Procrastination is not a time management problem
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Or, if you prefer, you can subscribe to my blog posts by e-mail. Thanks for visiting!
This is post 3 of my series Inside the Mind of a Procrastinator.
I have three, high-end Day-Timer binders on my shelf at home. I own three PDA’s, two Palms and a BlackBerry. I have printed templates from D*I*Y Planner, Hipster PDA Edition, and many others. I can’t begin to count the number of time-management/PIM software titles I own. I even have a patient wife who gently reminds me, and yet, I still procrastinate.
Procrastination is not a problem of time management or of planning. Procrastinators are not different in their ability to estimate time, although they are more optimistic than others. “Telling someone who procrastinates to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just cheer up.” —Psychology Today
I think, in some ways, time-management tools and systems create problems for procrastinators. Tools and systems are classic distractions. (I’ll look at distractions in a later post.) You can spend hours building, filling and tweaking your system without ever getting anything done.
This month it’s GTD. I run a mind sweep. I dump it into my in-box. I clean out my Lotus Notes and set up contexts. I sync it with my PDA. Then the phone rings with a crisis and I forget all about it. Next month it’s Franklin Covey and six weeks after that it’s Day-Timers. The system is not the answer.
That being said, procrastinators need systems more than anyone else. Time-management systems are to a procrastinator what AA is to an alcoholic. You fall off the wagon, back into old habits. One day you realize that you’ve let things get out of control. The program —system— is there to help you get things back on track.
Related articles by Zemanta
- It’s National Procrastination Week; Let’s Celebrate by Not Honoring It [Procrastination] (lifehacker.com)
- Let’s Get Rid of Procrastination (smallbusinessbranding.com)
- Ways to Outsmart that Procrastination Voice~ (psipsychologytutor.org)
- My Journey Out of Procrastination: Doing Things Now (climbtothestars.org)
- Procrastination Buster – Stop Procrastination Now Without Delay (realgoalgetter.com)
Related Posts:
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
There are lots of tools on the market to assist procrastinators. I can see how all these choices can distract a procrastinator. Each person needs to choose the tool best for them and stick with it.
That quote is excellent about depression… It seems to be a mindset where for whatever reason the person just puts everything off for another time. I don’t think electronic gadgets are going to help until the person gets over the state of mind they are in and find out why they just don’t get things done…
I’m GTD and I perosnally understand the procrastination problem. But what if it’s not the problem but a symptom ?
I mean, GTD helps me keep track of what I have to do. But if I’m procrastinating, that’s because… I feel like I have other more interesting things to do !
Isn’t procrastination strongly correlated to curiosity? Or to a capacity to quickly see all that needs to be done… just to feel overwhelmed, tired in advance… and switch to something else less stressing. I link procrastination to “bounded rationality”.
What if procrastinators are people not used in the right place given the way their mind functions ?
I just don’t procrastinate on subjects that rise interest and passion. Isn’t that a hint ?
Indeed. Organization systems, PDAs, etc, are tools, not solutions. The ‘trick’ is not adding new tools, but an internal change making you the kind of person who will make effective use of whatever tools you have available.