Overcome procrastination

  Procrastination is illustrated in the following case study.

Case study: Jenny

  Jenny hated doing the job of ironing clothes. She knew that it had to be done but she found it boring and there were so many other things in life that were much more enjoyable and interesting. Her typical response when faced with a pile of clothes to iron was ‘I’ll do it later’ and usually she did catch up with it at some point later on. However, when Jenny got married and started a family, not only did she have less time but also she had more clothes to iron. Her partner worked long hours and there was no one else to help her, so she continued to put the task of ironing off until ‘later’. The pile of ironing began to accumulate, so she put it out of sight in the utility room. When the utility room was full, she began to hide it in the airing cupboard. Her family started to wonder where all their clothes had gone. Eventually it all became overwhelming for Jenny and she did not know where or how to begin tackling the massive pile of ironing.

What can we learn from the case study of Jenny?

  The case of Jenny illustrates the behaviour of procrastination. It is putting things off until later what we could or should be doing right now. In order to break the pattern of procrastination, you must first be able to recognize when you are doing it. This is not always as easy as one might think because there are numerous subtle avoidance behaviours that people can use. In the work setting, for example, they may focus on non-essential and unimportant tasks on their ‘to do’ list, rather than those which really need dealing with. They may sit down to start a high priority task but then decide to have a quick cup of coffee, check their emails, or sort out a filing cabinet before getting started. Alternatively, they may decide to go for a wander around the office and end up engaged in conversation with someone. So, be honest to yourself and admit it when you are doing this, and then ask yourself why.

Feeling overwhelmed by a task is probably the most common cause of procrastination but there are other reasons why people display this behaviour. Sometimes they are perfectionists and will not begin a task until they are certain that they have the time, all the right equipment or full information to be able to complete the whole task in one go, to the high standards dictated by their perfectionism. Others may have a fear of failure and procrastination is a ‘failure avoidance’ strategy, in that if they do not start the task they cannot fail at it. Others may actually lack the organizational or decision making skills to manage the task, or simply dislike doing it. However, while it may be helpful to understand why a person might be putting a task off, the most important thing is to identify and break this maladaptive pattern of behaviour and replace it with a healthier one. Whatever the reason, if you are unable to delegate the task to anyone else, you need to find a way of motivating yourself to tackle the task. The following interventions are a few ways of doing this.

1  If a big task seems overwhelming, it can be broken down into several smaller more manageable chunks and each one tackled in turn.

2  Build in a reward to motivate yourself, such as giving yourself a treat when you have completed a piece of work. This could, for example, be giving yourself a treat at lunchtime if you have been successful. This will give you something to look forward to.

3  Ask one of your peers to check up on you intermittently and encourage you to continue to complete the task.

4  Identify the negative consequences of not completing the task. This may be particularly relevant in the work setting where you are expected to complete tasks as a matter of routine.

5  If at all possible ‘do it now’ rather than putting it off. Set yourself a start time rather than focusing on the completion time.

6  If you cannot do it immediately, operate a ‘bring forward’ system in your diary to ensure that you pick it up again at a later time and complete it by the deadline.

7  Challenge unhelpful attitudes leading to procrastination such as perfectionism and failure avoidance. Experiment with being average rather than always trying to be perfect and learn to accept that everyone makes mistakes from time to time.

8  If you identify that you lack organizational or decision making skills, explore the opportunities for pursuing a training course to learn these skills.

  In the case study of Jenny, she was encouraged to break the task of catching up with the backlog of ironing into manageable chunks. She allocated half an hour each day to doing ironing and over a period of a few weeks was able to catch up with it. She did not criticize herself and gave herself a small treat each day after she had successfully completed the task. Although this was a domestic non-work related task, the same principles can equally be applied to the workplace.