Tip of the Month: Fourteen Procrastination Hacks

By David Schmidt

We all procrastinate at one time or another. Some of us more frequently than others. It is a common behavior where we delay or put off tasks, even when we know that doing so may have negative consequences.

Intelligent individuals tend to procrastinate more because they can foresee the challenges and difficulties of tasks, leading them to put off the work. Others tend to focus on the tasks directly in front of them rather than getting more important things done. Both situations can be detrimental to an individual’s success.

There are many other underlying factors that may contribute to why people procrastinate. Here’s a sampling:

1. Lack of Motivation: When a task seems uninteresting, challenging, or lacks a clear sense of purpose or reward, people may delay working on it. Motivation drives action. Lack of motivation drives procrastination
2. Perceived Difficulty: Tasks that are perceived as complex, time-consuming, or overwhelming can lead to procrastination. Anxiety about tackling difficult tasks, often leads to delay starting or completing them.
3. Fear of Failure: The fear of not performing up to par can lead to avoidance behavior, even if it means delaying the task.
4. Perfectionism: People who set unrealistically high standards for their work may delay starting tasks because they worry that they won't meet these standards.
5. Lack of Self-Discipline: The ability to manage one's impulses and prioritize tasks is essential for overcoming the urge to procrastinate.
6. Immediate Gratification: Procrastination can occur when individuals prioritize short-term enjoyment, like browsing social media or watching TV, over tasks that offer delayed rewards.
7. Poor Time Management: People who struggle to allocate their time effectively, often feel increasingly overwhelmed as tasks pile up. Unsure of where to start the tendency is to procrastinate.
8. Decision-Making Difficulties: Decision-making can be mentally taxing. When faced with numerous choices or uncertainty, people may procrastinate to avoid making those decisions.
9. Low Self-Efficacy: Individuals who doubt their own ability to complete a task successfully, undermine any motivation they may have had and postpone tackling the work to be done.
10. Cognitive Biases: A tendency to favor short-term gains over long-term benefits (present bias), can contribute to procrastination. An individual may also prioritize immediate comfort over hard physical or mental labor.
11. Environmental Distractions: Environments with distractions, such as noise and interruptions, can make it difficult to focus on tasks and increase the likelihood of procrastination.

Procrastination is clearly a complex behavior influenced by various psychological, emotional, and situational factors. Recognizing these factors and developing strategies to address them can help individuals overcome procrastination and improve their productivity. Here’s fourteen strategies you might try:

1. Focus on Next Steps: Break large tasks into smaller steps. Doing this causes one to focus on the immediate physical action needed to move forward rather than getting overwhelmed by the entire project.
2. Build Momentum: Productive people tend to stay productive, and achieving small tasks can lead to a sense of accomplishment and motivation to do more.
3. Create Daily To-Do Lists: Creating a to-do list filled with small, achievable tasks encourages productivity and momentum. Focusing on the next actionable step is key. Conversely, putting items on a to-do list that you cannot reasonably get to can be counter-productive
4. Reduce the Number of Decisions You Need to Make Each Day: Plan in advance the issues that require a decision you will address. This ties in with your to-do list, which should be done the day before – now when you come to work you don’t have to decide what to do.
5. Follow the Two-Minute Rule: If a task can be completed in less than two minutes, do it immediately rather than procrastinating by adding it to a to-do list.
6. Create Uninterruptible Time Blocks: Scheduling specific time blocks for larger tasks or a large number of similar tasks (e.g., collection calls) and eliminate distractions during those periods.
7. Practice Staying Put: In an office environment, it’s not uncommon to do some wandering around. That’s okay, but commit yourself to periods of distraction-free work by staying glued to your desk for a specific amount of time each day.
8. Take a Travel Day: Creating a focused work environment by eliminating distractions similar to being on an airplane can improve productivity. If you work in an office, maybe a day at home will help you catch up or complete a difficult project…or vice versa if you usually work at home.
9. Procrastinate Productively: Try shifting to simpler tasks when you are unable to focus on a more complex task. It will still be a productive use of time and helps build momentum.
10. Visualize Your Journey: Instead of visualizing end goals, visualize the steps needed to achieve those goals, similar to how top athletes focus on the process rather than the outcome.
11. Adjust Your Attitude: Changing your mindset from "can't" to "don't" empowers you to make conscious decisions and avoid negative self-talk.
12. Practice Delegation: Delegating repetitive tasks to others can help free up time and improve productivity.
13. Limit Your Time Spent on Email: Email may be central to your job, but too much of it is a distraction because of the sense of urgency it creates. Learn to quickly recognize what email is important, and don’t let the rest distract you from your goals.
14. Change Your Environment: Cleaning off your desk or rearranging your office so it is more efficient can help you more easily get down to work. Catch yourself staring out the window? Move your desk so you can’t see out the window, and by all means get rid of the clutter.

These strategies are all well and good, but to deploy them effectively as a credit professional, you need to identify the tasks that are most important to improving AR performance. Chances are, less important tasks are getting in the way of collections and portfolio review. As a result, cash flow suffers and credit risks creep into the AR. Credit and collections poses a time management challenge, so it is imperative you understand your priorities and then don’t let procrastination get in the way of you achieving your goals.