Overcoming Procrastination

Putting off decisions is not conducive to decisiveness, and can become a habit that's hard to overcome.

rocrastination is a major barrier to decisiveness. Consider Laura, a graphic designer who was helping an electronics company redesign its logo in accordance with its rebranded image. When she had to decide which of her two mock-ups to propose, she kept putting off the decision. She would tell herself that she had to do more research about the company before she could decide, and that she wasn't ready. Gradually she recognized that she was procrastinating.

Putting off decisions is not conducive to decisiveness, and can become a habit that's hard to overcome. Among the reasons people procrastinate are the belief that there is plenty of time to make the decision and a fear of making a bad decision.

Here are some of the top reasons for provrastination:

PLENTY OF TIME

If you have an important decision to make but it doesn't need to be made immediately, you may be tempted by other tasks and activities. The sense is that you can do something later and not feel guilty about putting it off.

However, when you start delaying the decision, thinking that you have more than enough time, it can be difficult to get back on task when your deadline draws nearer. Instead of taking the time to make an informed decision, you can end up short on time and rushing through it. So if you think you can attend to some other things before the decision in question, make sure to set a specific time for attending to it.

FEAR OF MAKING A BAD DECISION

Fear of making a bad decision may have different causes. It likely stems from a lack of confidence that you have the ability or qualifications to make the decision.

This fear will prompt you to avoid making that decision for as long as possible. And if you left the decision until the last minute and it turns out to have been a bad one, you may even feel that you can blame it on being rushed. But waiting until the last minute is likely to impair your decision-making skills. You must fight the paralyzing fear of making a bad decision and give yourself enough time, especially when you have to make difficult decisions.

QUESTION

True or False?

"People tend to procrastinate when they fear making a bad decision and are pressed for time."

People tend to procrastinate when they're afraid of making a decision, but also when they feel they have plenty of time, not a shortage of it.

I have been teaching and training agents, team leaders, supervisors, managers and admins of call centers and other businesses in BPO related fields. This series, comes as a result of that experience. I have more than 4,000 modules that I plan on sharing here. This is # 005-02

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