…even when he really, really doesn’t want to
Stanford University professor John Perry, PhD, has risen to the top of the academic world and built a reputation for being highly productive. He has written 10 books and more than 100 articles…cohosts a national radio talk show…won numerous awards…and has become one of the most popular lecturers on campus. But all along, he has harbored a secret—he is a chronic procrastinator.
Procrastination arises from a complex mix of fear, anxiety, boredom and rebellion. Even the most accomplished and efficient people procrastinate sometimes. That’s because ignoring a dreaded task brings an immediate sense of relief…and even positive feelings, because you have good intentions of doing it tomorrow. Or you rationalize how much better you can work if you just surf the Internet or fiddle with your smartphone first. But these types of mental games eventually leave you feeling like a failure and sap your motivation, which only perpetuates the desire to delay.
Dr. Perry realized that he had to think out of the box and devise creative strategies to refine and accommodate his instincts to procrastinate, rather than simply trying to overpower them…
START AT THE BOTTOM
I recently wrote a book about procrastination because completing it was a way to avoid the many higher-priority tasks that I had as a professor, such as reading student dissertations, filling out textbook orders and evaluating grant applications. I always have had the energy and time for every other task except top priorities. This observation has led me to a practice I use regularly and call “structured procrastination.”
How it works: Create a list of tasks ranked by hierarchy of importance. Make sure that you have plenty of worthwhile tasks to perform that appear lower on your list. Doing those lesser (but important) tasks allows procrastinators to give in to the intense urge to delay but still be productive.
Of course, one eventually does have to confront the tasks at the very top of the list. In these cases, I find that facing a deadline does wonders for my focus. Or I am able to get into enough of a flow performing lower-priority tasks to make the priority ones seem less daunting—and so I do them.
TAME TECHNOLOGY
An enemy for procrastinators such as myself is wasting time on frivolous, nonproductive activities. Unfortunately, technology has made this much more convenient and prevalent. A study conducted by AOL and Microsoft found that the average worker wastes 40% of his/her entire workweek surfing the Internet and 23% socializing. When I feel an urge to procrastinate this way, I establish safeguards that prevent me from losing too much time. For instance, I don’t start surfing the Internet unless I know I have a class to teach in 20 minutes or when my laptop has only 10 minutes of battery power left.
LOWER THE BAR
One of the most common reasons I procrastinate is that when I take on a new task, I fantasize about doing it perfectly. Example: A dean wanted me to write a memo about whether we should teach philosophy courses in summer school. I felt that the memo needed to be full of groundbreaking ideas. I set the bar so high that I began to feel fear and pressure and put off doing it. Finally, with the deadline for the memo just an hour away, I sat down and did a respectable but less-than-perfect job.
Procrastinating gave me permission to lower the bar…which I should have done in the first place. In fact, the great majority of tasks that people procrastinate over require just an adequate job.
DELEGATE AND DELAY
Sometimes there’s a good reason why I stall over a particular task. Perhaps I lack the skills to complete it or it bores me. If this happens regularly over the same task, I do everything I can to delegate it. My life is far more productive when I play to my strengths and passions and sidestep my weaknesses.
I also find that delay can be effective in getting a sense of how important a task is. Many tasks disappear if you wait. For example, my e-mail in-box is flooded every day with messages that have been flagged as “urgent” by the senders. Rather than confront the drudgery of promptly answering this deluge, I decide what truly is urgent and then take a long time getting around to the others. If a person really needs to reach me, he will send another urgent e-mail.
TAKE SMALL “KAIZEN” STEPS
Kaizen is the popular Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement through small, implementable steps.
I break big projects into subtasks, which makes them less intimidating and motivates me by offering options. If I’m resistant to starting some of the subtasks, I usually find others that I’m enthusiastic enough about to take action.
When I am feeling particularly prone to dragging my feet, I get even more Kaizen and break down everyday tasks just so that I can check off lots of them and feel a small rush of accomplishment. Example from a recent to-do list: 1. Pour cup of coffee…2. Sit down at the desk…3. Do not Google “Meg Ryan”…4. Start Microsoft Word…5. Select document called “National Science Foundation Proposal.” It may sound comical, but it works.
Include “Do Nots” in your list if you are concerned about specific temptations. (In the above list, I had watched a Meg Ryan movie the night before.) Resisting “Do Nots” and crossing them off my list give me a psychological lift and a sense of momentum.
TEAM UP
Much of my productivity has come from seeking out collaborators who are type-A go-getters.
Example: Years ago, I had an idea for a radio talk show that would mix issues in popular culture with larger, philosophical perspectives. The idea gave me great pleasure, but I did nothing to make it a reality. Then I enlisted help from my super-productive friend Professor Ken Taylor at Stanford. Before I knew it, we had raised money for a pilot, gotten students to provide us with ideas and guests, and pitched our show at radio program conventions. Philosophy Talk now broadcasts each Sunday morning in almost 30 states.
