Beating Procrastination

Procrastination might be one of the most stressful aspects of our work lives that we have full control over, yet we find ourselves falling into it more than we'd like. Procrastination doesn't discriminate; even the most successful and talented people procrastinate, especially when they are overloaded. Those days when your to-do list has fifteen or twenty number one items, it seems those are also the days your brain finds every excuse to clean your desk, grab an extra coffee, or keep scrolling through your phone. As a CEO of a NY Web Marketing Agency, I have a lot of people relying on me to buckle down and chip away at the day's tasks. Here are the four tactics I tap into every time I feel the grim reaper of procrastination peering over my shoulder.

1. Just Start

WHAT TO DO: Commit just five minutes toward getting the process started.

It's simple, yet so many of us can't find the mental space to make it happen exactly when it needs to. If you're entrepreneurial and a bit of a perfectionist like I am, you've probably pulled more all-nighters crafting whatever it is you're working on until it's just right, more times than you'd freely admit. At my core, I know that's probably why it can be so hard to get started on a project that will require a lot of my undivided attention.

When I do the "just start" method, many times I find that getting my creative process going has a compounding effect, and that five minutes turns into fifteen or thirty. At that point I am better able to gauge if it's a project that is close enough to completion that I can knock it out with a bit more time, or if I should shift to the next item on my list. This is a great prioritizing method, especially when you feel that your "must-dos" for the day take up the entirety of a yellow legal pad - or whatever your preferred mode of checklist is. Progress on a task is better than none.

WHAT TO DO: Assign the beginning of a task to a trusted member of your team.

When the "just start" method fails because obligations are tugging me in every direction, I relegate myself to the reality that while I may not be able to begin a project now, someone on my team can. After running an agency for over a decade, I've come to place a high value on the role trust plays in a well-oiled machine. Trust, as a business owner, can be easier said than done. Whether you're placing large responsibilities on someone else's plate or delegating a recurring task, it really can be hard to let go.

Developing trust between yourself and a capable person in your company enables you to let them start the task so that you can finish it while still meeting your other obligations. When they can bring a project to a certain level of completion, it's often far easier to dig in later. It's something to react to, with momentum behind it, so you can finish it up and get back to that list of to-dos. In all honesty, drafting articles for publication like this one is something that can be difficult to juggle with all the other responsibilities of a CEO floating around me. Still, writing these articles to share my experiences with other entrepreneurs is important enough to me that it stays on my list. When I find other items taking precedent, I delegate the start to a member of my team. Once I started taking this approach, I published over 50 articles in a year compared to just 30 in the prior year.

WHAT TO DO: Enlist the help of a coach or mentor to nudge you along.

I am a huge proponent of coaches, mentors, and professional networks in growing a successful business. Let's face it: there is a reason an industry of people whose full-time job it is consulting executives exists - it works. Though a colleague can be a good option in serving this role if you are just starting out, I have found that an accountability partner really should be someone you're cutting checks to for their expertise.

Peer groups and mastermind accountability groups work well too. I love giving the examples of accountability that stem from such groups I belong to. We met once a month, and we had a few rules in place to ensure attendance. Aside from that, the reason we were so productive in this group is because we were accountable to each other. We all decided that in addition to business goal setting, we would set some personal goals that we could also measure every month, such as number of workouts, or number of date nights out with our significant others - balance in our personal lives was a value we all held. I found that making a public promise to those in the group was so much more effective than just telling myself it was something I needed to get to, and I'd get some flak from the group if I did not deliver.

WHAT TO DO: Re-prioritize your day by dropping a recurring task that you can live without.

Sometimes it really feels like there aren't enough hours in the day. I am here to tell you that there are. I can promise you that. We all have daily rituals that we do out of habit - rituals that keep things humming along smoothly but added up can be time consuming. A great example of this is social media usage. I am not saying you need to log off permanently, but the time we spend on our phones disguises a huge chunk of time that could periodically be used in more productive ways. Fortunately, your iPhone's screen time app can tell you how much time you could reclaim from social media, and you can even lock yourself out of them if you find yourself cheating. I also recommend shifting hours around where you can, to get more creative time just outside of traditional business hours (though that can be a slippery slope, so shift with caution).

Our company follows the Rockefeller Habits, which requires a daily huddle first thing in the morning. When I am in "making more time" mode, I'll have a VP run the meeting so I can stay in the zone and receive meeting highlights at a later time. It's important to make sure that the things you are cutting out don't become permanent cuts if they impact to the long-term health of your organization. By the same token, you may discover old habits that no longer serve a productive purpose.

At the end of the day, it's important to remember that procrastination is no more permanent than periods of productivity. Living an entrepreneurial lifestyle is all-encompassing, and you should constantly be checking in with yourself, or an accountability partner or peer group, to get back on track when you can find every excuse not to. Beating procrastination is all about governing and mastering those three inches between your ears.

So, now... right now, go start something you've been putting off for a while!