who complained of being ill.  So why do they phone in sick and feel comfortable claiming illness not to go into work?

It could be any number of reasons and managers need to find out what those reasons are if they are to actually  ‘manage’ their staff.  All too often managers feel that their staff should not take advantage simply because they pay them a wage but there’s much more to it than that.  If you are a manager, when was the last time you pulled a sickie?  Why did you?

Staff pull sickies, not just because they are taking advantage and want an extra day off but also because they are either unhappy in their workplace or something has happened at home that needs dealt with.

We need to be making the most out of our staff, especially now when the economic situation in still on a knife edge and we may well have had to cut costs by cutting the number of people we employ.  If business is to grow again we need to ensure our staff our productive and going the extra mile…not just doing enough or working to rule.

So what do we do to lower the number of staff who pull a sickie?

Employee engagement is vital if we are to make the most of our staff.  Engagement means that staff are committed to your organisation and they are aligned.  In other words, do they care about their work and do they know what their responsibilties are and how they fit with the wider organisation.  So how do we engage our staff?

First of all, in order to understand the behaviour of others you need to understand their motives, needs and desires.  The only way of finding out this information is to ask them, on a regular and consistent basis. Appraisals and regular update meetings can be the perfect opportunity to discover what makes your staff tick.  How many of you are getting the benefits ofappraisal though…and how many of you dread them coming?

Do your staff know what is expected of them?  Have you provided detail about what their responsibilities are and the impact of them not completing their jobs correctly is?  Do they have job description?  Do you keep them informed of company performance?

Are staff trusted?  Think of the last time someone gave you work and then watched over your shoulder as you completed it…feel like they trusted you to do a good job?  Ok so, their capability will affect how much support you give them, but do you consider how capable they are and behave accordingly?

Do you communicate openly and with transparancy?  It’s important to keep everyone in the loop or you will be dealing with gossip and rumour.  Neither helpful and certainly not easy to correct once rife.

What’s the atmosphere like in your teams.  If there are personality clashes or unhealthy competition, this could be a reason staff take a sickie.  Maybe they just can’t deal with the relationships prevalent in the office anymore.

Are you flexible about work hours?  If one of your staff has a burst pipe, would they ring and explain what has happened and know that you understand it needs sorted or would they ring in a sickie because you would insist on them coming into work?

Have you built loyalty in your staff by supporting them, providing them with development opportunities and career progression?  If you haven’t then why would your staff go the extra mile for you?  The last time you went out of your way for someone…why did you do that?  Your staff have the same motivation needs as you.

Finally, the biggest influence on whether your staff will pull a sickie is their relationship with you.  If you care about your staff and build rapport with them, they are more likely to go the extra for you, and less likely to take advantage.

If you are the type to crawl into work no matter what state you are in…why do you do that?  If you have built  engagement into your organisations culture then you won’t be wondering where your staff are today.

What is employee well-being?  What does it actually means for organisations?

We are all aware of how current economic conditions have affected our workplaces.  We also realise that as a result of our changing surroundings…employees and management are behaving differently.  Feeling good about the work we complete has a massive impact on quality and performance.  We know this due to the research that has been completed but more significantly we know this from personal experience.  Ever been unhappy in a role?  Ever felt not appreciated by your peers or manager?  What effect did your emotions have on your work?  Did you give it your best all the time?  I think you get the idea!

So, how in practical times can we use this experience to ensure our own employees do not feel like this and enjoy a healthy environment?  Peter Warr, in his book ‘Psychology at Work’ outlines 9 main groups to examine.

1.  Opportunity for personal control

Do employees have autonomy?  This does not have to be total but could be a small amount for a particular work activity.  How much discretion have employees?  What role do they have in decision making?

2.  Opportunity for skills use

Are employees skills actually being used?  Are they valued for the skills they have?

3.  Externally generated goals

Do employees understand the demands of the job, the task?  Are there measures in place for workloads? What responsibility do they have?  Have targets been set?

4.  Variety

Is there a possible means of varying role?  How repetitive are the tasks completed?  Is there variety of location?

5.  Environmental clarity

Have the consequences of certain behaviours been provided?  Is there job security?  Is there information about the required behaviours and their role within the organisation or team?

6.  Availability of money

Have you benchmarked pay?  What competition is there?  What level of income does pay place employees on?

7.  Physical Security

Have you Health and Safety procedures in place?  Is there good working conditions?  What temperature is the office?  How much noise is present?  Do employees have adequate equipment?

8.  Opportunity for interpersonal contact

How much interaction do employees have each day?  Is there adequate provision for privacy if required?  Do employees have good relationships?  Is there social support?  Good communications?

9.  Valued social position

What status do employees have?  How much emphasis is placed on job importance?  Are the jobs that employees do meaningful?  Do employee have self-respect?

When talking about employee well-being it is important to distinguish between job-related feelings and non-job but there is so much that managers can take into consideration in order to ensure employee satisfaction and well-being.  The associations between employee well-being and performance are incredibly significant.  Enthusiasm, alertness, attention, interest, determination and inspiration are all impacted.  We simply cannot ignore them, we must take note and apply this knowledge to the environment we create for our employees.