Do you believe you work better under pressure, with a looming deadline? The reality is procrastination harms performance. You’re much more likely to make mistakes and produce poor quality work. Plus scrambling around trying to complete projects at the last minute or cramming the night before for a big exam is definitely not the most efficient and enjoyable way to get things done. If you’re still not convinced, conduct an experiment. Take two similar tasks: postpone working on one task until the last possible minute; pace yourself on the other one. Then, compare the two experiences and results.
If this is an excuse you use because you simply can’t get started on a task until you feel the pressure of a looming deadline, then start creating some artificial pressure for yourself. For example, set a timer and tell yourself you have 30 minutes to do X e.g. write the first paragraph of a report. Another method you can try is to get an accountability partner or a coach to whom you have to “hand in” regular updates of your work.
Do you put off getting started on important tasks until you’re “in the mood” or until inspiration strikes? Telling yourself that you’re waiting for inspiration to strike is procrastination in disguise. Instead of waiting for the ideas to start flowing before you get started on a task, you need to sit down and get to work with or without inspiration. You’ll find that inspiration is a byproduct of having the discipline to do what needs to be done; inspiration comes from doing.
Stop wasting time waiting for inspiration. As Picasso once said, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”
Whilst having large chunks of time to focus on larger tasks and projects is obviously ideal, it isn’t how life goes. Things come up and often quite suddenly; you’ve got lots of tasks and responsibilities pulling you in many directions and sometimes all you’ll have is 30 minutes. But when your habitual response is to push aside a task because you’ve got limited time, and you do that the following day, and the next, and the next, you never get started. Imagine if you did 30 minutes every day for 5 days, how far would you get then?
Instead, you should apply the “Swiss Cheese Approach”. This is a method that was introduced by Alan Lakein in his book, “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life”. Of course, Swiss cheese is easily recognizable because it’s full of holes. According to Lakein, “the underlying assumption of the Swiss cheese approach is that it is indeed possible to get something started in five minutes or less. And once you’ve started, you’ve given yourself the opportunity to keep going.”
In a nutshell, the Swiss Cheese Approach consists of the following:
This approach works because:
So next time you have only 15 or 20 minutes to work on projects, instead of telling yourself that you’re better off waiting until you hae more time to work, ask yourself the following questions:
We all have the tendency to think that things will be different in the future, even if the future is just tomorrow. In the future we’ll have more time, we’ll be better organised, we’ll have more impulse control, we’ll be better rested and have more energy, and we’ll be better equipped to get things done. Therefore, we keep handing our present-day responsibilities over to this superhero future self.
The reality is though things aren’t necessarily going to be better tomorrow
Unless you take steps to become more organised today, you’ll be just as disorganised tomorrow as you are today.
So don’t keep putting off what can be done today. Tomorrow is not guaranteed and today is what’s in your hands so use it.
