Knowing that you have a deadline that gives you ample of time to get the task done, how many times have you left it right to the last minute to do it, putting undue pressure on yourself as a result?
I can hold my hands up to this one as it is something that I have been guilty of from time to time.
Some of us thrive under pressure and whilst a reasonable amount of pressure can be quite good for us (it can help to stimulate and motivate us, even helping us to come up with brilliant ideas), constantly putting yourself under too much pressure is not a good thing. I often see many people who leave things until the last minute and then produce results that are of half the quality than if they allowed themselves a more realistic time frame in which to complete the task. Plus they have completely stressed themselves out (and those around them) in the process.
Why do you do this to yourself?
Could it be that you are an adrenalin junky and need the adrenalin that this brings to keep fired up? Or is it that you are so overwhelmed by the task that you bury your head in the sand? Leaving things until it gets to the stage that you cannot bury your head any longer and then have no choice but to get on with it, not producing work of the quality that you are capable of.
Some people produce their best work when they are working under a bit of pressure. But if you put too much pressure on yourself, that can lead to stress and it is not healthy to be consistently operating under a state of stress.
What will you do if something fails at the last minute?
One client I had left a very important piece of work to the last minute and stayed up all night adding the final touches to it. Finishing the work with less than an hour to the deadline in which it needed to be submitted (the work needed to be submitted electronically), she was ready to upload and press the send button and then…. horror of horrors, her computer froze.
Getting into a blind panic, she decided to submit it from a laptop. However, when she turned the laptop on, Microsoft decided it was time for an update and you know these updates always seem to take so much longer when you need to do something in a hurry. To my client, this update seemed to take forever.
Fortunately for her, her computer eventually decided to play ball and unfroze and she was able to submit the work with less than 15 minutes to the deadline. This was a bit too close for comfort for her and her stress levels shot through the roof.
She was very fortunate that she managed to submit it before the deadline but imagine if she hadn’t. Imagine if this was you. Or have you also been in similar situations?
If you repeatedly find yourself in this position, for the sake of your stress levels, do something about it.
Is the task too overwhelming?
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back for my client as she recognised she repeatedly found herself in these sorts of situations which did nothing but increase her stress levels.
On examination of what was going on for her, when faced with a task that she found overwhelming, she would procrastinate because she often did not know where to start, or she didn't feel confident in what she was doing, or she did not fully understand how to go about doing it.
If you find the task too overwhelming, break it down in to manageable chunks. Work back form the deadline (allowing your self sufficient time before the deadline to submit it) and set yourself milestones for the different steps you need to take.
If you are unsure how to go about doing it or don’t know where to start, do not be too proud to ask for help. Also, it is amazing what you can learn through Google and YouTube. Not being a techy or knowing a thing about web design, I taught myself how to build my very first website through information I got from Google and YouTube which served me well for the first 6 months whilst starting my business.
You thrive under pressure
If you thrive under pressure, add some pressure in to your timeline by setting yourself tight target dates for each milestone. If this does not motivate you enough to stick to it, get someone to hold you accountable or reward yourself when you achieve a target. Alternatively, impose a penalty on yourself if you miss a target if you are that way inclined, allowing sufficient time between the final milestone and submission/completion of the work.
If you are addicted to delay, accept it
If you are addicted to delay, acknowledge this and accept it. However, rather than putting undue pressure and stress on yourself, introduce a bit of planning to allow for the unexpected.
Do you leave things till the last minute because you thrive under pressure or do you find you leave things till the last minute when the task seems overwhelming? How have you dealt with procrastination? I would love to hear how you have dealt with this so please share your comments below.
Originally Published on LinkedIn.
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash