Procrastinate your procrastination to get more done

Are you having a hard time battling procrastination? It's really tough isn't it? Well, there's no doubt about that and you are not alone. A lot of people are going through the same thing. Procrastination is not an easy thing to overcome. There are many different ways to tackle procrastination but today I would like to focus on one with a really silly sounding name – procrastinate your procrastination. Procrastination often occurs when you have a large quantity of work to complete. The work can seem overwhelming. It is only when you get through the procrastination that you finally manage to get some meaningful work done. Some of this occurs because crisis point has arrived and you have no choice but to get the job done or face some severe consequences. However, you can procrastinate your procrastination by bringing forward many of the elements which you experience during one of these crises without actually experiencing the crisis itself. To explain further, allow me to first explain why you think clearer and more effectively during a crisis.

You procrastinate your procrastination during a crisis

Have you ever suddenly realised that the deadline for completing a task is approaching fast. A sudden sense of fear and urgency takes over. The situation turns to chaos as you suddenly have to throw all your effort and energy into one task in order to get it done on time. Then an amazing thing happens. You start to think very clearly and you become more focused than ever. All of the potential distractions that regularly take over your life are pushed to one side as you know that there is simply no time for them. With this mindset, you rapidly cut to the chase and the get the job done. Often, you will produce some of your best work and, that is an interesting point; most people tend to perform very well when they encounter chaos. You might think that I am trying to encourage you to procrastinate in order to improve the quality of your work. However, there is a major drawback with the type of chaotic situation outlined above. Your body and mind are not designed to continuously cope with this kind of pressure and, it will be continuous. Because, in order to complete that job, you will have had to procrastinate on every other task and push it back, closer to its deadline. As a result, tasks that could have been completed in a comfortable, low-pressure setting will now have to be completed under the same intense pressure. Sooner or later, you are going to struggle to cope and the pressure will turn to stress. Regardless of what others may tell you, there is no such thing as good stress. Therefore, I am not encouraging you to procrastinate your work; I am encouraging you to procrastinate your procrastination. So how do you bring that clarity of thinking and focus into your work, in a way that allows you to get your best work done without experiencing undue stress or chaos? The answer is to have an effective productivity system which allows you to capture every commitment, process it, organise it, select the appropriate task at the right time and do it. As you might imagine, that requires a lot more detail than I could possibly include in just one blog post. Instead, I just want to give you 5 simple strategies which will help you to sharpen your focus and procrastinate your procrastination.

Simple tips to procrastinate your procrastination

Here are some tips on how you can finally procrastinate your procrastination:

Capture everything

If you want to be an effective time manager and avoid procrastination, you absolutely must know exactly what you should and should not be doing. Before you can do this, you must capture everything that comes your way. Things can be captured via in-trays, voicemail, email etc but for these approaches to work, you must regularly empty and process all of the information that you collect.

When you capture everything, you are in better position to make informed decisions which allow you to always work on your most important tasks; enabling you to procrastinate your procrastination.

Defend your task list

Your task list should be both precious and protected. Too often people dump everything onto their task list. This approach makes a task list virtually unworkable. It takes too long to assess and evaluate all of the information on the task list, slowing you down. Your task list should only contain tasks which you are going to have to complete in the future. For example, none of the following should ever appear on your task list:

• Tasks which do not really need to be completed
• Items which are only for reference or future consideration
• Projects
• Items which can be completed in under 2 minutes - these should be completed as you are processing the material you have collected in your in-tray, email, voicemail etc.

Use deadlines

Deadlines can be harnessed in such a way that they could be used as a tool for enhancing productivity. Problems usually arise when people have too much time on their hands. It's easier to fall prey to procrastination without a deadline. Why? Most people would say "I've got all the time in the world, I'll do it later" but they usually end up going beyond schedule or if not, compromising the quality of the work.

As mentioned earlier, the closer you get to the deadline, the more pressure you experience. The right amount of pressure (often mistakenly called good stress) motivates you to take action and helps you to focus on the task at hand. You start to think clearer and each action that you take is more effective at leading you towards the completion of the work.

Breaking projects into smaller tasks

If you really want to beat procrastination, it helps to start thinking of tasks and projects in a new way. David Allen, the founder of GTD, provides us with new definitions:

Tasks – anything which needs to be done, which isn’t yet done, that requires one action to complete. Projects – anything which needs to be done, which isn’t yet done, that requires more than one action to complete.

When you look at a project on your task list, it can require a large number of steps to complete. You can easily work out that it is going to takes some time to complete, meaning that there is no easy win to be had. This can lead to a sense of overwhelm which then leads to procrastination.

An easy way to procrastinate your procrastination is to break your projects down into the smallest tasks. You add the project to your project list but the only thing that would appear on your task list would be the next task required to move the project forward. This means that you can take regular, small actions to move your project forward and, as you complete each small action, you experience a sense of accomplishment i.e. a quick win. With each quick win, your motivation and desire to complete the project increases.

Task presentation proves to be a turning point which allows you to procrastinate your procrastination and perform to a higher standard.

Generating accountability

When there's no accountability you can become lax, but if there's too much it builds up pressure. However, the right amount of accountability stirs up something different, something that's useful.

When you have people who are looking over what you are doing, it creates just enough pressure to motivate you to perform to your highest standard. You know that you are being held accountable and so you are prepared to procrastinate your procrastination and take consistent action because it is human nature that you want to avoid letting anybody else done. When you have somebody holding you accountable, you are more motivated for one of two reasons:

• You are effectively guilt tripped into taking action to avoid the other person seeing you in a negative light.
• You are motivated to make the best impression possible on the other person so you give everything you have to get the job done to the highest standard.

The two reasons above are the carrot and stick which lie behind almost all motivation. In many cases, you may experience both. As basic as they are, they are still highly effective forms of motivation and they will motivate you to take action. So, if you have an important job to do, find a way to include an accountability partner. It could be:

• Your boss
• A colleague
• A family member
• A friend

It really doesn’t matter as long as they are someone whose opinion matters to you and, they are the kind of person who will point out when you are falling behind.

To learn more great strategies to help you overcome procrastination, check out Stop Procrastinating.

To procrastinate your procrastination is to bring forward the motivation to take action on your most important tasks. When you are motivated to take action on your most important tasks, you are more focused, with a clearer mind. You make more effective decisions and each action you take is aimed at taking you closer to your goals. The time when you are most highly motivated to take action on your most important tasks is when you are in danger of missing the deadline. However, if you were to constantly wait for this situation to arise, you would soon be experiencing stress due to the unmanageable demands you place upon yourself. If you are experiencing this, you need to stop procrastinating your important tasks and instead, procrastinate your procrastination. When you do, you will experience the same high motivation levels accompanied by clarity and focus; enabling you to stay on top of your most important tasks and dramatically improve your performance.