At an Effective Time Management Workshop that I facilitated, we were nearing the lunch break and the topic under discussion was Procrastination.

Now as anyone who has ever facilitated or participated in a Time Management Workshop would tell you, procrastination is a known impediment to effective time management needing to be dealt with immediately…

…. Like yesterday and we are urged to join the Procrastinators Anonymous without further delay and seek help. 

On a more serious note, yes, procrastination is an issue but it’s not a terminal condition. Knowing why one procrastinates is half the battle.

I prefer to analyze the reasons and triggers for procrastinating and then work out solutions rather than jumping in and putting into action every known anti-procrastination tactic in town.

How to eat a frog

It often helps to take a lighter look at life when tackling one’s problems and that is why I simply love and recommend reading Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog!

This book deals with procrastination and compares tasks to frogs.

Here, your frog is the task that will have the greatest impact on achieving your goals, and the task that you are most likely to procrastinate starting.

The secret to reaching higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency is to tackle your major task, the one that will impact your goals the most and which you are most likely to procrastinate. You need to do this first thing each morning without thinking too much about it.

Quite similar to closing your nose and taking that tablespoon of cod liver oil every morning for good health. (Nowadays we can just take a capsule, but that is another story).

To quote

“If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day
with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing
that is going to happen to you all day long!”

Another nugget of advice

“If you have to eat a live frog, it does not pay to sit and look at it for a very long time!”

But what if you have 2 important tasks in front of you?

How do you decide? Well, then

“If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first!”

In other words, start with the biggest, hardest and most important task first. Apply self-discipline to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.

In the corporate world, we are paid and promoted to achieve the organizations SMART Goals.

Our own goals and development plans are part of the Big Plan and we are paid to achieve these goals while trying to set our own goals. Successful professionals know how to merge the macro with the micro goals. They are efficient and effective.

When Procrastination is healthy

So a spell of silence fell upon the room when I asked “Can procrastination be healthy?’

Suspicion about my intentions was apparent. But one participant found the courage to say that procrastination could be healthy if a person was tired and knew that performing a task in that state would result in mistakes. Or having to redo the task again thus wasting time. Bingo!

The room came alive with 4 more reasons to procrastinate with consensus that procrastination may be healthy if…..

• Done when necessary to recover from fatigue

Some tasks require alertness and attention and may go wrong if undertaken under conditions of fatigue

• Allows time to consider alternatives, plans, etc

Sometimes new information or issues emerge which require closer attention and deferring decisions or tasks is imperative to consider all options and strategize to ensure success of the ultimate goal

• Allows regrouping

A better decision and course of action may emerge when one thinks it through, undertakes more research and has discussions with others who may have experience of the situation

• Is understood to be short-term and will not affect one’s self-confidence

Literally, it has to be short-term and within an appropriate time frame. There are no brownie points for delaying actions or decisions which can turn the green on your milestone chart to red!

If the delay is due to diffidence in making choices or decisions, immediately ask for support from your colleagues or immediate supervisor.

There is another reason when procrastination may actually work in your favor.

Sometimes, we procrastinate, inspite of ourselves. That feeling to delay action.

Is it your intuition?

When that happens to me, I apply the same rational approach to analyze why I am procrastinating and if it is not a life and death situation, wait a day to action it. Something usually happens to validate the delay in action. 

That’s where Karmic Ally Coaching’s online course How to Stop Procrastinating right now comes into the picture.

Learn more by clicking the image below.

Last time I told you about Blanchard’s Quadrants as an alternative means of effective time management.

Even when the Quadrant approach works for you, there is always the possibility that you may get overwhelmed with your To Do List.

It often happens to me and labeling tasks using the ABC approach, trying to eat frogs or other methods does not really help. Time Management is a very personal thing.

So, here is my best kept secret for managing To Do Lists!

Simply use the technique of Paired Comparison when one is feeling overwhelmed, and you need to take control of the To Do List instead of the other way around.

A simple example, when you were a kid and your parents took you to the pastry shop, did you or did you not compare the size of pastry, (just to check of course) before settling on the piece to be bought? I did.

The Paired Comparison method uses a simple scoring system for comparing activities.

The following example illustrates how this method can be applied:

Suppose I have identified 5 tasks or activities that really need to be done but I cannot decide the hierarchy to complete them.

Here is the list of example tasks or activities to be performed:

1. Make weekly call to parents
2. Respond to emails
3. Pay utility bill
4. Make appointment with client to discuss report
5. Check Facebook for status updates

Compare each of the options against each other and put a mark against the relatively more important task in each comparison:

–       1 to 2, 1 to 3, 1 to 4, 1 to 5

–       2 to 3, 2 to 4, 2 to 5

–       3 to 4, 3 to 5

–       4 to 5

Let’s say the result is as follows:

1. Make weekly call to parents   xxxx
2. Respond to emails                              x
3. Pay utility bill                                       xx
4. Make appointment with client to discuss report x
5. Check Facebook for status updates

So, the order you would do the tasks in would be 1, 3, 2 or 4 (depending upon which one is more urgent), 5.

There are no hard and fast rules, and the importance of each task depends upon your circumstances. For example, for a business that gets customers through their Page on Facebook, task number 5 may be most important.

Last week I also told you about my ebook  Eight tested Commandments for Time Management

If you haven’t seen it yet, then I suggest accessing it. Maybe there is a commandment or tip in that can help you ace the time management challenge without angst! Click the link above or the image below and learn more.

The constants were Twelve Minute and Rule and I finally settled on a simple and humble The Twelve Minute Rule.

So, what happened that made me go Twelve Minute happy? 

Do you believe in Carl Jung’s concept of Synchronicity? Well, something similar happened when I was thinking about procrastination and the balance between running a practice and business development.

Google search introduced me to an amazing lady Becky Robinson who has created the 31 Days of Twitter Tips.

The Aha moment happened while I was doing the challenge for enhancing my Social Media presence in Twelve Minutes a day.

If you are planning to improve your Twitter presence and have time scarcity, then this guide is a must read and worth every dime.

Coming back to Time Management, I realized that 12 minutes of action or procrastination can make or break our ability to stay on top our game and impact our success rate in meeting targets and goals.

Embracing the habit of setting clear priorities and completing important tasks quickly reduces many time management issues. Eat the frog and then relax knowing that you are cruising on the highway to success.

Got too many emails in the Inbox? Take Twelve Minutes to do an overview and sort them out before opening any.

Delete all spam and unnecessary emails, highlight the ones you need to pay attention to and forward the ones that require other people to action.

Celebrate a task well done with a Twelve Minute break to do something nice focused at you. Make that cup of coffee, do stretch exercises, call a loved one or take a power nap. “Me time” activities are great rejuvenation.

Love social media but find other important activities get side-lined?

Do what I have been doing for the last 1 month.

Log on to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts for only Twelve Minutes twice a day. Clock yourself to log off when the time is up.

Do it twice a day and you will find that the sky does not collapse and your day is more productive.

Knowing that you have limited time, you will scan for the good stuff. You’ll have meaningful interactions and actually take away more from the precious time. Think Pareto’s Principle or the 80/20 Rule.

Now that is what I call killing two birds with one stone.

What about you? Any Twelve Minute tips to share?