Procrastination and Motivation

Self-discipline is about resisting the temptation to indulge in things that may provide some comfort or pleasure in the short term, but can ultimately have a negative impact.

hile putting off decisions until a better or more comfortable time can be tempting, the different forms of procrastination are ultimately barriers to decisiveness. If you notice that you tend to procrastinate, there are three strategies you can use to overcome it: motivate yourself; recognize and eliminate excuses; and procrastinate later – that is, deliberately schedule time later for the activities that are tempting you to procrastinate now.

Learning to motivate yourself is an effective way to tackle procrastination. When you feel the urge to put something off, being able to remind yourself that what you're doing is important will help you resist the urge. Some people are more strongly motivated by the promise of rewards, while others need to be reminded of the consequences of their failure to achieve something.

Here are some of the most popular types of motivation used to overcome procrastination.

REWARDS

If you're motivated by enjoying the benefits of your hard work, focus on these benefits as much as possible. These benefits might include the promise of a higher paycheck, a desired promotion, or the admiration of your coworkers. Or you may want to focus on more personal goals, such as a special vacation for you and your family if you secure a particular contract.

Whichever rewards you decide to focus on, aim to remind yourself of them when the desire to procrastinate arises. For example, post the salary of the position you're aiming for or a picture of the vacation destination you have in mind for your family next to your desk.

CONSEQUENCES

Some people are strongly motivated by thinking about the consequences they might face if they fail to accomplish a task or make a decision. For example, ask yourself what will happen if you don't promptly decide which bidding company will receive a contract. Perhaps the project's schedule will be interrupted, or your boss will make the decision for you, making you look bad.

If you find that you're more easily motivated by consequences, try to focus on the ones that occur most immediately. More remote consequences – such as the danger of being passed over for a promotion in three months' time – are not such strong motivators. Instead, focus on more immediate consequences that will contribute to a larger, undesirable result.

Take Andrea for example. She's a regional manager for a chain of clothing retailers. After meeting with her superiors, she was told that she'd have to make some cuts to make up for a decline in sales. She needed to either let some employees go or make cuts to the store's available resources.

Andrea sat down and began listing reasons for and against these options. Making cuts to the store's resources would likely lead to further drops in sales, but it was equally hard to think of taking jobs away from her employees. Soon, Andrea found herself drifting off task and avoiding the difficult decision.

However, she reminded herself that if she didn't make a decision soon, sales would continue to fall and more people – including herself – could lose their jobs. By focusing on this immediate consequence, she was able to carefully consider her options and make a decision promptly.

QUESTION

Al is a business trainer and has to decide what needs to be included in a new training program and what can be accomplished as part of continuous development.

Which thoughts could help keep him motivated to avoid procrastination?

1. Remind himself that if he doesn't stay on schedule with the program, he'll delay the entire department's priorities
2. Remind himself that if he develops the program on schedule, he'll be able to take a longer vacation
3. Remind himself that if he doesn't get the program ready on time, he may be jeopardizing his bonus next year
4. Remind himself that he can do the job properly and not to worry about failure

In the first option, by focusing on the consequences of failing to make his decision can help Al to stay mindful of what needs to be done.

In the second option, by reminding himself of the rewards of successfully making his decisions, Al can stay motivated to complete his task.

In the third option, while focusing on the potential consequences of his failure can help to keep Al motivated, it's important that these be relatively immediate consequences so that they're readily experienced if he falters.

In the fourth option, to stay motivated to overcome procrastination, Al should focus on either the consequences of not fulfilling his responsibilities or the rewards of succeeding.

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 # 005-04

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