We all procrastinate, but there are occasions when we don’t recognise we’re doing it.
Take, for example, the inconvenient phone call. We’ve all experience them – those calls from the eager sales person, customer or colleague, who all just want to hear one word: ‘Yes’.
They often come at the most inopportune moments, causing us to lose focus on the task we’re working on. And they can be especially inconvenient if:
So, we avoid the call. We might simply decline it (again) and let it go to voicemail (again). Or, if it’s come through a colleague, we tell them to tell the caller that we’re in a meeting, we’ve left early to tend our sick tortoise, or we’ve been abducted by an alien fish race called Marjerie.
Having successfully avoided the call, we pat ourselves on the back for maintaining focus and return our attention to what we were working on.
But what happens then? Often, the answer is nothing.
We don’t return the call, and a week or so later, the same thing happens again. And the next. And so on.
We’re procrastinating. This procrastination not only steals our time, but it steals the time of at least one other person too
– the caller – and quite probably that of colleagues as well. And, it can lead to poor decision making when, eventually, we simply take the path of least resistant and make any decision that will stop the calls.
If you want to manage your inconvenient calls more effectively, it’s important to remember that each of these calls represents an outstanding task in your in-tray. The first step you need to take is to consider how important it is, always remembering that important is not the same as urgent! (After all, a call, like those from Trainers’ Library, could provide a long-term solution that helps you overcome an ongoing challenge!)
If it’s important, then you need to deal with it before it becomes urgent (a crisis), or before you make a rushed, and potentially bad decision. If you’re sure it’s not important, then consider how you can assertively delegate or dump the task.
So, what should you do with the calls you’re left with? Well, to answer that, you’ll need to go back and look at why you didn’t take the call last time:
- If you don’t have the authority to make the decision, can you delegate the call to the person who does? If not, what can you do to obtain the answer you need in order to provide the conclusion the caller requires? If there’s a process to be followed, schedule some time for this and agree a clear timescale with the caller. This will manage their expectations and stop the calls. Of course, this only works as a full solution if you then deliver on the objective you agree – normally to have a decision by a certain date.
- If you can make a decision, but haven’t, what’s stopping you? Set up some time to evaluate the proposal fairly and make a decision.
- Ok, you’ve done all that and, sadly, the answer is no. None of us like being the bearer of bad news. But this is the
- least good reason for procrastination. Because, until you provide an assertive response, you will continue to waste your own time and others. The colleague, customers or sales person would love to hear ‘yes’. But, ultimately, they’d prefer a considered, assertive ‘no’ to an empty, silent void that sucks energy and time.
Need to help others avoid procrastination? Here are some materials that might help from Trainers’ Library: