On Focus and The Counter-Intuitive Power of (Managed) Procrastination

How many times have you stared at the screen, trying to muster up the will to finish your spreadsheet, presentation, or email? How do you push yourself over the finish line?

For me, I learned a long time ago that the block I’m experiencing, and therefore the ensuing procrastination, may actually be my intuiting telling me that pausing is actually the right course of action. Perhaps I don’t have the necessary data to move forward yet. Maybe I need to turn the problem around and look at it another way? Or even though I “should” get something done right now, it’s actually too early to lock something in.

Managing time and procrastination - time to look at things a different way?

Walking away for a moment, task switching, or consciously telling myself I’m not ready yet can, counter-intuitively, lead to a burst of clarity and creativity that makes doing the thing I was avoiding suddenly easy!

Of course, procrastination feels awful! You get the guilt, dread, and general malaise piled on to the anxiety of an unfinished task. However, I’ve learned to listen to that quiet voice telling me “maybe not yet” rather than the whole world shouting “Now! Now! Now!”

I have a few tricks:

1.     Schedule calendar time to get stuff done. I color code it to mark out “work” time designated for specific projects. Then instead of the guilt of not doing something immediately, I remember that I’m getting to it at 3:00 today and I can let it rest until then.

2.     I literally, physically, walk away after too long spent unproductively staring at my screen. Sometimes 15 minutes doing something, anything, else is all it takes for my brain to find the missing piece and pop it in to place.

3.     If I can’t focus, I reframe the problem from “what’s wrong with me?” to “what ‘s missing?” Do I need more information or better pre-work buy in? Is this a call rather than an email? I’m not a neophyte – If I’m stalling, maybe there’s a really good reason other than I’m not good enough.

4.     Phone a friend. When I’m stuck, I’m not shy about reaching out to a trusted teammate or someone in my network and asking them to let me walk through my roadblock with them. Saying it out loud is surprisingly effective at helping me see the problem, and potential solution, more clearly. If all else fails, I’ll ask my dog. She’s a good listener most of the time.

5.     I’ll go back to basics and ask if this is actually a good idea in the first place? Maybe I’m stuck because deep down I know this is probably not a great idea, or at least not an idea that’s ready for the public yet.

Those are some of the things I do to un-stick myself. What do you do when you’re stuck? Would love to hear what works for you!

#GreenStarHCA