Work prioritisation - procrastination one

[werkywork]

As we are now at the end of the working week I should be feeling good about Friday and going into the weekend. If it were not for the fact all my important tasks have been pushed back (by me) all week so now I have a stressful day ahead, or a weekend of unfinished tasks on my mind.

AIBU to ask if you're the same as me and if so how do you try to overcome it?

Or are you super organised, great at getting the hard jobs done first and always find Fridays a breeze?

I am terrible for leaving tasks that I don't really want to do. As a result I now have a couple of difficult things to do today. I annoy myself with it. I'll get it done though and have a tasty tea and a glass of wine to get over it 😆

I do have a tendency to be like this. I’m not sure I have the answers to be honest, but some things which have helped:

• Lists. Loads and loads of lists, so I can tick things off as I go along.
• Working from the office more (my procrastination is far worse when WFH).
• Switching off my perfectionism gene so when I’m dithering over finalising a report/email/whatever just forcing myself to send it.
• Trying to find a role which is deadline driven where possible so I can’t set my own timeline and keep extending it.

I used to sandwich less enjoyable/harder tasks between others. e.g. I'll review that document (fun), then I'll phone those customers (not fun) then I'll work on the spreadsheet (fun).

Or set a fixed time slightly in the future, so at the start of the week, I might say 'right I'll do it first thing Tue' (and then do it).

Try Eat the Frog ! So make the thing you are putting off or the thing you are dreading doing is the first thing you do in the day.

What is Eat The Frog?
“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.”

I’m exactly the same op, it’s so frustrating! And it’s worse since wfh.

Try to “eat the frog” and do the worst tasks in the morning, maybe not first thing but in the morning definitely. I also try to give myself a deadline for the work in my head, even if there isn’t an actual deadline.

I hear you. I find the ASMR videos on YouTube quite helpful. There are some good ones with music/sounds to help you zone out of the environment and focus.

Ha. We call it swallow the frog but yes my job is to swallow multiple frogs a day. I always aim to have the largest frog swallowed by 10am so the rest of the day seems easy in comparison.

I have learned that putting it off I’m just ruins evenings/weekends and it’s not worth it for me. I reward myself with a cup of tea as soon as it’s done.

All the above.

I also give myself deadlines by setting up meetings with others to give them an update on where I'm at, even if the big deadline is way off. Then I have the fear of - oh shit I need to have done something about that because I need to update Sue - earlier than I would normally. This also keeps momentum going on the work.

In fact writing this makes me realise I probably need a fake deadline for myself for next week to take someone through something due the week after!

I'm the worst procrastinator and then suffer badly from the stress and wonder why I do it to myself.

When there's something I'm avoiding, I make a list breaking it down to the tiniest steps eg 1 - collect all relevant emails and docs into a folder. 2- read through. 3 - create x. 4- double check policy. 5- double check x. 6- email x out. 7-update records. Then I only do one step at a time then do something else. It's less daunting to know exactly what I'm going to do and then I can stop. Ticking off the steps and seeing the progress feels good too.

My worst trait and I am working really hard to overcome this. I write a list of tasks, and then split them over the number of days I'm working so it feels manageable. Then the tricky ones that I put off, I try and do one small thing to progress it, break it down into tiny steps and just start. Focus on how I'll feel when its done. I think I assign too much importance/fear to things, and usually when I start it's nowhere as bad as I thought.

I think part of the challenge is working out why you’re putting things off. I tend to do it because I am a perfectionist and can be a bit all or nothing (i.e. I do it 100% perfectly or not at all).

Learning to switch that off is really not easy but it does help.

Agree, it's usually something I'm not confident on that gets put to the back of the queue, so I'm trying to work through step by step to get the info/answers I need. My working day would be sooo much easier if I could overcome this. Sometimes I think I leave things to the last minute so if I get them wrong it sort of gives me an excuse?

Update, I've finished the horrible tasks!

Now what's for lunch? 🤣

Perfectionism and fear of failure I think.

I don't eat any frogs, perish the thought.

What I did do, when I first got senior roles, was to read the 7 habits book.

For time management, the 4 quadrants one is a great way of prioritising work. And what you can actually just ditch.

Using Outlook, I'd estimate the time it took to do the worst task of each week, and book that into the first day and get it done. I'd not allow myself to be sidetracked until it was finished. I used to have to write quite detailed, constantly shifting reports that went to the Board, and the external stakeholders and so I'd base my work around getting that prepared and out and automate as much as I could to minimise repetative tasks. Whilst giving me 3 days grace to get it out for proofing and amends to the people that wanted to see it before it went.

I'd always try and find out what my deadline was on an item, and the moment it was given to me, I'd book the time to do it into outlook. And I'd rarely move it.

I worked from home so would be dressed and at my desk in the home office ready to work, I'd have breaks and lunch and be right back when I needed to be. With nothing to distract me, I got the work done.

If you are a perfectionist, just do the best you can to get 80% done and then leave it overnight and relook at it in the morning. Then make your amends and finish the job. Things that feel like they need perfecting at the end of a long day often aren't important the next day.

That's great advice. You make it sound so straightforward.

This is absolutely me all over. Do you have any tips / tactics? This is a great thread.

ADHD… the procrastination, the putting off tasks, the ‘not being able to do the thing until the thing…’ (if you have a meeting at 3pm you can’t do anything before then), only being galvanised into doing the work if there is a huge deadline or a huge risk of getting into serious trouble… 100% textbook inattentive ADHD.

But most people are like this in my experience. It’s not exactly uncommon.

In my experience, ‘eating the frog’ was hardly ever as bad as I thought!( often calls to create parents).

I would put off and put off, worry, fret, then eat the frog and find it was ok! .. But I has wasted so much time and energy worrying for nothing. That was worse than just getting it done.

To the extent of pushing four days’ worth of work to the fifth day? That is absolutely not common. Nowhere near typical.

The OP didn’t say she’d pushed all her work back to the fifth day, she said she had been putting off the important things she didn’t want to do.

Not everything has to be diagnosed as a medical condition. Sometimes people just procrastinate.

This is me 100%

Yikes, it seems I’ve touched a sore spot…

Not really, I just disagree with you.