Chloe on procrastination

This week’s theme is perfect for the busy time I’m going through right now: procrastination.

I’ve noted that the more stressed and overwhelmed I feel, the more I procrastinate. I tend to be a perfectionist as well, to keep some sort of control I guess, and as Marcia says in the lesson, it’s often the main cause of procrastination.

The tips she gives to break procrastination are all great, but my fave is to do the most unpleasant or difficult task first, or as she often says, to “eat the frog“.

I often tell myself, “eat broccoli first, dessert after”, which means the same: once the task you dreaded most is done, you feel proud of yourself and the rest seems almost easy!

I’ve recently noted something very similar in my professional life (again): I had the chance to have a couple days without my boss being in the office all day.

She’s a mayor’s deleguee and we work together all the time since we’re planning a very big event.

We work great together usually, but when she asks for something, “not now” or “I should be doing something else instead” is NOT an acceptable answer.

When she spends the day in my office, I usually don’t do much besides what she asks for. Anyway, last week she wasn’t there for two whole days. On the first one I thought “Oh, the day is long, I can start with some easy tasks, complete some filing and some “relaxing” to-do’s. I deserve some mini-vacation!”

Well, the days aren’t that long actually, and I can’t afford vacations, even mini ones! I ended up not having done much and feeling frustrated for “wasting” a day.

I didn’t repeated that same mistake on the second day when she was gone, and at lunch break I had already written 4 articles for the town magazine, updated the website for the 3 coming weeks and finished the programme for our big event so that it could be printed as soon as she would give me the green light!

I can’t tell you how proud and satisfied I felt compared to the first day.

Lesson learned: I will start my day with the most important and most annoying tasks first, so that if my day gets crazy afterwards, at least this part is done. Filing can wait (not indefinitely, but you get the idea! LOL)!

Take care!

 

Chloe, I love how you recognised your time challenges both with your boss’s demanding style and with your own internal distractions the first day, but most of all, I love how you self-corrected.

Fantastic job – I’m so proud of you.

Do you procrastinate?
Have you ever thought about why you do so?

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Comments

  1. Great story! Thanks for sharing šŸ™‚

    I find that the most I try to resist procrastination the more I procrastinate, so my new attitude is “Let’s see how I’ll do today, how far I’ll go and how much I’ll achieve”. I’ve changed my attitude only recently but I find that this works best for me and also I feel less stressed and less guilty throughout the day and I actually achieve more than ever. And in days that I’m not as productive I just say to myself, “That’s OK, it happens I’m human, let’s see tomorrow how things will be”

  2. Mmmmm….I do procrastinate. In my personal life it happens when I don’t want to face something. At work when it is something that I don’t particularly enjoy doing. I am getting better at this but still need to work VERY HARD at this issue in my life. I have found that it works for me to have a reward system eg…if I do something at home that I’ve been procrastinating on then I reward myself maybe with an extra half hour of blogging or I’ll treat myself to some healthy-ish snacks and an episode of whichever series I am currently watching. It does help that I know there will be a reward for me.
    I’m still trying to figure out how to reward myself at work but mostly I just force myself to do the stuff that I don’t feel like doing.
    I think it’s awesome that you recognised how your bosses style was making things more difficult for you and then worked around that.

  3. Angeliki, this is a great attitude, I love it! It release the pressure that you (or anyone, actually) put on yourself and that maks you procrastinate more instead of helping you do something! Love the “Let’s see how I do today”!

    Julia, I love the rewards too, and I often do it in my personal life too. It’s hard to find what to do at work though, you’re right! Just giving me the right to take a day or a couple hours off from time to time is a step in the right direction, but not always easy to do!

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