Procrastination - The Final Enemy!

Now let's get something straight. I have been preaching, moralizing and waxing eloquent about Time Management for quite sometime. But before I began this discourse, I forgot to ask you, what kind of person you are. No I'm not bothered about your physique or your eating habits. Nor am I bothered about your interest in water beetles and rock formations. I just want to know if you are a procrastinator, because if you are, then there is no point in talking about time management.

So, are you a procrastinator?

Indeed this is a very silly question because we all are. Procrastination is as fundamental to human beings as the insatiable appetite for sex. No, you are not going to admit that either, but it's the truth.  The old guy Adam who was chased out of Eden by God had them both. I mean the appetite for sex (how else do you think Eve coaxed him into having that fruit) and the habit of procrastination.

In fact, there is no official record that says that Adam was a procrastinator, but I think we can take it for granted since it is present in every human being that came after that.

Now, before you start thinking that the word ‘procrastination' has a sexual connotation, let me proceed to explain what the connection is between procrastination and time management. Procrastination is simply the habit of putting off for tomorrow what you can do today. Does it ring a bell now? The fact is that nine out of ten of us have this habit. We tend to postpone jobs and tasks. And procrastination is the villain, the unsuspecting sneak that upsets every plan connected with time management.

The interesting thing about procrastination is that we tend to put of only those tasks tat seem unappealing to us. If the task is boring, or monotonous, or involves too much hard work, then it stands a very good chance of getting postponed. It is not because of the lack of time that we do not do the task. On the contrary, we might have plenty of time to do it but we tend to postpone it and justify ourselves saying that we do not have the time for it.

Take for example a visit to the dentist. How many of us go for monthly checkups to the dentist? The answer would be almost none. Over here the reason is pretty simple. Since childhood, dentists have been associated with physical discomfort. It's not just the physical pain that we associate with a dentist's clinic.

There is also a lot of stress involved. It certainly is an uncomfortable experience to spread oneself in a completely vulnerable position on the dentist's chair with ones mouth open too as if one is resigned to one's fate. The dentist, at such moments seems to have a sneer on his face as he approaches you in his spotless, white attire and contemplates on which of his shiny pointed instruments displayed before you he should use first to prod and poke.

As a result, a visit to the dentist, as far as I am concerned, is something that sends a shiver down my spine. It's because of this that I keep avoiding visits to the dentist's clinic. Even if I start having a truth problem I would rather depend on forces like voodoo and witch craft than go to my dentist.

That's something that I and I think a lot of others as well tend to procrastinate. Let's see if we can think of some things that are likely to get procrastinated in our professional lives. I know that for most people, cleaning up clutter is an unpleasant task. Over time, a lot of clutter gets collected in our workstations. Our drawers get stuffed with a lot of odds and ends. There will be piles of papers on our desks or perhaps under our desks so that no body sees it.

Some people even have a difficulty in clearing their mailboxes until a warning message pops up on the screen. Visiting card holders are another such area that gets neglected. Over, we stash so many cards into our card holders, most of thee cards belonging to people who may have migrated to another planet for all we know. And though we know that it is a god thing to dump half these cards every now and then we never get down to doing it until the card holder literally starts bursting in the seams.

These are some of the jobs that we put off for tomorrow, a tomorrow that never comes. Now, there are some problems that arise out of procrastination that are detrimental to time Management.

The 5 bad effects of Procrastination

 A feeling that a job has been left undone is bad for our morale
 Unfinished jobs leave a lot of clutter around which affects our efficiency.
 Putting things off means accumulating jobs and urgency could crop up on the same day.
 Procrastination when it comes to the notice of other people maybe branded as laziness and lack of interest in the job.
 The job becomes more unpleasant the more you postpone it.

The only thing that you need to get straight is that you have to do the job any way so why not do it right now. Do not wait for that day when-you-will-have-more-time. It will never come. The chances are that you will be busier tomorrow than you are today. Most of those jobs that we procrastinate are the-sooner-done-the-better kind. And the sigh of relief that escapes from our lungs once the job is done and over is worth it.

All it takes is some will power, make up your mind to do a task and then do it while your mind stay made up, and believe me, the human mind does not stay made up for too long.

But then, there is a chance that you might be confronted with a strange feeling, you might start finding your job to be monotonous and boring and that is what we are going to deal with in our next chapter.