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Hi all. Have you ever had an opportunity with procrastination? Or the action of delaying or postponing something? What causes it? I don’t think it’s because were lazy, and I don’t necessarily believe were avoiding a particular task either. I believe, and this may sound strange, but I think it’s our frame of mind at the time. If that decision had been presented to us 2 hours earlier, we may have just accepted it, performed it, and moved on. But something happened, and we thought differently for a moment. I’m Marty with Warehouse and Operations as a Career. Lets talk about what can throw us off course.
Now, of course, there’s a lot of science, a lot of opinions and, quite frankly, a lot of non-sense about why people procrastinate. We’ll talk about a few of those things here in a few minutes but first I’d like to share a few of my thoughts and experiences with procrastination.
So, last week a safety manager had asked a crew manager, and he happened to be in another state, anyway, he’d asked him for some information. I think it was an SOP or standard operation procedure for a task. The manager was going to get it to him before the close of business that day. Well, 3 days later the safety manager inquired about that SOP. The crew manager of course apologized and said he’d send it over shortly. A hand written sheet was emailed about 30 minutes later.
Now I know this crew manager really well. He’s a great guy, committed, and he knows his stuff, his job, inside out. He’s not necessarily comfortable using Microsoft office products though. I believe, and this is just my opinion, that a case of human nature sunk in. I think he did not want to format a word or excel document so his mind just dropped the subject. And when it was brought up again, a simple handwritten procedure was sent over. Under the guise of it needing to be sent over immediately.
Absolutely no laziness there. Like I said, he knows the procedure, more than anybody else he knows the process. But his mind said no, not right now!
Another quick example. I had an associate come to me, asking a few questions about a project they were asked to help with. No deadline was brought up but it needed to get done. The person that had explained it hadn’t been 100% clear when communicating what they wanted. And the associate didn’t ask any questions or try and clarify what was needed. So, what happened, the mind pushed it to the end of the stack of projects. Now this one has a happy ending. I knew a little about the project, could point them in the right direction and it was finished up in like an hour.
Here’s one more. A receiver had 3 loads left to get tagged and received for the day. One was a 16-pallet load, another had 22 pallets and the third was a breakdown load that would end up being 67 pallets, both small and large wood. 47 different items were on it. All three trailers were being unloaded at the same time. All three had missed their scheduled appointments and would cause the shift to run over for the day, probably by like 2 hours. The receiver had gone to the check in office and retrieved the purchase orders and tags for all three loads and was diligently working the two smaller loads. Something in his mind, and not just anger, kept him from just accepting the fact that the late load had been accepted. He knew he was going to do it, he had to do it, but it was going to be the absolute last thing he did for the day and it was going to take him longer to complete it. Human nature, it’s not anything to mess around with. We can’t let it suck us into its clutches!
I know myself; I stay pretty busy. I’ve caught myself shying away from a much easier task than the one I choose to do at the time. I don’t know why. It’s not laziness, I, being my mind or soul, just doesn’t want to deal with it at that moment!
I’ve learned to ignore some of those thoughts. I guess you could say I’ve learned to fight procrastination! In our chosen fields, there’s little room for putting things off. And I must admit that, although I feel like I’m doing better fighting procrastinating in my professional life, I am still struggling far too much with it in my personal life!
So how do we fight it?
- Prioritize opportunities. If something isn’t important to you, you’ll probably spend very little time trying to achieve it. That reality is the basis of your priority list. The achievements that really matter most belong at the top. Everything else can fall whenever. And that might even mean falling off the list!
Focus on the things that give you the most inner joy and happiness. Never mind what popular opinion thinks. If something gives you butterflies every time you think about it, that’s what you want to work towards.
Once your list is in place, start at the very top. The most important thing deserves the most attention. You’re guaranteed ultimate satisfaction once you achieve it!
- Break down tasks into achievable bits. It’s easy to put things off because they seem too overwhelming. Your natural instinct may be to shy away from things
- Renew your commitment each day. In order to stay on track, it’s important to maintain commitment to the goal. That can be easily achieved by renewing your commitment each day.
When you wake up, remind yourself of your purpose. Take a look at what you’re motivated to achieve. The feeling of excitement about achieving a desired goal is constantly alive. You just need to reengage it regularly.
This exercise also helps you to maintain focus on what’s important to you.
In fact, you may even find that the spark of a goal fades. This can happen when you realize something you thought was important really isn’t.
Daily renewal helps you to zone in on what means the most to you.
- Reward yourself for each achievement. It’s important to keep yourself engaged and focused on the goal. A great way to do this is to reward yourself. As you achieve each small task, celebrate the progress you’ve made.
Make a significant effort to celebrate your achievement. A half-hearted effort isn’t really enough. To maintain commitment, you have to reward yourself well every step of the way.
Treat yourself to something you’ve always wanted. Maybe in the past, you avoided spending on it because it “wasn’t worth it.” But now you have every reason to go get it!
Being kind to yourself is the best way to motivate continued focus on goals. When you know there’s a reward at the end, you’ll likely commit every ounce of effort necessary.
There are more than enough reasons for you to go after meaningful goals. If you’re honest with yourself, you can easily list them all on a piece of paper. Focus on doing something to move toward you goal today. Leave tomorrow for celebration of today’s success!
I’ve found a couple of good articles about procrastination this week. Once I’ve digested them, I’ll put them up on the website, feel free to download whatever you’d like. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s coming together. If you haven’t checked it out lately it may be worth a look.
We’ll, I’ve got to quit procrastinating today and finish up this workbook I’m doing for a company.
Until next week, plan your week out, and watch the human nature thingy. Be productive and Safe.