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| | | | | Conquering Procrastination by Jan Jasper | | | Let’s take a client of mine I’ll call “Sally.” She is chronically 'a dollar short and a day late.' She introduced herself to me as a terrible procrastinator.
= Attack The Real Problem, Not the Symptom =
After working with her a short while, it was clear that she had trouble managing her time, but it was not due to a weak character on her part. There were many factors: Her boss’s ever-shifting priorities were a big energy-drain. Sally had a poor time-sense; she chronically underestimated how long things take. And a lot of her day was spent in meetings which were poorly-run. To top it off, she’s constantly interrupted – the assistant who used to screen her phone calls was let go in the last round of downsizing.
The result: Any work that takes more than a few minutes of concentrated effort keeps getting postponed. The only way Sally could get it done was to work evenings and weekends. The longer that continued, the more discouraged and tired she became. To lump all this together and call it "procrastination" is not useful at all.
So we looked at it, piece by piece. Sally couldn’t get her assistant back, but there were many other things she could do. She began asking her boss to clarify their priorities. I gave Sally a toolbox of tactics to reduce interruptions and help her plan her time better. As for the meetings, she was able to extricate herself from those where her attendance was not essential.
This broke the logjam, and Sally felt her old energy start to come back. In the next several weeks, she was able to complete a large backlog of tasks. She felt like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders. She saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and she knew it was NOT an oncoming F train.
For more free time management tips, go to http://www.janjasper.com/resources_articles.htm
While her job is still a challenge, Sally no longer feels overwhelmed on a daily basis. And her procrastination problem no longer runs her life. Now, if Sally had a viewed her procrastination as a psychological problem – or a character defect – and kept badgering herself to just stop doing it – do you think that would have helped her? Of course not. (And this is why - for complex situations like Sally's - motivational pep-talks usually help for about 4 hours.)
So if you find yourself procrastinating, stop beating yourself up and take a deeper look. Chances are, the root cause is more practical than psychological.
- Copyright Jan Jasper 2008
| | | | Article Source : Article-treasure.com | | Publication date : 10-06-2008 | | | | Article by Jan Jasper | | | | Through her company Jasper Productivity Solutions, Jan Jasper has been helping people be more productive since 1988. From Fortune 500 executives to solo professionals and entrepreneurs, Jan's workflow coaching has helped thousands of people become more productive.
She also provides customization, configuration, and coaching for Microsoft Outlook.
Jan is the author of "Take Back Your Time: How to Regain Control of Work, Information, & Technology" (St. Martin's Press).
Jan is an adjunct instructor at New York University where she teaches her course “Work Smarter, Not Harder.”
| | | | Keywords : Procrastination, time management, interruptions, workplace, stress | | | | |
