Posted on by hildaweisburg

Productive Procrastinating

Maybe the title seems contradictory, but for many of us – procrastinating is something we can’t stop. So what if there was a way to use it to support our goals.

Because, there’s always something to do. Even summer vacation isn’t fully a vacation. There are conferences to attend. Webinars and e-learning to improve skills. Books to catch up on for pleasure and professional reading. How have you done so far with those plans?

Even in retirement, I’ve had things to do. I’m just back from Philly where I went to the ALA Conference and learned more than I expected. I also achieved a goal I had of making contact with some colleagues about being an adjunct for their university. Then I returned to a full plate. I looked at my to-do list and got started finishing a book and updating a course I will teach in two weeks.

But my plans unexpectedly stalled when I discovered I needed help from the school’s IT department, who weren’t available because of the July 4th weekend. Instead of jumping directly into editing the book, I decided it was time to take a break. I felt a little guilty about it, until I reminded myself of Kris Ann Valdez’ blog article Can Procrastination Actually Boost Your Productivity and Creativity?  

Valdez quotes cultural strategist, Margaret Ricci who says after years of grappling and hating procrastination, she now embraces this time, noting “the time she spends incubating her ideas before her deep work begins ultimately benefits her outcome.” But there is an obvious negative effect of procrastination. If you keep doing it, the tasks will never get done.

The idea proposed in the article is to give a structure and balance to work and procrastination. You do both in in short sprints. First, you need to know the deadline (or set one). That gives you an important parameter. Then, determine what steps are necessary to reach completion. Then allow yourself a break when you complete a step.

I know I will play solitaire once I complete this blog. Depending on what needs to be done by when, I will allow myself only a set number of winning games before returning to the tasks. Some of you procrastinate by turning to your phone or social media. If you set up a structure for how much and how long, you will get back to work after the time you allowed for it.

The article by Valdez recommends using Fuel, Focus, Flow, to increase your productivity levels.

Fuel – Know how your energy level grows and depletes during the day. I know I am most creative in the morning. I couldn’t write a blog or a new chapter in a book if I started in the afternoon. Be aware of what you need to increase your energy level when it dips. Coffee or a snack is a simple possibility when you need a boost. Where does joy come in for you? I track all wins (like getting the blog done) in my success journal. Start one if you think that will energize you.

Focus – The article recommends gamifying working by doing something like seeing how much you can do in ten minutes. I estimate how long it will take me to write or edit something. I check on how I am doing, but it’s fine if it takes me longer. It still gets done.

Flow – Physical movement increases dopamine, the reward neurotransmitter. Fidget tools or walking pads allow for movement while staying at your desk. Heading out to walk frees my mind from clutter, and I can dictate ideas into my phone. And when I get new ideas or see how I can do something differently, it helps my mental well-being. What is your preference?

Valdez’ article concludes with these words of wisdom, “The goal isn’t to eliminate procrastination It’s to contain it, learn from it and use it as a signal.” If you can’t stop procrastinating, find a way to use it instead. With that, this blog is complete. I am going to play solitaire until I win one game.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

The Emotional Pull of Procrastination

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how regardless of how busy we are, we still sometimes choose to procrastinate and do the tasks that aren’t the most important. But it’s hard to make a change if we don’t know what’s behind it. Not surprisingly, the root is emotional. No matter how well we plan, emotion tends to win over logic.

Whether you procrastinate by eating, doing non-essential tasks, or playing some online game, it’s our emotions that are responsible. Unfortunately, knowing that emotions are the root cause doesn’t mean you can simply stop procrastinating. Kathleen Davies offers some techniques for getting control of our self-sabotaging emotions in her blog post, Why We Procrastinate—And How to Stop,   She notes that procrastination is an emotion-management problem so that is what needs to be managed.

To begin to understand where your emotions are pulling you off track, start by listing everything that needs to get done (or as much as you can) and note which of these tasks are causing you stress or other negative emotions. Then pick one of those to complete along with an easier one. Once you do these, you’re likely to feel successful enough to tackle the bigger ones.

This list will also help keep you from something Davies calls procrastiworking. This is when we spend time doing the things that make us feel busy, but don’t really help our to-do list. It’s when we clean up our desks or go through our endless emails. We tell ourselves it’s work so we are getting things accomplished. It’s not the thing that we needed to get done but we still do it.

If specific action steps will help you to change your choices, Davies has four tips for beating procrastination:

  • Increase the room temperature – Research has shown that higher temperatures increase your focus.
  • Sunlight– Working where you get natural sunlight has also been shown to increase productivity.
  • Exercise during the workday – Doing it even for a short time improves memory and reduces stress while clearing your head and helping your focus more.
  • Setting a timer – Give yourself a block of time, perhaps 20 minutes, to work and allow yourself to take a break at the end.

To make a shift away from procrastiworking, first recognize that you are doing it. Next, go back to your to-do list. Identify the priorities and what steps you can take to deal with them. At the end of the day, assess how you did. To prevent it happening in the future – plan. Know how often you do it, learn to recognize it, and decide what you will do when it occurs. And notice the emotions and stress that come up before and after you’ve completed the tasks. Hopefully positive emotions can guide your future choices.

It’s interesting to note that for some people, procrastination can be useful. If you are someone who works best under a deadline, then waiting until that deadline is looming – and the adrenaline that accompanies this– can help you to be more efficient and effective. When you reach the point that you can’t put it off until tomorrow, you can’t get distracted. You have to stay focused. This doesn’t work for everyone, but if it does for you, then go for it!

But in addition to learning about where our emotions are causing us to veer off course, Davies also writes about the importance of stepping away from the task that is causing our stress.  She says, “Sometimes you just need to take a break. Go for a walk, talk with a friend, or do something that isn’t work. It’s not always worth just powering through.”

So, if reading this blog was procrastiworking for you (“But Hilda writes about libraries, so it’s work, right?”) then get back to your list. If one of the tools mentioned seems like it would support your success, go for it. Here’s to learning how to best use our time for our success.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Focus and Procrastination

Photo by Antonio Guillem via Canva

There is always something that needs to get done but too often something pulls our focus. Before we know it, we’ve lost too much time and haven’t made the progress we want. Is there a way to make the two work together?

Sometimes procrastination can help and other times, not so much. When we choose to answer a phone call or an email as a way to not work on a task, it can be hard to get focused again. Then there are the times when you’re stuck during a project. You take a break. Perhaps go for a walk or even play a game of solitaire (my two favorites). When you return to work, somehow you have figured out what you need to do next. The procrastination became an aid not a deterrent.

What’s the difference? Usually it’s your attitude or mindset towards what you are doing. Are you taking the break intentionally or to avoid something? When you are not eager to dig into the task at hand, staying focused can be a challenge. You are more likely to succumb to the negative aspects of procrastination. The short break you give yourself stretches out. By the time you get back to work, more time has passed than you realized. Then we typically beat ourselves up for taking the break. You probably will get it done, but without the enthusiasm that produces your best work.

As part of a blog post on How to Remove Distractors from Your Workday, Naphtali Hoff shares six techniques to help you manage internally driven distractors from your day:

  1. Set Daily Goals – This is familiar advice. My suggestion is to limit the number of goals to two tasks. You can have more on your to-do list but keep your focus on one or two priorities. If you get to anything else, it’s a bonus.
  2. Set Deadlines – Most of your tasks probably have inherent deadlines, but it helps to be specific. Set a time by when you will finish the day’s top priority items. Having a “by when” will help you achieve it as you have a goal you are working toward.
  3. Break Project into Manageable Chunks – Big projects are intimidating. My method is to telescope, microscope, and periscope (see my blog post on this here). Use Telescope to identify by when the project must be completed. (Set your own internal deadline for before that date since life happens.) Microscope by determine a sequence of steps, including daily ones. Focus only on the one you need to complete today. Every so often, pop up your Periscope to see what is coming up. Do you need to alter your daily schedule?
  4. Practice Mindfulness – Meditation is not procrastination. Use all your tools to keep your outlook positive. Record your successes. Praise yourself for accomplishments. Hoff says, “practicing mindfulness meditation is associated with improvement in sustaining focus and attention.” When you feel good about yourself, it’s much easier to get work done – and stay focused at it.
  5. Set a Timer – This allows for what might be called “planned procrastination”. It’s like a workout for a specified period of time. How long do you want to work before taking a break?  Your body needs to move, your thoughts may need to focus elsewhere for a little while. It’s healthier if you get up each hour for a few minutes. After a second hour, you might plan a longer break – to take that walk or play that game. But set a timer for that, too.
  6. Switch Tasks – Sometimes you hit a brick wall. While some form of procrastination to refresh your brain cells might work, consider switching to task #2 on your to-do list. Some may find that doing this needs some transition time, but as long as you know you’re making this change, you’ll start the next task sooner.

Know how your mind and body behave. Identify what is happening when you lose focus or when you’re having trouble getting focused. How long can you work full-out at something before your focus begins to dwindle? Remember that you can welcome, allow, and even plan for procrastination as a tool in accomplishing tasks. When you do this – the time spent procrastinating is less likely to take over your day.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

ON LIBRARIES: The Thief of Time

We have all heard that “procrastination is the thief of time,” and “don’t put off ‘til tomorrow what you can do today.”   And yet, we all procrastinate. Then we beat ourselves up for doing it.  Even on our busiest days, we almost always put off some things and waste valuable time. Why do we do it?  Is it possible not to procrastinate?

Newton’s first law of motion may be one part of it. “A body at rest tends to remain at rest…”  There is something challenging about starting.  For example, many of us have experienced staring at a blank page and not knowing what to write.  When Ruth Toor and I use to write The School Librarian’s Workshop, we sometimes agreed to write badly just to get started.

The fact that no one seems to be immune to procrastination suggests it is normal. According to an article on The Neuroscience of Procrastination—Why It’s So Hard to Get Things Done, we have been doing this since civilization began (although it’s a little hard to picture cavemen/women sitting around drawing with coal rather than getting work done). The neuroscience explanation is:

“procrastination happens when the primitive,  pleasure-seeking and pain-avoiding limbic system acts too quickly for the rational pre-frontal cortex to catch up. In this way, procrastination is described as the art of making intentions that get overridden even if this is disadvantageous.”

Apparently, my limbic system loves to play Klondike, but there is work to be done.  What is necessary is to find some balance, giving ourselves some time for procrastination but not so much that we find we are scrambling to meet deadlines.

It helps to know yourself.  What tasks are you most likely to put off? Which ones do you get to with no problem.?  I teach an online course for pre-service school librarians. I love starting my day checking my university email (not many messages), reviewing my students’ posts on the Discussion Board, and grading their papers because I enjoy the “conversation” with them.

I am more likely to put off starting this blog. As with all writing, it requires a degree of creativity. And again, there is that blank document staring at me, waiting for me to put something on it.  Maybe if I play one more game of Klondike, I will know where to get started.  Or I can look at my Gmail account….. Guess what?  That never really works.

It’s usually the bigger more serious tasks we put off.  Partially because it is big. Sometimes it carries with it an element of uncertainty.  We don’t know exactly how to get it done.  And then there is the low-level (or high-level) fear of failure, so our ego protects us by avoidance. What we need are strategies that get us past that “body at rest” stage and the sudden desire to see if there is anything important in your email or on social media.

The internet has loads of articles on the topic.  Business is always concerned by this issue since procrastination reduces productivity.  Of all the ones I looked at, I found that MindTools offered the best suggestions on How to Stop Procrastinating: Overcoming the Habit of Delaying Important Tasks.

The first two steps, Recognize You Are Procrastinating, and Work Out WHY You Are Procrastinating are important, but easy to get clarity.  I think most of you know when you are procrastinating, and the why’s are usually connected to fear, uncertainty, newness, levels of importance and our own insecurities. The clearer you can get on the why, the easier these next strategies will be for you.

The eight strategies listed under Adopt Anti-Procrastination Strategies are:

  • Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past – As you notice you are procrastinating, don’t start beating yourself up. That will just spiral you down. Tell yourself what you are doing and then move on to the task at hand.
  • Commit to the task – Write it down. If you keep a To-Do list, it’s already there but give yourself a realistic amount of time to work on it. When it’s a writing task, I vary between giving myself a certain amount of time or a number of words.  Very often I exceed what I set which gives me a boost.
  • Ask someone to check-up on you – When we tell someone we will get something done, we are much more likely to accomplish the task. In my Weight Watchers group, we have noted that people who have a “partner” do much better. Accountability can be very motivating
  • Act as you go – It’s easier to get a task done as soon as it’s given. Back to “Don’t put off until tomorrow ….” First determine the priority, however. Don’t do something that will cause you to put off something that should be done now.
  • Rephrase your internal dialogue – This is about mindset. If you are thinking, “I have to…” you are taking on a burden. Instead, say “I want to …” or “I choose to….” When we notice how our actions support us, it becomes easier to follow through.
  • Minimize distractions – Oh, there are so many of these. Put your phone away so you don’t get distracted by incoming messages. If you have a television on, turn it off.  Work on a desk with no computer. If you can, turn off your social media and email.
  • Aim to “eat an elephant beetle” first thing, every day! – Look at the picture of one of those! They’re kind of horrifying. Do the most difficult, uncomfortable or least desirable job first. Then you can feel positive about yourself and go on to complete whatever else is waiting for you. When you have eaten that beetle, congratulate yourself and consider some reward. (A bit of procrastination can help you to switch gears.)

And when your favorite procrastination behavior surfaces, remember fact that it’s normal. Take a breath, refocus and get on with the tasks that will help you feel great at the end of the day. There will be time for Klondike (or Candy Crush, or Words With Friends…) later.