Procrastination Is Your Friend

Procrastination is one of those “four-letter words” you want to deny you’re guilty of. It means to delay, to postpone, to hesitate, to dilly-dally, or to put off something that requires your immediate attention. It is obvious procrastination is your enemy for it prohibits you from achieving your goals, from accomplishing a certain task…from succeeding…

Or is it?

Procrastination Your Enemy

As a CEO, business owner or manager of a company or business, you know that delays cost money. It hurts your bottom line and you may lose a client. Managers are held accountable for successful completion of projects within a given deadline. It is their job to ensure the employees complete their specific tasks on time. Procrastination is frowned upon.

If you work for yourself, the stress level of meeting a deadline without postponing is often worse than in the corporate environment. You can’t blame someone else, you are responsible.

Perhaps procrastination in your personal life is not so bad... After all, it’s only your goal, your task, your chore or your study assignment you’re postponing. True, but the guilty feeling and the feeling of failure often accompanies the result of procrastination.

How is it then possible that procrastination can be your friend?

Procrastination Your Friend

To determine in which camp procrastination belongs, ask yourself these two important questions:

When do you procrastinate?

Is there a pattern?

Do you procrastinate with specific tasks or chores?

• Do you put off cleaning your house until you can write your name on your coffee table?
• Do you postpone washing your car until you can’t see through the rearview mirror anymore?
• Do you postpone taking out the garbage until you hear the garbage truck driving past?

If there is no specific pattern and you procrastinate as part of your daily life, then it is your enemy. Averse or disinclined to work defines laziness. To procrastinate regularly may be a sign of lethargy.

You have found the pattern, the specific task you delay from doing. When you procrastinate, what do you do? What is it you keep yourself busy with when you are supposed to finish that assignment, do the laundry, schedule the meeting, or go to the gym?

What do you do when you procrastinate?

This is the determining question whether procrastination is your friend or enemy.

It may surprise you to see what you prefer to do instead of that chore or task. What do you do when you procrastinate? Do you draw cartoon characters? Read a book dreaming of becoming a writer? Perhaps you are playing games, listening to music or spending “too much time” chatting to colleagues?

What would happen if you took these actions one level higher? Perhaps your future lies in creating new comics or becoming a graphic artist. Maybe you could afford someone to clean your house while you study to become a writer? A carwash could wash your car as well, if not better than you can; it can’t write songs, play the guitar or become a DJ in its spare time. If you enjoy conversing with colleagues, perhaps your future is in the sales department or networking.

Next time when you procrastinate, before guilt creeps in, ask these questions. You may discover procrastination was “telling you something”. If you’re not sure and need guidance, contact an Action Factory life coach near you. As NLP practitioners, your life coach will assist you in changing negative procrastination actions into positive dream fulfilling goals.