We often hear that procrastination can have a lot of negative consequences for your business. Yet there are also many positive sides, believes business expert Angelo Vero. You can read them today in this article.
“Yes, I sometimes (read: more often) also suffer from procrastination.” When I say that to the members at the Blogzine Academy, everyone seems to be immediately relieved. Because “if the coach or trainer does the same, then I’m not as bad off as I thought”, they immediately think. And I want to reply immediately: “procrastination does not mean that you are doing bad!
Being successful in business doesn’t mean you have to be perfect
Some tasks seem to require a lot of energy beforehand, or seem less important so that we prefer to postpone them. And that’s totally ok! I delved into the subject for a while and found some interesting facts about procrastination. And for once I’m only going to focus on the positive side of it. The negative consequences we already know!
1. All other tasks seem easier
Because we ourselves already indicate that we would rather not do a certain task (now). We immediately push that task forward as the most difficult task on our to-do list. This also means that we have unconsciously identified all other tasks as ‘easy’ or ‘easier’. So those tasks we complete without much difficulty.
2. More focus and more energy
Anyway, during your studies you have postponed a school task one or more times, until it was almost too late. What you may have noticed at that time is that you can then work enormously focused and quickly. Procrastination activates a certain concentration that we often do not have, just because there is no pressure. As soon as there is a higher pressure or deadline, then we shoot into gear. So the task we put off because we didn’t feel like it, or it was inconvenient in our plans, we’ve now completed in a fraction of the time we thought we’d be spending on it.
3. Get rid of excessive perfectionism
Sometimes we also put off finishing a task because we are too perfectionist. Wanting to finish a task to perfection is certainly not a bad thing. But sometimes we want to be too perfectionist and we don’t need to be. Our members at the Academy sometimes leave tasks lying around that they get stuck on and only want to schedule a new coaching session once the work is done. But sometimes we notice that they can’t work it out themselves and get stuck. Then I always have to say: “book a session now, and we’ll go over everything together”. Afterwards, they notice that it was a good idea and that they can now proceed much more quickly.
4. Avoid tasks that are unimportant
Sometimes we put off tasks without knowing why. In hindsight, it turns out that those tasks don’t actually add anything to the business in the long run. So your subconscious was actually already ahead of you and was protecting you for a task you didn’t really need to do. That is time gained!
Am I about to say that from now on you should start putting off all tasks? No, absolutely not! Do I mean to say with this, that it is ok if you postpone tasks from time to time? Absolutely!
You have to remember that being self-employed, we have a huge mountain of tasks and only a limited number of hours. Or more so, only a limited number of productive hours. So it is certainly normal that certain tasks are not completed. It happens more often than not when something else happens that you didn’t take into account.
Analyse your most productive hours
These days, I plan my day so that I do the least fun tasks first (because my most productive hours are in the morning). Only when I’m done with that do I move on to other things. Because I do the most difficult tasks at the time when I am much more productive, I also get them completed much faster and am much less distracted. The rest of the day, the other tasks immediately seem to go a lot smoother as well. Because the hardest part of the day is already behind me!
So I can recommend that you look for the times when you are most productive. That might be in the morning before the kids wake up, or just after they’re off to school and there’s time for yourself. Or maybe in the evening when the kids have gone to bed. I used to be the most productive even in the middle of the night, that was mainly because I was doing a lot of creative things back then and my brain only came up with ideas then (luckily that’s different now, because I’m asleep by 11pm).
Hopefully, this article will bring you some new insights about your procrastination behavior and make you realize that it doesn’t make you a better or worse entrepreneur if you do or don’t do it. The most important thing is that you realize that you are putting off tasks and that you will need to get mentally ready to get them done last minute. Need more tips on entrepreneurship? Check out our other articles!
