Never Check E-mail in the Morning by Julie Morgenstern

Author:Julie Morgenstern
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone

Besides, so what if your work needs correcting? Perfection, after all, is very hard for others to measure up to. Imperfections are endearing—it makes you more accessible, easier to relate to, and lets other people have a job to do. You really aren’t in this alone.

Grab-and-Go Strategy #16

Replace Black-and-White Thinking with Shades of Gray

Procrastination means doing nothing. And doing nothing has an impact. Your action, or in action, dramatically affects the people around you. Your procrastination on tasks makes it difficult for other people to get their jobs done, their work may be stalled, and the quality of your work—done at the last minute—may suffer. If you wait until the last minute to start a project, and then at 5 P.M. go to a colleague to ask for help, they may not be there for you.

If you frequently fall victim to procrastination, study yourself for a couple of weeks by keeping a log. Do you procrastinate about everything or only some things? Some people procrastinate primarily on big projects; others tend to avoid the little, boring, or annoying tasks.

Procrastination is a self-saboteur (in other words, it’s definitely you ) that is closely related to perfectionism. It involves stalling on starting or finishing something out of anxiety rather than logic.

One of the best ways to combat procrastination is to identify the cause of your hesitation the moment it occurs. Getting to the heart of the matter will help you find the solution.

• The task is too big. Often we are intimidated by the size and scale of a task. You don’t know where to start, or have the feeling that if you do start, you’ll barely make a dent—so why bother?

• Performance anxiety—the fear of making a decision. Demanding, risky, and requiring courage, some of the tasks on your list are intimidating for one reason or another. You may be worried about making a mistake, or not feel confident in your ability to get the job done.

• Fear of what comes next. Sometimes we put things off because what’s next is something that makes us really anxious. Hiring a new employee means change and risk. Completing a difficult new staff-policy memo means facing the disgruntlement of the masses.

• We work better under pressure. Some people thrive on the adrenaline rush that comes from leaving things to the last minute. It’s a thrill, it’s a little dangerous, and they love the victory of rescuing themselves from near disaster. Other people work better under pressure because it takes the edge of performance anxiety off. This is where procrastination meets perfectionism. Perfectionists often leave things to the last minute because it takes them off the hook—subconsciously they feel that if the work isn’t perfect, they have a built-in excuse. It’s not a reflection on their abilities, they just didn’t have enough time.

Taking an all-or-nothing approach to any project is unwise; being sophisticated in the workplace involves the ability to think in nuances. Learning to think in shades of gray takes the pressure off—it stops you from procrastinating and frees you to move forward.

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