Procrastination and Excuses

When certain inconveniences arise, the tendency can be to see them as reasons to stop what you're doing and return to it later. If you're faced with an especially difficult decision, you may be likely to seek out or give in more easily than usual to such opportunities.

he second way to overcome procrastination is to recognize and eliminate excuses. Have you ever allowed your spouse request for you to pick up groceries on the way home or a colleague's request for help as excuses to avoid working on a decision? While it's easy to be tempted by these opportunities, most times it's up to you whether you give in to these temptations or rise above them.

When certain inconveniences arise, the tendency can be to see them as reasons to stop what you're doing and return to it later. If you're faced with an especially difficult decision, you may be likely to seek out or give in more easily than usual to such opportunities. So learning about excuses can help you recognize and get rid of them. Excuses tend to come from two general areas: other people and your environment.

Here are some of the most popular excuses for procrastinating:

OTHER PEOPLE

People around you can provide you with excuses to avoid making an important decision. Perhaps a friend invites you to an afternoon baseball game, or a colleague asks if you can help with a task. Whether others come to you for help or to offer a distraction, you should ask yourself if you're simply looking for an excuse to get out of something before you agree.

If you notice yourself tending toward procrastination, try to lay out what needs to be done so that you can make an effective decision. If you can spare a bit of time, offer to help your colleague, or enjoy an afternoon outside. However, if you can't, try to be diligent and explain the situation.

YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Certain things may occur that seem to be beyond your control. Traffic jams or problems with your computer are examples of this type of excuse. These can impede your progress. But by assessing them, you can decide whether they actually make your work impossible, or if they merely require a different approach.

For instance, say the Internet goes out in your office while you're researching a new supplier. Before giving up, ask yourself if there's another way you can get the information you need. Perhaps the company has hard copies of the data you need, or there is another task related to the decision that doesn't require the Internet. Then ask whether this approach will affect the quality of your work.

If a situation arises where you simply cannot continue with your task, move on to the next task on your priority list and plan to return to the delayed one later. If none of your tasks are possible, consider taking the afternoon or day off and making it up later in the week by staying late or coming in on a weekend.

Lewis is an editor in charge of the fiction list at a large publishing house. He needs to decide which books will be part of the company's fall catalog and which will be pushed for release in the new year. To do this, he needs to carefully consider a large selection of titles to determine which will appeal most to holiday shoppers.

When Lewis goes to conduct his review, he finds that many of the books he'd requested haven't arrived yet. Instead of putting off the task, however, he searches and finds that the company now makes digital copies of the manuscripts available to editors. By recognizing this as a possible excuse and asking whether there's another way to access the books, Lewis is able to stay on task.

Later that week, after many hours of careful reading, one of Lewis's editorial assistants comes to him with a problem. At first, Lewis welcomes this as an opportunity to delay his reading. However, after recognizing he's just looking for an excuse, he reminds himself of the urgency of his task. He refers his assistant to a colleague and completes his work.

QUESTION

Lucinda works in the Marketing Department of a software development company. She urgently needs to decide on the best time to launch the company's new software package.

Which actions are examples of ways she can recognize and overcome excuses to procrastinate?

1. She asks herself whether helping a colleague who comes to her for assistance is simply an opportunity for her to delay her decision
2. She asks to borrow a company laptop when her desktop computer crashes
3. She takes the afternoon off when the office's Internet service is interrupted
4. She helps her assistant determine the agenda of an upcoming meeting when he asks her for help

Other people can be blamed for causing delays. By asking whether she's looking for a reason to procrastinate, Lucinda can recognize and overcome this excuse.

Lucinda avoids allowing a malfunction to become an excuse to delay her work. Instead, she finds an alternative way to stay on task.

Lucinda should instead determine if there are other ways to accomplish her work, or consider if there's another task she could work on in the meantime.

She should ask herself whether helping her assistant will contribute to making her decision and, since it won't, suggest he consult another person in the office.

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 # 005-05

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