“Procrastination is the thief of time”
Posted on October 30, 2018 by Frank Perry, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
Procrastination is defined as the act or habit putting off or delaying something that requires immediate attention.
When I ask business’ owners/ managers or senior executives what it takes to succeed in business, they can readily tell me what to do. Most people know what to do, they know how to do it, they can do it, and they have the power to do it. But they do not do it and the reason is procrastination
Procrastination is defined as the act or habit putting off or delaying something that requires immediate attention or avoidance of carrying out a task that needs to be accomplished. It could be further described as a delay of finishing work despite its negative consequences. It is a common human experience involving delay in everyday chores or even putting off tasks such as attending an appointment, submitting a job report , or broaching a stressful issue with a partner.
The effects of procrastination not only cause stress for business owners, it can also negatively impact on the business itself.
Some of the typical circumstances that cause procrastination amongst business owners include:
• The project feels overwhelming
Some projects may be so big and potentially time-consuming that it causes you to put off doing them.
Examples of this include business planning, which is not necessarily urgent but is certainly important for the business
• The work seems too complex
Some work might be put off because you don’t really know how to do it and it seems beyond your capability.
• The asssignment is boring/not interesting
Accounts and book-keeping may fall into this category for some business owners. If you don’t keep your eye on your finances problems can quickly escalate and put your business at risk
The root causes of much procrastinating are:
• Fear of failure
• Fear of rejection
• Fear of being different
• Fear of success
The three kinds of Procrastinators
1. The self-deceiver: “I will definitely do this next Tuesday morning” – but Tuesday comes and goes with the task not attempted.
2. The vacillator (mind-waverer) who can’t decide whether to proceed or not and so gets into a rhythm of personal postponement.
3. The temporizer who is vaguely hopeful that time will work it out.
There are 4 reasons for procrastination.
1. Wrong goals: People choose the wrong goals. They set goals that are inconsistent with their inherent beliefs and understandings.
2. Unclear focus: The procrastinator also has an unclear focus. They’re unclear about what it is they want to create, have, be or do.
3. Action plan: They do not have a short, medium or long term action plan.
4. Mental barriers: Mental barriers are fear, doubt, worry, concern, lack of confidence
Of course, we all have a tendency to procrastinate, the occasional procrastination is part of life and we should not berate ourselves for such human lapses. Chronic procrastination, where the pattern is persistent and consistent is another matter and becomes stress in itself.
However procrastination is a habit that you can choose to change.
You can stop procrastinating by setting the right goals, having a clear focus and setting up an action plan to accomplish those goals and overcoming mental barriers.
