Are you guilty of procrastination? If so, you’re not alone. Strategy #7 in our ongoing series about productivity tools for leaders is a tip on how to overcome procrastination.
As a leader, you’re constantly juggling many priorities, and there are always a few items on the to-do list that seem to slip from one list to the next. Usually, the procrastination is either because the task is so large that the even the thought of tackling it is overwhelming. Or it’s because the task is just something that you don’t really want to do. Either way, the end result of procrastination is that the task gets pushed further out into the future. And sometimes it simply just doesn’t get done. So the idea I want to give you today to overcome procrastination is “Go public!” Let me explain.
“Go public” to overcome procrastination
When I say “Go public”, what I mean is that you should publicize your time frame. In other words, establish a deadline and then tell others. If you announce to your colleagues that you’ll have a first draft completed by Thursday, your credibility is now at stake and you’ve just made yourself accountable for action. So tell your client that you’ll have a proposal to them by Monday afternoon. Or commit to getting a report to your boss before you leave that day. When you publicly voice a deadline, you have given yourself a powerful motivator to overcome procrastination. This approach works superbly if you have a tendency to get easily distracted. So try it. And let me know how it works! Share your success (or failure) by adding your comments below.
If you’re finding this series on productivity tools for leaders to be helpful, here are the links to previous instalments that focused specifically on making meetings more productive:
- For amazingly productive meetings, switch to “public action minutes”
- Assign three key roles in your meetings
- Use a “parking lot” to help you achieve objectives in your meetings
Or just access this whole series and others in our Video Archives.