Chapter 16

Overcoming Procrastination

Much of my work today — writing, developing far-reaching sales programs for clients, and putting together and presenting training workshops — involves long-term, complex, multi-staged projects that require great investments of research, development, and time. And with business booming, I can't afford to get behind.

And I don't have to — not when I can conquer those tendencies to put things off. In this chapter, I show you what procrastination is and how to recognize it. Not all procrastination is bad, however, so I help you see the difference between good reasons to postpone action and mere excuses to put something off.

But most importantly, I provide tools and tactics to help you overcome that debilitating paralysis that keeps you from getting started or the attacks that slow you down or stop you mid-project. One of the most important principles in overcoming procrastination is to take the first step — so go ahead and get started.

Staring Down the Source: How Procrastination Takes Hold

Although many people believe that they postpone the unpleasant when they indulge in procrastination, fact is, putting things off carries a lot of emotional unpleasantness. Boiled down to its purest form, procrastination is simply deferring or delaying action. But of course, it's not nearly that simple. Understanding what provokes procrastination and how it affects you is the first step in overcoming the impulses that keep you from moving forward.

Recognizing procrastination isn't always easy, especially when your time of reckoning is a few weeks or months away. You may simply believe you're waiting until the right time to get started. Here are some indications that you may be putting off what you shouldn't.

Calling on short-sighted logic: “I have plenty of time”

It's easy to justify the idea that you don't have to start on a project when its completion date isn't for some time. Perhaps your tax returns don't have to be submitted until April 15, and it's the middle of January. True, you still have time, so you don't need to put “file taxes” at the top of your priority list at this point. But you should pull your documents together at least 30 days before the deadline. If you use an accountant, you may need even more time to have meetings and research a few deductions to get the proper documentation. Procrastinators, on the other hand, tend to cling to this logic way past the point of manageability. Frequently the procrastinator who says “later” in January is scrambling to get in the extension form at 11 p.m. on April 14.

Avoiding the unpleasant: “I don't want to think about it now”

If you just discovered that you hold the winning lottery ticket, you wouldn't delay calling in for your reward. Who feels conflicted about winning money? But putting off tasks that are unpleasant, that are difficult to accomplish, or that you feel conflicted about is human nature. Consider these examples:

When someone faces a situation that requires confrontation with others, the tendency is also to procrastinate. Most humans — talk show hosts excluded — seem hard-wired to avoid disagreements with others. Sometimes, however, what may have been a small confrontation turns into a major confrontation because it builds over time. Say, for instance, Boy meets Girl. Boy and Girl go out. Boy decides he wants to go out with someone else. Boy keeps putting off “the talk” with Girl because he knows it'll be uncomfortable. But every time Boy postpones until the next date, he has a miserable time with Girl and adds even more guilt and discomfort.

Or take the case of delaying a disciplinary action with an employee. When you avoid that conversation, the employee's behavior may continue or become even worse. In some cases, it can lead to cause for dismissal. But most companies require that certain steps be taken to resolve issues before termination, and documenting disciplinary actions is one of those steps. Because you haven't followed the process, you're in the middle of an unavoidable and ugly conflict that you can't quickly resolve.

Triggering your fears: “What if I screw up? And what if I don't?”

Sometimes putting something off stems from more than poor planning or overcommitment. Many procrastinators are unsure of themselves and their abilities. They wait until the last minute to complete projects because that way, if their work isn't well received, they can tell themselves it was because they didn't have enough time to finish the project to their satisfaction.

I know of one woman who was thrilled to have finally gotten her first book deal with a well-known publisher. She had a reasonable schedule for a nonfiction title — six months — but three months passed and she hadn't produced more than the book's introduction. After some soul-searching, she recognized that she was delaying her work because she feared that if the book were published and no one bought it or she got a bad review, that would mean she'd failed.

You can just as easily procrastinate because of fear of success as fear of failure. Fearing success and how it may change your relationships and friends is real. Many people don't reach outside their comfort zones because of what their parents, siblings, and Uncle Ned will say. In some circles, becoming too successful may cause you to leave some people behind.

Success also can affect your spouse or significant other. I have a sister-in-law who feels that all wealthy people did something wrong or unethical to acquire their wealth. Being vocal about views like this can make family events uncomfortable.

Paralyzed by perfection: “I'll wait till the time is right”

Sure, you want to do the best job you can. But procrastinators often use their quest for perfection as an excuse to delay. As a close cousin to fear of failure (see the preceding section), the desire for perfection can paralyze you. If you spend too much time checking facts, trying to select the perfect words or phrases, or rewriting a paragraph numerous times, you're probably doing so at the expense of other more important things. Frequently, procrastinators try to avoid and delay challenges, like projects that are mentally taxing or big-picture tasks. They rationalize that they're not in the right frame of mind, are too distracted to give it their best, or are waiting for inspiration to strike. The danger here, of course, is that by procrastinating, you push yourself into a corner and, without adequate time, do a job that's far less than perfect.

A bit of perspective may lead you to the root of the problem, because procrastination is often a symptom of something that's troubling you on a subconscious level. Perhaps consider why you feel the need for things to be perfect. Have you always felt the need for perfection, even as a child? Could you have learned this behavior from circumstances in your childhood? Is your current or previous boss a perfectionist?

I'm not saying you shouldn't try to do an outstanding job. You should absolutely strive to make every task and project a masterpiece — whatever it is. But be careful not to use it as an excuse to postpone taking that first step. Doing your best with the resources you have is truly the goal in life. Use your time, skills, mental capabilities, and actions to help you avoid being paralyzed by perfection. Also, keeping the 80/20 rule in mind can help you move on to the next project or goal (turn to Chapter 5 for more on the 80/20 rule).

Sabotaging at mid-process: “I've earned a break”

Although most people are stricken by procrastination before they take their initial steps, the urge to put off completing a project occurs frequently, too. The more complex and lengthy the task, the greater the odds are of losing momentum, getting distracted, and giving up before you reach the end.

I admit that my procrastinitis hits me mid-project. Starting something new revs me up. I love launching a training course or working on a new project with a client, and I tend to dive in with enthusiasm. That's always why writing the first half of a book is significantly easier than the last half.

For information on how you can keep moving forward, see the later sections “Motivating yourself with the carrot-or-stick approach” and “Maintaining Your Motivation as You Press Ahead.”

Looking for thrills: “I work best under pressure”

Many people who claim to work best under pressure are merely procrastinators in disguise. The first thing to do is to figure out whether you really work well under the pressure of tight deadlines. Noted behavioral expert William Marston, who is credited with the creation of the DISC (Dominance, Inducement, Submission, Compliance) behavioral system and assessments, indicates that only one of the four behavioral systems thrives on pressure and deadlines. I know through studying Marston's work and personal experience that most high-dominant behavioral style individuals do work best under pressure. The truth is from Marston's research and others, high-dominants are only 18 percent of the population, so the chance you fit that category is about 1 in 5.

You can get a rush from working in a state of high productivity and hitting the deadline. You feel a sense of accomplishment in knowing that most of your colleagues couldn't have pulled it off. The problem with forcing yourself into those situations is that once in a while, you get burned by not hitting the deadline or by crashing as soon as you cross the finish line.

If you are curious as to your behavioral system and how it can influence you time-management systems and strategies, we have a free DISC assessment that you can take to create greater awareness. You can go to www.saleschampions.com/freedisc and take a less-than-10-minutes series of questions. You will also receive results, tips, and strategies to be more effective.

My best advice is to do some of the planning for your projects when you get them. Invest the time in planning out the steps even if you don't have the time to complete them. One of the benefits is that you'll be sure of the time, resources, materials, and help you'll need to pull off your project. This planning enables you to accurately gauge what you need so you get fewer surprises when you put your whole effort in motion.

And if you still feel you need more deadline-driven excitement in your job, perhaps your boss will reward you with more responsibility — and a raise to go with it.

Knowing Whether to Put It Off

Postponing action isn't productive when it holds you back, costs you time and money, and results in a negative outcome. But sometimes, putting something off is the best course of action. The challenge is knowing when it's right to procrastinate. This section helps you sort that out.

Poor procrastination: Considering the costs

With procrastination, the bottom-line loss of time, money, and productivity is enormous — enormous to you, to your company, to your country, and to the world. A global tally of the cost of procrastination is more than a little overwhelming to take in, but the negative impact is clear in closer-to-home examples, too. Here's what poor procrastination costs you:

Wise procrastination: Knowing when to hold ‘em

The secret to successful procrastination is to do it deliberately, based on the time that you have and the status of the tasks. Take a look at what's on your plate and choose the tasks that are least time-sensitive and least at-risk, and then postpone them for a bit. In other words, allow yourself to procrastinate — but give yourself a deadline by which to complete those tasks. This section covers tasks you can afford to — and probably should — procrastinate on.

When haste could cause harm

Many tasks or decisions that require action are critical and must be accomplished in a timely manner. But when making the right decision is important, opt for procrastination if haste could result in a damaging outcome. When you feel pressured to make a choice or are forced to take an action you're uncertain of, in most cases, putting it off until you're clear-headed and can think through your decision is a good use of procrastination.

Here's an example: The salesperson offers you a hefty discount on those super-insulating windows — but it's only good at the time of the offer. Defer until tomorrow, and the price goes back up by 20 percent. You're torn. The salesperson assures you that the company is highly rated and the product is the best quality. You know you need new windows, but you hadn't planned to buy them until the salesperson knocked on your door.

In this case, your instinct to hold off is a good one. The windows and the deal are probably legitimate. But you haven't had a chance to investigate this opportunity as carefully as you should to ensure that you make a wise move. Trust me: This is probably not your last opportunity to buy those windows at a special price.

When the timing isn't right

Sometimes, the key to success is timing. You may have an important objective on your to-do list: It may be something that's critical in helping you achieve your goals. But your instinct to put on the brakes may be because the timing isn't right — the time and energy you'd put out is far greater than what you'd get in return.

Maybe you delay putting your house on the market — it's a bad time to sell, so why invest the time and energy when the likelihood of selling at the price you need to is minimal? Or perhaps you need to put in some time in the evening to prepare for a meeting in the morning. But the baby is sick, and even if you ignore his distress or leave your spouse to handle it, you're distracted and worried.

The point is that you can't possibly be as productive or accomplish as much when the timing isn't right. You may end up investing a lot more time and energy — and not get the return you hoped for. So do the best that you can; you need to invest the time necessary so that you're prepared enough for the meeting but also give the necessary assistance to your family. Learn to recognize those times that you're swimming against the current, and then stop and re-evaluate your priorities and change direction if needed.

When the task isn't critical

You're loaded down with projects and commitments, all of them important and none of them offloadable. Heck, you're not procrastinating — you're drowning. In situations like this, procrastinating can be a survival strategy. You just need to decide which items to put off.

If you have to put off doing something because of time limitations, make it one of the routine day-to-day tasks. These are the low-value, low-reward actions that produce limited results, something you can most likely delegate to someone else. Be cautious about postponing the growth and big-picture aspects: Even though they tend to be more long-term in scope, if you don't stay on top of these issues, the consequences can be significant.

You can put off less-important to-do items in your personal life, too. For instance, say you have to accomplish the following tasks: Do your taxes by next week, finish an important presentation for work in a week-and-a-half, paint the guest room before your in-laws come next week, and talk with your travel agent about your trip to Bali this summer. You may choose to put off painting the guest room because it's not critical to your in-laws’ visit (they'll be just as happy with smoky-blue walls as moss-green ones). Or you can postpone the meeting with the travel agent because you have more time to accomplish that than you have for the taxes and the presentation.

Laying the Groundwork: Altering Your Mindset and Instituting Discipline

Everyone has three weapons in the arsenal for fighting procrastination. Call upon these formidable forces, unleash their power, and reclaim control of your time:

The following sections name a few alternate routes to keep you on track so you arrive at your destination — on time.

Motivating yourself with the carrot-or-stick approach

The nature of human beings is to move away from pain and toward pleasure. In setting up a prioritization plan, you can use the carrot-or-stick approach to drive yourself toward accomplishment. When you feel the urge to procrastinate, maybe what you need is a carrot dangling in front of your face — an incentive to keep pressing on. Hey, it worked when you were a kid: “If you clean your room now, you can stay up tonight and watch monster movies.” On the other hand, some folks respond better to reminders of consequences — the threat of the stick. For them, the promise of a reward gets no reaction, but avoiding negative consequences scares them into action.

Here's an example: You hate working out — it means you have to get up earlier to get to the gym, work up a sweat when you could be getting another hour of sleep or enjoying a latte and the newspaper. But keep in mind the end result of your choice: the awful feeling of being overweight or out of shape, ill-fitting clothing, high blood pressure, and low stamina. On the flip side is the pleasure of a fit physique; boundless energy; and a stab at a longer, healthier life.

A work-life example is the salesperson who drives herself to put in two hours of prospecting calls each day (instead of just one) by reminding herself that a higher commission check, management recognition, and a grander family vacation are the rewards for the effort. If she neglects this effort, consequences await her: a poor performance evaluation, lower income, more effort to make up for sales shortfall, and perhaps even termination.

Seeking reward

If anticipating the pleasurable consequences of tackling an action you don't really enjoy motivates you to perform it, then focus on those positives. And if rewards help, shower yourself with them. If the vision of a latte and your favorite scone gives you the get-up-and-go to take care of your task, go for it (after you finish the job, of course!). Or if a vacation moves you toward finishing an onerous freelance project, set a date for when you'll book the trip, and follow through when you wrap up the project.

Whenever motivation lags, pause to remind yourself of your incentive upon achieving success. Consider tacking up an enticing photo near your most tempting place of hesitation. The photo can be any number of things: A place you want to go, a person you want to spend time with, someone with qualities you'd like to attain, and so on. If your reward for a freelance writing project is a Caribbean vacation, for example, tack up a photo of a tropical setting or beach along a sparkling blue ocean right by your computer.

Avoiding consequences

If you're more leery of the results of neglect than excited about a reward upon completion, ask yourself about the consequences you'll face if you fail to complete certain steps toward your goal, and remind yourself of them as often as you need to.

If you find that consequences are your surest motivators, make sure you focus on the immediate ones. Unfortunately, when consequences are delayed, the human response is to delay positive action. Skipping your workout today won't give you a heart attack tomorrow — so why not sleep in a little longer? Putting off your prospecting calls today won't reduce your paycheck this week. Because skipping these steps toward your ultimate goal doesn't immediately produce pain, it's easy to (wrongly) convince yourself that there are no consequences.

You can set up new, unpleasant consequences if you have trouble focusing on the long term. Several years ago, two of my clients struggled with procrastination. They'd fill out every last page of paperwork, sharpen their pencils, and arrange their paper clips before they'd begin their important work. Striving to be recognized as employee-of-the-month didn't motivate them, so I tried something a little unorthodox: I had each of them write a $500 check and send it to me. One client made the check out to a political party that he absolutely abhorred and would never contribute to; the other salesperson made out the check to a competitor. If they didn't break through their procrastination, I'd have permission to address and mail those checks. As expected, I never sent those checks. Their desire to avoid violating their political beliefs or giving money to their biggest competitor ensured their daily move through the valley of procrastination. If you opt for this plan, you can have a boss, friend, or even your spouse hold the money.

Recognizing excuses and shoving them aside

Procrastination is definitely in your control, but some influences in your life certainly seem to affect your inclination to procrastinate. And when that happens, the tendency is to make excuses, to blame someone or something else.

Resisting peer pressure

It's a fact of life: Co-workers, friends, acquaintances, and family all seem to conspire to tempt you away from what you should be doing. But on some level, when you want to avoid an obligation, you're looking for those opportunities to postpone, and it's great to have someone else or some situation to blame.

Say, for example, that your friend tries to talk you into taking the day off to go to the beach. You have a big presentation coming up the next week and you need every minute to prepare beforehand. But it's a painfully tedious process, you're dreading the presentation, and the last thing you want to be doing is writing yourself a speech. Sounds like a great opportunity to procrastinate. But here's where discipline comes in.

When another person encourages you to forsake your work, before you submit to the pressure, acknowledge that you're likely using this person as an excuse. Then remind yourself what you need to do to meet your priorities now. Here's the real question: Is taking time off with your friend bringing you closer to or further away from your goals?

Seeing whether outside forces really do prevent work

Sometimes, you may feel like you're forced to procrastinate due to some external factor beyond your control — weather, traffic jam, power failure. Trust me — I know the feeling.

Recently, I was working on a chapter of this book at home. The weather was beautiful and I longed to join my family outside. Suddenly, the power went out. Although my laptop was still working fine, I didn't have access to the Internet, which I needed for some fact-checking. What a perfect excuse to stop work and call it a day! Okay, fact is, I didn't need Internet access to continue working on my chapter. I knew I could make good progress, even if I couldn't tie everything up. I just wanted a reason to justify putting off the chapter until later.

In situations like this one, step back and assess the situation. Ask yourself the following:

In my case, I had to confess that I could indeed continue to work on my chapter — and that I really did want to finish it that day. Although the quality of my work wouldn't be affected, I wouldn't be able to finish the chapter without online confirmation of a few things. I also knew that rain was in the forecast for the next day. So I determined to make myself forge ahead, writing as much as I could for another hour. Then I planned a break to get together the fixings for a family cookout, followed by another hour of work before I fired up the grill.

Granted, in certain situations, you have no choice but to put off your task. If you're poised to cut the grass and a sudden downpour soaks the lawn, you have to postpone the chore. But be sure that you're not manipulating the situation so that you have an honorable excuse to do what you wanted to do, anyway.

You have some options when you really can't make progress on the task at hand:

Give me a break: Putting off procrastination

Sounds counterintuitive, I know, but sometimes putting off procrastination is the proverbial hair of the dog that bit you. That is, a little planned procrastination can solve a larger procrastination problem. As soon as you become aware that you're procrastinating, don't beat yourself up; instead, allow yourself to procrastinate — but just not yet.

Here's how it works: Identify the ways you're likely to put off working on your project. Then, instead of fighting a losing battle with your willpower, tell yourself it's okay to do those activities — after you put in a set amount of work on your project.

Suppose you're trying to get a good head start on a paper for a class, but you've been putting it off for almost anything else that comes along: a lunch date, a shopping errand, even a TV show. You can plan to run that errand — after you spend a half hour getting your notes in order and reviewing your outline. Chances are, by the time you look up at the clock, you'll have spent an hour or longer and have made a lot more progress than you anticipated. You may decide to keep on working, now that you're engrossed in the task. But even if you do break at this point, you'll have gotten more done than had you simply quit earlier. The psychological edge is likely to help motivate you to make even further progress.

When postponing your procrastination, give yourself fairly short time commitments. Tell yourself you'll just spend a half hour or an hour on the project before you allow yourself a break. This is more likely to keep you on task than if you commit yourself to three hours of work. With that time commitment, you may end up procrastinating on your procrastination of procrastinating — uh, I think.

Conquering Dreaded Tasks with Sandwich Tactics

Sometimes what's on your plate seems so big that you can't sink your teeth into any of it. In these cases, taking things apart may be the best way to make progress, stay on track, and put away that project. Here's the breakdown.

The eat-the-crust-first approach: Starting with the tough job

One extremely successful technique to move beyond procrastination is to tackle the toughest job first. Or if you're working on a single, big task, take on the most difficult aspect of it before the rest.

I advise coordinating this tough-stuff-first effort so that you start it first thing in the morning, a time when most people are at their peak in terms of energy, intensity, and focus. If you conquer the most difficult task first, your day will be a lot more productive.

To ratchet up your results further, start the prep work for the toughest tasks the night before. In Chapter 5, I share how you can set the stage and make quick work of even your most challenging projects. When you prepare well for your effort, you won't spend 30 minutes just getting ready to go.

If you get stuck on the big task, you can regain momentum with the salami approach or Swiss-cheese approach, which I outline next.

The Swiss-cheese approach: Poking little holes in the task

When biting into a major or complicated task seems overwhelming, start with the easier pieces — the aspects that you know you can complete quickly and with little effort. In this way, you poke holes in the project, making lighter work of the steps that remain after you polish off the manageable aspects.

For example, suppose you're facing your kitchen after a dinner party: dishes piled to the tops of the cupboards, leftovers cooling in their serving dishes, the sink clogged with kitchen scraps, and the roaster pan caked with burned food and tenacious grease. The job is more than you can fathom at midnight. You're tempted to turn around, go to bed, and hope the kitchen fairies come in the night to transform your kitchen into its former spotless self.

Or you can tell yourself you'll do one simple thing before you turn out the lights: maybe put away all the food and scrape the scraps into the compost bin or garbage disposal. And then when you make short work of that, you tell yourself that filling up the dishwasher with at least one load won't take that long. When that's done, you decide you can at least rinse and stack the other dishes. By the time you poke these holes into the project, not too much is left. Even if you give up at this point, the task that awaits you in the morning isn't nearly so formidable.

The salami approach: Finishing it one slice at a time

The salami approach is a great tactic for those long-term projects in which the deadline seems so far away that you convince yourself you don't need to start yet. So you don't resort to cramming at the eleventh hour, take the time immediately to cut up the project into bite-sized pieces. These slices should be small enough that you can schedule them day-by-day or at least week-by-week.

The number of ways you can slice and dice a large task are many, but here's one option for breaking it down:

1. Set time aside to plan the project completely so you can begin working on it and cut it down to size.
2. Create an action order of what needs to be done and when.

   Creating a time line helps you segment the task into pieces.

3. Figure out what materials you need for the task.

   Collect all the materials and make them ready and available.

When I begin my book projects, the publisher gives me a certain amount of time, usually several months, to complete the manuscript. I know from experience that I can't look at the project as a single huge step; it's too daunting. So I break it up. For example, if I have six months to write the book and it's 24 chapters long, I break down the project into chapter slices. So instead of “write book in six months,” it's “write chapter this week.” Or it may be “write ten pages a day this week” or some other breakdown that's meaningful to me.

The discard-the-garnish approach: Getting it off your plate

Often when you order an entree at a restaurant, the dish may include some sprigs of parsley or an orange slice in addition to a side or two and a drizzle of some fancy sauce. It makes for a pretty presentation, and it's edible, too. But unless you're really hungry, those items are often still on your plate when the bus person clears off the table.

Just as with a restaurant meal, you probably have a few commitments on your plate that aren't really a key part of your responsibilities. Take a look at your schedule and see whether some of these tasks are mere garnishes. You then have choices:

Maintaining Your Motivation as You Press Ahead

Everyone has struggled with procrastination, and many still do. I have yet to meet a person who doesn't battle with the temptations of putting off those obligations that seem too big, too hard, or just plain no fun. Recognizing your tendencies is the first step toward recovery. By following the strategies I outline in this chapter, you can make remarkable progress in overcoming the procrastination.

Staying on the right course, however, is a never-ending vigil. Use these maintenance tactics to do so: