One of my biggest pet peeves is when people fail to show up on time. It drives me nuts!
Time is valuable and when people are late, it takes away something I can never get back again.
However, I find myself doing the same thing to myself. Except instead of being late, I procrastinate.
Image by Nessima El Qorchi
What Is Procrastination?
The definition of procrastination is: Putting off or delaying or deferring an action to a later time.
While I love to take action and get things done, there’s many times where I’ll put off doing a task because I don’t like it or just don’t feel like doing it.
You may find yourself doing the same.
Let me tell you something. Procrastination is killing us!
Forms Of Procrastination
We may not always notice when we’re procrastinating. It’s sneaky that way.
Procrastination will sneak in as an emergency project that needs to be completed now. The tweak that needs to be made to your company’s website. Or maybe it’s you sitting down to play the latest Call of Duty instead of working.
Be aware of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Decide if what you’re doing is productive or a way to avoid doing something that matters.
The Damage Of Procrastination
The effects of procrastination will rarely show up right away. Instead, the damage is done slowly, much like termite damage in a home.
As we put things off and procrastinate, we begin to damage ourselves.
Instead of doing the valuable work, we find some other, menial task to do instead.
This slowly kills our effectiveness as a leader.
Reviews are skipped. Correction action is shoved to the side. Connections are missed.
Procrastination will erode your ability to lead.
How To Stop Procrastination In It’s Tracks
Knowing how badly procrastination can hurt your leadership, we’ve got to be ready to stop it in it’s tracks. Do you agree?
There are steps we can take to slow or even stop procrastination before it enters into our lives. If it already has, don’t worry. These steps can help you rid yourself of procrastination.
Keep a checklist of what needs to be done: Procrastination is easy. It will find any way it can to slip into your life. One of the easiest ways to kill it is to keep a list of tasks that need to be completed.
Having a visual reminder of your daily tasks and long-term goals keeps them fresh in your mind. You’re also able to see the progress you’ve made as you check them off of the list.
When possible, take action immediately: We procrastinate because we KNOW there’s time to do the work later. But what would happen if we decided that we could clear out a task immediately after receiving it? Would that help to stop you from procrastinating?
In my experience, YES!
Jumping right into the work takes away any excuses you may be able to create later. Especially if it’s an easy task to forget.
Decide if it’s something you can delegate: Sometimes we think delegation is part of procrastination. But it’s not.
Delegation allows you to assign a task to another, competent team member who may be able to act on it faster than you are able to.
This clears the plate and gets the job done. Procrastination is killed.
Question: How do you defeat procrastination in your life? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.