bkenosha magazine

I asked my business owner clients what their biggest time wasters were. Procrastination came out high on the list. One said,

“. . . perhaps I should say that goofing off is my biggest time waster. Mostly little things - like when I say to myself, ‘Oh my . . . look . . . all of my pencils are dull . . . can’t work with dull pencils . . . better sharpen those pencils . . . .’ And off I go to sharpen my pencils. I get back to my desk and realize that my coffee cup is almost empty. ‘Can’t work without coffee . . .’ “

Sound familiar? When some essential task needs to be done, do you find yourself sharpening pencils? Here are some ideas to help you identify why you procrastinate, and some potential solutions.

Perfectionism.
If you never get started because you don’t have time to make it perfect, this may be your problem. Does it really have to be perfect? Recognize when “good enough” is good enough. For example, I’ve found many clients spend hours worrying over the design of a mailing piece. Experts on direct marketing will tell you the creative part is responsible for only about 15% of the results. If it looks clean and professional, and has no grammatical or spelling errors, it’s good enough. Work on your mailing list and your offer . . . and just do it.

Avoiding a difficult or painful task.
Some tasks are difficult, but does putting them off solve the problem? Confronting that difficult employee may provoke an emotional discussion, but what’s the cost of not having the talk? Try this:

• Face your fear: what is the worst thing that could happen? Is it that bad? What will you do if the worst happens? What will happen if you do nothing?
• Recruit a coach - a good friend, a neutral co-worker - to discuss the problem with. Commit to a date and ask that person to hold you accountable.
• Work out how you will handle the situation. Rehearse your script with your coach.
• Reward yourself for completing a job you didn’t want to face. Chocolate for making that phone call, an hour off for writing that proposal.

Task too big, too hard
Is the job so big you can’t even imagine where you’ll get the time to do it? Don’t know where to start?

• Break insurmountable tasks down into small, more easily achievable ones. Set a goal of making a list of the small tasks that need to be done to get the big job done. Then take the easiest task and schedule a time to complete that one.
• .Is this something you just aren’t very good at? You may need to hire outside help to do it. You’ll get a more professional job and free up more of your time for the things only you can do. Is the payoff not worth the money you’ll spend? Then maybe it shouldn’t be done at all.

Boredom

• Is this task something you really hate doing? What makes you feel that way? Can you change the way you look at it and reward yourself for doing it? (If this applies to most of what you do, maybe you’re in the wrong business.)

Fatigue

Schedule tough tasks for high-energy time. Don’t promise yourself you’ll get at it after dinner - you know you won’t. I don’t do anything difficult or important after 3 PM.

Recognize how much time and energy you really have and don’t over schedule yourself. Busy does not equal productive.

Include time in your schedule for exercise and rest. Eat breakfast and don’t skip lunch. Get eight hours of sleep. Avoid high fat, high sugar celebrations - you’ll only crash later.

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George Krafcisin is President of Mosaic Management, Inc., and a business coach and trainer who helps businesses improve their management. He has worked in the consulting and insurance industries and taught college courses on technical and management topics. He is a published author and speaker. Contact him at Mosaic_Management@mac.com. For more information, see www.MosaicCoaching.biz.