Small Business Coaching - Procrastination Can Be Your Friend

My Certified Time Coaches will sometimes tell our clients something that raises a few eyebrows: procrastination can actually be a good thing. In fact, we encourage clients to procrastinate as much as they possibly can. First, let me explain when procrastination obviously doesn’t work. If you do not have solid personal systems for calendaring and dealing with the flow of information into your life, then when you procrastinate you are depending on your mind to remind you of when it is time to do things. This is a problem because your mind will remind you of things at inappropriate times and inappropriate places. You will miss appointments and miss responsibilities. For those who do not have solid personal systems, procrastination is a very, very bad idea. However, for those who have a solid calendaring system and the accountability to follow through on that schedule, procrastination is a very valuable and necessary tool. The person who doesn’t procrastinate or schedule low priorities into the distant future ends up running headlong into what we call the Truth of Time. The Truth of Time says that there are only 24 hours in a day. If you do not procrastinate low priority items by scheduling them into the future, you will always be short on time and find yourself stressed out at the end of every day wondering if you really accomplished anything at all. You must have three things in place in order for procrastination to be your ally: A calendar that you have with you at all times – Never commit to doing something without scheduling it into your calendar. The calendar is your budget for time, and when your time is gone, it’s gone. Double scheduling is not an option. You must always have your calendar on hand, because it shows you how much time you have available. The calendar, in fact, forces appropriate procrastination because it helps you be realistic with how much time you really have. One final note: always leave spaces between appointments for the unexpected. A time-based task list that you have with you most of the time – If the calendar is rigid, then the task list is fluid. Only put items that are brief and not time sensitive in your task list. Task list items must be brief, because if they are lengthy to complete, you’ll never find the time for them. Task list items also must not be time-sensitive, since you are going to be a bit flexible as to when your complete them. While tasks that go to the task list should be assigned an estimated “do date”, if you don’t do them on the date specified, it’s okay. (If it wouldn’t be okay to do it later, then it belongs on the Calendar, not the task list!) A “Perhaps List” that you review periodically - David Allen calls this his “Someday, Maybe” list. Whatever you call it, this is the place where the tasks and ideas you haven’t yet committed to do should go. To make the Perhaps List work, you must schedule an appointment for yourself in your calendar that tells you to check the list on a consistent basis. I check mine once a month. I quickly scan through the list I’ve created in Microsoft Outlook and look for any of the items that I’m ready to pick up and take action on at this time. Usually, I pick up very few new tasks, if any. The Perhaps List is a great way for me to say no to myself and keep focused on the priorities at hand.