End Procrastination Now! (23 page)

Analysis means breaking something down into its parts. This is a logical place to begin a procrastination prevention process. Information from the analysis flows to future steps, which involve organizing and coordinating your actions to break through procrastination barriers. However, the approach serves a dual purpose. You can also use it as a stand-alone productivity program.

Your answers to where, when, why, what, and how questions give you a way to look at the procrastination process from an analytic angle. Let's start here.

•
Where
are you likely to procrastinate? Do you put off maintenance activities? Do you back away from conflict? Do you fall behind on the latest information about your job? Do you delay preparing written work?

•
When
are you more likely to procrastinate? When you feel pressured? After lunch? When you are facing a complex challenge?

• Used in an inquiry,
why
invites analysis. Why do you procrastinate when you are facing some complex situations but not
others? Why are you likely to follow through when a deadline is near? Why do you make false tomorrow promises to yourself? Why do you use excuses when you procrastinate?

•
What
types of conditions trigger your procrastination? What diversionary activities do you engage in? What follows the diversions? What happens next? What is the average length of time that you delay? What have you learned from this inquiry?

•
How
questions are directed toward accomplishing results. This is where you turn knowledge into know-how by stopping procrastination from interfering with the creation of high-priority work products. How do you address procrastination thinking? How do you emotionally tough it out? How do you behave differently?

Adding “and Then
”
to the Analysis
. You can expand your analysis of procrastination by tracking procrastination with follow-up
and then
questions. The following describes the process.

Target
: Putting off learning a new word processing program required for your job.

Reason
: You believe that learning the program will be frustrating and you'll feel clumsy doing it.

Here's how the
and then
process can be applied to the sample frustration and clumsiness beliefs example:

•
And then?
I feel uncomfortable and insecure.

•
And then?
I want to do something else.

•
And then?
I promise myself that I'll get to learning the new program as soon as I can,

•
And then?
I busy myself elsewhere.

•
And then?
I nag myself about learning the program and feel stressed.

•
And then?
I keep finding other things to do.

•
And then?
I cram at the last minute.

•
And then?
My mind feels stuffed, and I have trouble focusing.

•
And then?
I swear I'll start earlier next time to avoid last-minute pressure.

The
and then
question-and-answer sequence can help you flesh out
what
you do when you procrastinate. It can give you concrete information that you can flow into a general counter-procrastination strategy.

The five-phase self-regulation approach builds upon self-awareness and a problem-solving awareness and follows a sequence of steps that has often proved successful for profitable business enterprises. The process of setting a direction, however, starts with defining a mission and specifying your supporting goals that support the mission.

A
mission
to address procrastination is a special charge that you assign to yourself. It's a vision that gives you a broad direction. Some missions are so broad that they are perhaps too nonspecific and all-encompassing:

• Paving over the gossamer path of procrastination with self-mastery achieved by following through and performing at higher levels

• Shriveling the effects of procrastination by emphasizing productive actions to achieve performance goals

• Taking charge of my life by persistently following up on what is important to do

Positive missions to defeat procrastination are more precise. They say what you are going to do to achieve the things that are important to get done. Thus, they involve a two-phase process: (1) doing something (2) to achieve something. Here are sample missions that address specific procrastination conditions more concretely:

• Taking a public speaking class in order to improve expressive skills

• Increasing wellness through following a healthy diet and a moderate exercise program

• Contributing to the community by improving the welfare of handicapped children

A good general approach is to have a concrete mission. However, I've worked with people who preferred the general variety that are not popular with me, and did quite well. As the saying goes, different strokes for different folks.

What is your counter-procrastination mission? Write it in this box:

Set Concrete Goals
. What is the difference between a goal and a mission? Losing 30 pounds is a goal, but a lifetime of eating balanced meals to promote health is a mission. Passing a test is a goal; learning to develop knowledge and wisdom is a mission. Getting
a task done is a goal; operating with efficiency and effectiveness to promote productive outcomes is a mission.

In 1859, U.S. Senator Carl Schurz described idealized goals when he said, “Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you will reach your destiny.”

Our goals represent what we want to achieve. Setting and executing goals is one of the most reliably advantageous approaches to directing your efforts profitably. Concrete goals are generally more productive than the ethereal variety, such as to feel happy. Goals that are meaningful, measurable, and attainable are typically more useful than the abstract variety, such as saving the world from hunger. Here are four goal-development guidelines:

• Make your goals fit your mission. When your goals involve experiencing what you desire, you'll have a stronger passion for achieving them.

• Set realistic goals, ones that you can meet or where you can develop the ability to achieve the result that you seek. (Attainable goals are more likely to raise your motivation level than goals that you believe are permanently out of your reach.)

• Mastery goals are proficiency goals where you want to develop competence in an area of your interest. You can improve your personal competencies through mastering new challenges.

• Simultaneously use performance goals. These are results that you seek that are more limited and measurable, such as designing an efficient new manufacturing method to cap perfume bottles. The achievement benchmarks are the measured results of your efforts. Making 10 extra sales calls each week is an example of a performance goal. Performance goals typically lead to higher levels of performance.

Setting both mastery and performance goals is associated with a reduction in procrastination.

Within any dynamic organization, you'll have multiple and often competing goals. Time managers say that you should do the most pressing and important things first. This advice is rational but not necessarily realistic. The hyperbolic factor is likely to be present. The more pressing and important goal may be the one that was originally put off until the delays could no longer be tolerated. At that point, you allocate resources to the pressing task.

In a static world, you can better predict what is going to happen next. You know what to do first, second, and third. You'll allocate time and resources in that order. But we don't live in a predictable world where linear actions lead to goals.

In a dynamic world, which is more the norm, you'll sometimes have to reverse the ordering of your goals if you are directed to do so by higher authority. However, if your mission is to decrease procrastination in order to increase production, it doesn't matter that much if your priorities are shifted because of an external directive. The value of pursuing the mission and supporting it with achievable goals remains. You simply apply your counter-procrastination efforts to a different challenge.