Procrastination is the Thief of Progress

Sometimes when you’re trying to find work, or shift the direction of your career, it can be hard to take action.

You’ve got a list of tasks in front of you, but somehow you keep putting them off, offering up reasons for not getting things done. How do you solve this procrastination?

Well, it depends on why you’re procrastinating.

Work out what kind of Procrastinator your are

Choose an answer to the following questions to find out what’s delaying you from moving forward.

What stops you taking Action when you’re procrastinating?

A. I should update my LinkedIn profile. But I need my website finished first. I can’t that until my showreel is ready. I have too much to do that I don’t know where to start.

B. I do spend a lot of time thinking about what I need to do, when I’m going to do it, how I’m going to do it and why I need to do it. I just never actually do it.

C. Nothing I do to look for work, well, works. It’s the job market’s fault. So I’m reluctant to waste my time.

What’s your Accountability when you’re procrastinating?

A. You should see how hard I’m trying, really. When it comes together, you’re going to see why it too me so long!

B. I don’t want to get this wrong, which is why I’m delaying. I know that’s only making it worse for myself, but I can’t help it.

C. I really shouldn’t have to look for work. I’m really good at what I do. Why can’t work come to me?

How is your Attitude when you’re procrastinating?

A. I am utterly overpowered by all I want to achieve.

B. I feel guilty that I’m doing nothing.

C. I’m irritated that I have to experience this.

Mostly A. You’re a Plate-Spinning Procrastinator

You’ve got no end of great ideas. They pop into your head all the time. And when you look at other people’s websites and showreels, you get even more ideas.

The trouble is, that means there’s lots to do. And so often one task relies on another, which is tied up with completing another. And while you’re trying to do each one you get distracted by a new shiny idea…

Your work around 

Your focus should be on structuring your list of tasks and working out what you need to complete them. Write down an entire list of the things you need to do.

Identify two things:

1) Which jobs will be done quickly?

Once you’re identified these, rattle some of them off and get them off our list, even if they seem unimportant. You’ll feel better that you’ve done something, and your list is instantly shorter. This will make it easier to look at the other things on your list.

2) Which jobs will have the most impact on your goals?

These are the ones to concentrate next. You need to see change happening, and if you get some big impact tasks done, you’ll start to see things changing in your world, which will encourage you to do more.

Mostly B. You’re an Inactive Action Taker

There are lots of causes for this inactivity. It might be you think the task will be too hard. Or you’ll get it wrong. You might have struggled to do it last time. Or you’ve never done it. And you want to do it just right. You are nervous about how you’ll be judged for it. The answer is to wait for the perfect time, when the stars align and suddenly the job will almost do itself.

The trouble is twofold. First, that perfect time will never happen. No matter how favourable the circumstances, there will always be something that stops you. The second is that you’re setting the bar too high, when often there’s no bar at all. People aren’t as critical as you think. And they won’t see all the mistakes and errors that you see – they’ll be looking at how good something is.

Your work around

If you have a job that’s waiting for the perfect moment, set an amount of time to start it. Not to finish the job, but to work on it. I find the Pomodoro Technique really good for this.

It’s about setting a timer, and working for 25 mins, then taking a break. After a 5 minute, you start again. And repeat. I am always amazed when I set off the timers, how much I get done. And you HAVE to take the break after 25 mins. It seems totally counter-intuitive when you’re in the middle of something to interrupt your concentration to take a break. But if the break is only 5 mins, you’ll find you get back into the task with an even greater focus.

So when you begin a task, decide how many tomato segments you want to allocate to it today, and stick to it.

Here’s the Pomodoro Book which goes into more detail.

Mostly C. You’re a Burdened Procrastinator

You’re totally able to do all these things you begrudgingly know you have to do. You don’t think they’re a great use of your time. Or even though you know you need to do them, your feel they are beneath you.

Your work around

Remember the ‘eat a frog’ technique. I’m going to quote Brain Tracy, who mis-attributed a quote to Mark Twain in his book Eat That Frog!:

Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.

While Twain never said this (learn the origin here), it is a great principle, especially for burdened procrastinators. Get one of the jobs you least want to do done first. Which is the one you feel is most pointless? What is the hardest? Which do find most boring? Just get it out the way first, leaving you with a list with more interesting tasks.