If you’ve been out of work for a while, or plan to be, check with your car insurance agent about pricing. My agent called this week, regarding a different policy, and checked my rates. By adjusting the projected annual mileage used in the formula that determines my rate (since I’m not commuting to work everyday) I can save about $200 per year.
photo by ruudvanleeuwen
The latest issue of Fitness Matters (an American Council on Exercise publication sent to anyone certified through the organization) featured an interesting article on procrastination. Fifteen to twenty percent of the population can be considered procrastinators, and that tendency to delay the inevitable is an issue in the workplace, not just at the gym.
Toronto-based hypotherapist Debbie Papadakis noted that
people think that procrastination is done intentionally, but there’s always an underlying emotional cause stored in the subconscious. This is our permanent memory, like an organic computer that holds all our emotions and limiting beliefs.
Everyone procrastinates at intervals, even if not clinically inflicted with the detrimental behavior. When prepping you to-do list for the day, the work you want to be doing easily floats to the top of the list. Why do certain activities seem to always be sent to the end of the line? For items that have been pushed off until the last minute at the office, what were you waiting for?
The research of Piers Steel, PhD, of the University of Calvary seems to indicate that confidence is a key factor.
Essentially, procrastinators have less confidence in themselves, less expectancy that they can actually complete a task. Perfectionism is not the culprit. In fact, perfectionists actually procrastinate less, but they worry about it more.
So perhaps we should all take stock of our skill sets and reconsider our to-do lists. When you have a major case of the “tomorrow is another day” syndrome, what types of projects do you typically put off? Do they utilize skills you’re not as comfortable with?
Perhaps instead of avoiding the issue, you might source out a workplace buddy that you know is strong in that area. For me, knowing I have a direct line to someone that can help, makes it a lot easy to tackle a difficult and time-consuming project.
In return, you can offer to be that life line for someone else. If everyone in your department is willing to lend a helping hand to a colleague, won’t you each be better for it? Repetition makes people more comfortable with tasks, so eventually everyone in that tangled web of assistance will be more confident when it comes to using certain skills. Sort of a corporate no-man-left-behind policy that can defeat the most pernicious procrastination.
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