How to Fight Procrastination in the Workplace
Posted March 3rd, 2014
So, you‘ve a project due, or some other task that you need to get done, but you are really having a problem mustering the energy to tackle it. Procrastination has set in.
What can you do to get that fire lit? Psychologists who have studied the issue have come up with several ways that people can deal with their procrastinating ways.
One way to help get you motivated is to look at the task as a preventive measure, something that will prevent things from becoming worse than they are now. The task is more of a backstop rather than a springboard. This attitude is especially helpful if your procrastination is caused by fear that you are going to somehow mess things up. If fear of failure is stopping you, you need to think about what would happen if you don’t do the task, namely a situation that is worse than any failure. In other words, you may fail if you attempt the task, but you surely will fail if you don’t even try. As the Spanish writer Baltasar Gracian has written, things go bad more often in repose than in motion. Any movement is better than no movement at all.
Another reason people give for not doing something is that they just don’t feel like doing it. In other words, they feel no enthusiasm or energy for doing the task. It is an attitude akin to that of a writer waiting for inspiration. But here, take a lesson from professional writers – don’t wait for inspiration. Just do it. And this is the advice from psychologists: the belief that you need to be inspired or energized to do something is basically a load of bunk. Don’t wait for the feeling to grab you, just do it no matter how you feel, inspired or not.
Another way to get moving is to frame your tasks in a cause-and-effect situation. In other words, if something happens, then you will do something else: “If it is 2 p.m., then I will begin working on the project.” Not only does this set up a specific action that you will do, it also spells out exactly when you will do it. Nothing is left to an ambiguous intention that at some future point you will begin working on something. It helps focus and enhance your own willpower, which is not in infinite supply.
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