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How to overcome procrastination at work (starting right now)

Procrastinating at work is frustrating and inevitable. Here are the best ways to overcome it - Getty Images Contributor
Procrastinating at work is frustrating and inevitable. Here are the best ways to overcome it - Getty Images Contributor

It took me over an hour to write this sentence. In that time, I ate a second breakfast, made a round of teas and replied to every email in my inbox. Then I read through my notes and completed small tasks loosely associated with the task without being The Task itself.

If this sounds familiar, you know what it’s like to procrastinate at work. Writing and rewriting to-do lists may be your weapon of choice – or perhaps it’s going for “just one more” coffee break.

It’s not that we procrastinate on every task at work  we’ll happily complete less-demanding jobs. But when it comes to Big Tasks (writing that report, preparing that presentation) we suddenly realise we need to read every article that has been written about Brexit.

Why do we procrastinate?

Assuming we are not all secret masochists, why do we sabotage ourselves like this? “People procrastinate as a way to regulate their negative feelings around the task they have to do,” says Dr Fuschia Sirois, a prolific researcher in procrastination and Psychology professor at the University of Sheffield.

When you are given a big task, it throws your brain’s equilibrium off balance. To get back to that state of calm, we put off doing the task for as long as possible. “The problem with that,” adds Dr Sirois, “is you get rewarded for it - you feel good when you put off this thing that’s making you all anxious.”

This good feeling won’t last forever; as rational creatures, we know this and that the job has to be done. But even with an impending deadline, we continue to procrastinate because, Dr Sirois explains, “if fear is aroused, it overrides any sort of rational impulses.”

Fear goes hand-in-hand with procrastination - even if we aren’t aware of it. “It’s often some fear of failure that’s sitting right underneath it,” says Karin Mueller, career coach at Liebfrog.

“Procrastination is often heavily linked to perfectionism,” adds career coach Robert Stewart. He explains that perfectionists either work all day to perfect a project, or put it off for as long as possible.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. According to the experts, there are simple steps you can follow to overcome procrastination at work and complete your tasks - and not just three minutes before the deadline.

1. Recognise you have a problem

It’s the time-old adage: admit you have a problem. Mueller suggests you use a notebook to monitor the tasks you complete each day, focusing on the ones you avoided. Then, you can ask yourself, “What are you avoiding? What excuses are you making? What are you afraid of really?”

We are usually afraid the finished product won’t be good enough, according to Stewart. We can combat this insecurity through “thought challenging”. Recognise your negative assumptions (‘if I do a bad job with this report, I’ll be fired’) and look for evidence that contradicts them (‘my boss is usually pleased with my work’).

As well as internal obstacles, there are external issues to consider - such as a lack of research. Recognise and redress such issues before you begin. “Identify the obstacles that will come up that might lead you to go off track, and address them pre-mortem - before it’s too late,” says Jonas Altman, productivity expert and innovation consultant at Social Fabric.

2. Tell someone else your deadline

If you work in an office without deadlines, it’s important to set them yourself - and tell someone. “Create some external accountability that keeps you on the straight and narrow,” Mueller advises. After all, there are few things more likely to fuel panic and productivity than your boss saying, “I’m seeing that report tomorrow morning, aren’t I?”

If someone is waiting on your work, you are more likely to do it “because we’re social creatures, we’re mammals, we don’t want to let down the tribe,” says Mueller. “If we commit to someone else and say ‘by the way, I’m going to get this done by Wednesday,’ then we’re much more likely to get started on it.” Even if we only start it on Tuesday evening.

3. Get chunking

When you train for a marathon, you don’t start off by running 26 miles. Instead, you break your training into manageable chunks that prepare you for the big event. It’s the same principle with a project at work. You need to break down the mammoth task into smaller, manageable sections, a process called “chunking”.

“If we don’t have a clear goal in our brain, our brain starts to go, ‘this is too ambiguous, too big, I can’t figure it out,’” explains Stewart. Instead, split it into sections - if you have an hour-long presentation to give, for instance, create the slides and give each one a title to help you structure the talk.

Alternatively, you can write a to-do list. “If you’ve written it down, it’s much harder to find excuses to not do it,” Mueller says. Writing these lists can be a form of procrastination during the day, she acknowledges, so she advises you write the list at the end of the day, “when you’re not stressed and when you’ve got time”.

4. Eat the frog

Imagine your boss calls you into their office and says your only job for tomorrow is to eat a frog. The next day, you could put off eating the frog all day - you could answer your emails, go for a walk, make tea, complete more pleasant tasks. But, as time goes on, you have less motivation to eat the frog and, by the end of the day, you have failed to do it.

The solution is to eat the frog (or, do the task you hate) as soon as you get into work. That’s the advice in Brian Tracy’s bestselling book, Eat That Frog! Get More of the Important Things Done Today.

It’s a principle that Mueller instils in her clients. “I always suggest that people look at their to-do list at the end of the day and decide which are the frogs for the next day - which are the things that you really hate doing.” She advises you tackle these tasks first, so you can go off to lunch with a “real sense of achievement”.

5. Don’t check your emails before 12pm

The two hours between 10am and noon are our “golden hours,” says Altman, where we can work at our best. So during these two hours, you should mute your emails, switch off your phone and ignore your co-workers: this is all about getting the high-priority task done.

Altman does not answer his emails until after 12pm (although he acknowledges that most managers and CEOs don’t have that luxury). Responding to emails, he explains, “doesn’t require your full capacity,” so you should do this during the post-lunch slump. If you start your day by reading your emails or checking the news, he says you can fall into a "rabbit-hole" that impedes your productivity.

Demanding tasks should be completed when your brain is at its best (10am-12pm and 2-5pm) and you should fill the rest of your day with less challenging tasks - such as researching a new project, attending a meeting or completing general admin.

6. Work in short bursts

High-priority tasks are daunting because our brains know they will take a lot of time and effort. To solve this, you can work in short time-chunks, following the Pomodoro Technique (named so because the founder used a tomato-shaped timer to make himself work for 25 minutes).

Mueller suggests her clients dedicate 20 minutes to their dreaded task. After the timer goes off, she says most realise the task is not as daunting as previously feared, and they carry on.

Stewart recommends the more radical concept of the “two minute rule”, a technique from David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. With this rule, you dedicate just two minutes to the task and then (hopefully) continue after the time is up. “The less pressure we put on ourselves, the more we get done,” Stewart explains.

7. Learn to say no

Once you have buckled down and completed your report or the other Big Task, your boss will undoubtedly give you another one - it’s like slaying one head of the Hydra and seeing three more appear.

Be wary of saying yes to everything, as a huge workload is a breeding ground for procrastination. “Sometimes it can be an expression of being just overwhelmed and not knowing where to start,” Mueller says.

If there is too much on your plate, don’t be afraid to delegate or simply say no. You will be more productive if you have fewer tasks to juggle.

8. Forgive yourself

Despite our best intentions, sometimes we still end up procrastinating. It’s disappointing and nobody expected you would spend three hours sorting out your inbox and colour-coding your folders, but there you are.

In such situations, it is essential that you don’t dwell in guilt or any self-critical feelings. “You feed into this vicious cycle of feeling even worse and worse about the task,” Dr Sirois explains, “which only contributes to you wanting to procrastinate more.”

Instead, you must keep perspective, remember that everyone procrastinates, and focus on the task at hand. By being kinder to yourself you can find the motivation to get on with the task. After one more cup of coffee, of course.

Are you a procrastinator? How do you motivate yourself to complete those Big Tasks?

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