Most of us procrastinate at something. At the office the “f-word” (filing). Or maybe it’s the “c-word” (conflict resolution). At home, it might be holiday shopping, cleaning the garage, or exercising. When you work at home, the opportunities to procrastinate expand exponentially!
Why do you procrastinate?
Do you think it’s because you’re lazy? Unorganized? Undisciplined? While that sometimes may be the case, there’s another major reason why we procrastinate: fear.
It could be fear about your ability to do the job. Fear that if you take the time to do one task, you’ll fall behind on your other work. Fear that your efforts will be criticized. Fear that once started, the job will never end!
So what can you do about fear-based procrastination?
Some of the common tips you probably already know include breaking the task into chunks, setting aside a time every day to work on the task, rewarding yourself when it’s done, etc. I bet you know these tips and yet you still procrastinate. Welcome to the club. There’s a missing ingredient and it’s called your environment.
The key to overcoming procrastination
The key to overcoming procrastination is to set up your environment to automatically ensure that certain things get done. This is a paradigm shift for most people. Your environments can be designed to make things easier for you, to automate processes – whether it be actions, mental processes, or personal habits.
Here’s an example
If you are procrastinating on the filing, set up a recurring appointment with a colleague where they arrive at your desk at a certain time each week to help you with the filing (and maybe you can reciprocate the favor!).
Another example
If you’ve been meaning to use public transit more, but just can’t get into the habit…sell your car. You’ve now set up an environment where you don’t have to make the “car or bus?” decision every day – you have no choice but to take the bus. The same principle works for watching less TV (cancel the cable) or eating more veggies (get home delivery).
What about you, what do you procrastinate on?
What fear do you think might be behind that? What could you do to address that fear? Tell me about it in the comments section below.
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