Who reading this has been, or still is, a procrastinator?
I’ll be the first to put my hands up and say for a long time I indulged in procrastination, that is until I realised that the delay wasn’t serving me or my business. When you’re passionate and moved by purpose in your business, procrastination simply isn’t a thing, and if it does enter, as soon as you observe and realise what’s happening, most times you can immediately bring yourself back on track.
Are you in the procrastination, aka delay camp? If so, come along for the ride with me, and let's squeeze out those procrastination points.
So just to be clear, what is procrastination?
Procrastination is where we put things off until the last minute or just simply delay something because it’s not urgent. Usually it comes with an attitude of casualness but it may also at times be anxiety related, as in when we are putting something off because if feels too hard or we feel inadequate to complete the task. Which ever way you look at it, where there is procrastination there is generally a lack of purpose, regardless of what is behind it.
What causes procrastination?
We've already touched briefly on some of the causes behind procrastination such as thinking small (it's all about me), having a 'casual' attitude towards work, lack of care, anxiety and or feeling incapable etc. Overwhelm could also be added to this list and often it is a hidden symptom underlying why we put things off.
Another cause I’ve observed a lot with my clients is when they aren’t clear in why they are doing what they’re doing. You could call this a loss of motivation and when there is no motivation this can easily become a procrastination sticking point.
From my own experience procrastination was very much related to making things about me and what I wanted or rather didn’t want to do, rather than taking into consideration the bigger picture and impact my work will have, not only on my business or life, but on other people and their businesses and lives also.
Making it about ourselves coupled with an ‘I'll get to it later’ attitude leaves us with a lack of purpose and dare I say lack of joy in our work. It was this realisation that led to much change in my approach to work, with purpose becoming the real antidote for the delay I was caught in.
A simple example of how I have seen procrastination play out in my own life and also amongst colleagues and clients is via deadlines.
A client needs a report by a certain date/time.
You find yourself not attending to it and or leaving it to the last minute because you’re too ‘busy’ doing other things OR too overwhelmed to even get started.
ENTER THE STOP MOMENT - Do we stop and question why we’re not attending to something that we've committed to? Or have we accepted the above as the normal and acceptable way of doing things in business and in life?
Bringing in the bigger picture at this point can support us to get on with what's needed. Understanding of course that integrity in business (meeting deadlines) has an impact on your client along with your own business reputation.
So procrastination is also a form of self-sabotage as it communicates inconsistency and lack of trust... WHAT! Now there's some inspiration to want to shift it.
Another sticking point for procrastination might be when someone doesn’t feel they have the capacity or knowhow to do something and is then caught in a pattern of behaviour because they’re afraid to make a mistake or unmotivated to learn the skills required.
In these cases it requires a certain dedication to obtain the support and skills needed to complete such a task. In some situations, the task may in truth be beyond our skill level and we may feel instead that it is true to then refer the work to another who is more qualified in this area. Each situation will need to be discerned as to what is the true response to a work request.
There is much more that can be said on the subject of procrastination, but suffice to say from my observations there appears one central theme and thus antidote as mentioned previously... and that is one of PURPOSE.
Procrastination stops us from moving forward out in the world whilst ‘Purpose’ provides us with the correct fuel to not only do our work well, but to enjoy it.
If you need support with your delay tactics in business, feel free to get in touch here.
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