How Procrastination is Worst Than You Think

steemitph (64)in #philippines • 6 years ago (edited)

I am a not an expert in many things, but I am a self-proclaimed authority in procrastination. One example I will never forget is when I was tasked to ensure we get an operational manual out for a prospective Australian business my organization has placed a bid on. I knew about the absolute deadline a couple of months in advance, and because I knew I was bound to procrastinate (like always), I built a simple Gantt chart setting my personal deadline fifteen days in advance of the absolute deadline. This meant I have more or less a month and a half to complete the work, which by the way I did not have to do all by myself. I could have delegated some of the work to my team.

A couple of weeks passed and I haven't completed anything but the Gantt chart, at that point I was meant to be done with at least a third of the work required. Then 30 days passed and guess how much progress I've made? Zero! At this point I needed to give an update to the bigger project team about my task, but I am not one to get embarrassed very easily while I often deserved to be. Aside from being an authority in procrastination, I am also quite good at another important skill; creative bullshit. This is one of those times when I had to be extra-creative with my bullshit to wing it, and that I often do very timely.

In the end, I had to work an entire weekend to put together a 90 page document because the absolute deadline (not my personal Gantt chart deadline) was the following Monday. We ended up getting the business for five years, I received tons of praises for my work, my manual was shared across the organization and became a standard offering for all future business development effort, I was given a promotion, and I absolutely felt like crap. I could have done better, way better have I stuck with my plan instead of procrastinating. I felt I did not deserve half of the acknowledgement I got because of my half-assed work.

My story above is one of the best case scenarios of procrastination. It involves a realization that one could have done much better if he/she stuck with the project timeline. The worst case is when one feels strongly about deserving of all the rewards, thinking he/she can always just wing it, leading to continued justified feeling towards procrastination until getting hit by a big one.

What's at Stake is Often Bigger Than You Realize

For the above story, the risk was a not getting a multimillion Dollar, multi-year contract, losing the opportunity to create 500++ jobs, and blowing an entry to the Australian market, which later on made it easier for my organization to get two other sizable businesses. Here you would think the stakes are too valuable and I was such an idiot, but it turns out procrastinators know not to value those that are at stake looking forward, we can only do so in retrospect (when it may already be too late).

We take too much for granted and occupy ourselves with the least important things imaginable, often only waking up near the deadline. In my story what was at stake was business opportunity, but business is just a small aspect of life. I wish I can tell you that procrastinators discerningly procrastinate with some form of linear correlation with what (or how much) is at stake. We procrastinate regardless of the value at stake, then we beat ourselves up.

When is the Dead-Line?

_{Deadline - a line drawn within or around a prison that a prisoner passes at the risk of being shot ~ Merriam-Webster}

In organizations we hire project managers whose roles are primarily to set timelines and milestones, conduct cadence meetings to check on progress, and ultimately ensure that everything is done on time if not earlier. We don't always have project managers to do that for everything else. Not for managing our relationships, not for building our careers, not for taking care of our health, not even for our financial wellness. There isn't always a line that marks when you will run the risk of getting shot.

Creativity Takes Time, Influence Don't

Some of the best projects I've done is where I've taken the time to progress from ideation, innovation, then creativity. This was before I've learned procrastinating. Now I take these three steps and do them all together. Isn't that better, accomplishing the same task in less time? No! After learning how to procrastinate, I've missed out on the joy of evaluating my works before presenting them. The worst part is, I have built a reputation good enough to set standards. I can only imagine how much poor work ethic my team learned from all the half-assed work I produced in my career.

I have taught some of the next generation's leaders to just wing it. Procrastination rarely ruins just the procrastinators, often it is the people under their influence (direct or indirect) that suffers more.

How To Beat Procrastination?

The short answer is I don't know ~~yet~~. There are plenty of materials written from many perspective that may guide anyone who really wants to do away with procrastination. Some speaks from experience, some from a psychological standpoint, some claims to have applied science into their methods. Here are a few examples.

While all of them were helpful and seemed credible, they are generic, and might very well not fit in everyone's journey towards beating procrastination. I feel they lack one important step; figuring out observable behaviors that will indicate when a person is procrastinating. This can vary greatly between procrastinators, and figuring out signs you are falling into the trap again is the only way you can take active steps to shake it out. I am taking a journey to beat procrastination myself, and I have so far listed down a few indicators when I am procrastinating. It is often difficult to spot it on your own, I am lucky to have @dandalion to tell me when she feels I am falling to procrastination's trap.