19 December 2019
4 Behaviours To Eliminate Procrastination
As the famous saying of Benjamin Franklin goes “You may delay, but time will not”. Having said that, when we hear the word procrastination, most of us immediately imagine the never-ending series of prolonging tasks, missing deadlines, and then panicking at the time when the deadline is sitting right at our backs. Others might be reminded of completing their final report a night before the submission date. In both scenarios, we only bow down against procrastination once we can’t avoid it anymore.
In our lives, we struggle with deadlines and give up on our productive self against the powerful forces of procrastination. But as leaders, withdrawing from the tasks, or dodging the deadlines is not an option anymore!
Procrastination is a trap that many of us fall into. Existing literature theorise procrastination within two spheres of tasks; first being avoidance procrastination and then comes the arousal procrastination (Steel, 2010a). The framework below shows that avoidance procrastination refers to the association with fear; in simpler terms, it is a consequence of the desire to escape a task. Whereas, arousal procrastination comes into play when an individual likes working under pressure and plans to play chicken with the targets.
Procrastination Equation.
When we actually sit down to focus and get things done from our to-do list, we end up adopting the strategy of ‘Eat Dessert First’. This means that we prefer to do the easiest and simplest jobs first, which we find entertaining or interesting. This ultimately results in affecting the deadlines of the most elephant-sized projects.
But the question which comes into play is: why do we tend to avoid hard work for the tasks which are not urgent? Surprisingly, it's not only you or me in this case, as a matter of fact, but this phenomenon is common among all individuals as explained by Timothy A. Pychyl, a Ph.D. and the author of the Procrastinator’s Digest. All of us have a limbic system in our brain, which is very powerful and decides to take up easy jobs first. The prefrontal cortex of our brain, whereby the brain has control over the decisions, is partially weak as compared to the limbic system (Pychyl et al., 2000). So, when we are confronted with a choice of working on something easy or challenging, our limbic system supersedes our prefrontal cortex and the human brain yields to the task which exerts the least resistance.
With our brains working against us, below are the four behaviours, which can help us to finally cross off our delayed projects and help to keep our team on their toes during work timings.
1. Repeat after me, you have public accountability!
Being a leader, we have other people counting on us. Thus, if our brain knows that we have committed something to others responsibly, we are more likely to do the tasks because we don’t want to let other people down.
2. The worst job comes first.
In his Procrastination Equation, through the lens of motivation, Piers Steel has argued that humans have a consumable amount of willpower (Steel, 2010b). That is, when we don’t start with the worst jobs first, it is unlikely that we will do it later. Our motivation to complete the tasks decreases with the increase in delay and impulsiveness.
Motivation = Expectancy x Value / Impulsiveness x Delay
Leaders, under such circumstances, should do the tasks they struggle with first and delegate the easier ones to the team members. This way, you can also be seen as a role model, an inspiration! It can also help drive your team’s actions.
3. Five-minutes starter pack!
Thinking that the problem is not that big of a deal helps the job seem less complicated, so we are able to kick start that delayed the project.
It's like mowing a lawn. If you make up your head and think that the whole project entails two hours of continuous sweating in 93 degrees weather, your limbic system will convince you to stay indoors and watch a football match instead, while gulping down a red bull. However, if you just start the process for five minutes, there are more chances that once you see the first two rows of fresh grass, you’ll want to get the job done.
4. Remove the distractions.
Find a way to remove the obstacles that are distracting you from concentrating on a temporary basis. You can start by changing the work environment.
You can walk to your closest coffee shop or sit in an empty conference room and bring anything else other than the work you intend to do. If human brains are given no other option, they have the potential to be wildly productive!
Now you know, as a leader, why your team is full of procrastinators. If employees or your team members are avoiding tasks, it can create mayhem on planning, productivity, team performance as a whole or anything else, which is slightly dependent on systematic synchronised activities. If your team members are avoiding the work altogether there is barely any chance that any project can ever be completed. Similarly, if they are thrill-seekers, the work will be done on short-notices, which would not be as good as required. But believe it or not! If you are one of the bosses who accept the countless aggressive and elaborative versions of ‘the dog ate my homework’, you are probably one of the procrastinators yourself.
In these cases, what is a leader supposed to do? Without getting in the procrastinator's face, CONQA brings you the countless number of activities that can help you take control of your limbic system! Below are a couple of them:
You should know that there is no such thing as a perfect time – if you wait until all the things in your life are perfectly flowing before you want to start a well-focused project, you will always come up with an excuse to keep delaying it. Convince your brain that the time is now or never. We have jotted down a list of activities to keep your brain active which you can practice and adopt as a routine to keep procrastination at bay.
Ask Us for Help – Along with the activities, be a part of CONQA’s workshop which gives tips and tricks to make the challenging tasks easy and simple to get your work done! We know that procrastination is humanly, and we aim to help our fellow leaders to overcome this natural inertia!