Battling against Procrastination
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What is Procrastination? Is it a practice or a psychological state? What does that mean? Actually, it means putting off or delaying or deferring an action to a later time. If you struggle with procrastination, you're not alone. Most of the populace in this world is having this virus. And in our IT industry, this is becoming a ustomary practice for most of our software professionals. This kind of software professionals try to build their image forgetting this fact that they are playing in the dark. As I said before in one of my earlier blog that “Plan is nothing, planning is everything”. Henry Ford also once said, "You can't build a reputation on what u're going to do." Actually Ford statement wires my saying about the “Plan” and gives a better picture of what we should do to be more successful. I believe that to be successful you must learn to close the gap between what you should be doing and what you are actually doing.

In my 6 years of experience in IT industry, I have seen a lot of guys having procrastination bug. But they are under the feeling that they are doing their best to serve their companies. Few days back, I have an encounter with one of my friend and colleague who is 100% hit by procrastination. When I tried to dig out the root cause, he tried to put me on the spot and debate me on this with no concrete facts. Every muscle in his neck and face was tensed at that time. Basically, he tried to confuse me about his act. These types of guys will definitely try to confuse you because they strongly believe that “If you can not convince them, confuse them”.

There is a very widespread say in India. I would like to share it in Hindi with all of you.

“Kaal kare so aaj kar, Aaj kare so ab”

This means that one should do the work today which he has planned for tomorrow. The say continues unfolding that one should perform the task right now which has planned for today itself. This is just the opposite of procrastination. Or we can say Anti-procrastination.

In one of my previous company, my boss was like this only. I mean he was definitely a procrastination man and ironically he always tried to be smart in front of his senior management. Once I asked with that guy a very basic question about this habit in a general status meeting. I could not disclose that question here in my blog because that will directly pin point towards that senior guy and I don’t want to do that. But after that incidence, he tried his best not to act like a procrastination guy and believe me, he recovered a lot.

If any one of you is struggling with procrastination, the following four steps can be followed to brawl against this tendency to some extent.

1. DISRUPT YOUR STANDARD SCHEDULE.

A couple of years back, I was working with one of the biggest IT Company and was inspired with my manager a lot. Once he said to me "Do not tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done." That was the statement that truly stunned as well as shaken me a lot at that time. I kept thinking about this statement and then come to this conclusion that it doesn't matter how hard or long you work if you're not accomplishing what needs to be done.
Sometimes changing how or where you work can increase your output extensively. Start by shuffling the order of your daily tasks. If it makes sense, begin your day with a task you normally reserve for the end of the day, or vice-versa. Also, try changing your work setting. Go to a park or swimming pool. Break out of old familiar patterns. Try to come to your office by the local bus service or by a shared cab. Use your bike (or bicycle if possible) instead of car. Start working early in the morning and leave for the day in the evening instead of late nights. These kinds of acts will definitely be questionable for the management but that will definitely help you to struggle against procrastination. And at the end of day, if you are completing your work in a proper way, no one will raise their hands against your way of working.

2. GET YOUR FIRST FAILURE OUT OF THE WAY.

It is true that first failure always gives you a feeling of sadness and pain. But in my opinion, pain is very interesting because it makes you stronger and deeper. My professional hardship and personal lows have only made me stronger. Plan and execute your first failure so that you no longer have to fear it. If you need to make sales calls, dial up your first potential client and expect rejection. Keep calling until you get that first "no." Don’t expect an instantaneous Yes. If the answer is No, learn from the rejections. If you're brainstorming to solve a problem or complete a project, start by weeding through the bad ideas, and then move on to better ones. Once you've expected—and overcome--one failure, other ones don't look so intimidating.


3. BREAK YOUR BIG TASKS DOWN.

The average person doesn't get seriously down to work on a big project until midway between the start of the project and the deadline, whether an hour or a year away.
If the size of a task causes you to procrastinate or completely shy away, break it into smaller, more manageable tasks. Then, give yourself an immediate deadline for accomplishing each task. Ray Kroc said, "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs." I am also following the same point in my professional carrier. I called this technique as “BST” (Baby Step Technique) and believe me; it is working a lot in my job concerns. This is very true that if you have a huge task to plan and execute, its better to break it into smaller pieces of chunks and then work accordingly. Problems will remain in this technique also (BST), but it will be in the short format and can be resolved further to smaller chunks.

4. STEP BACK AND SEE THE BIG PICTURE.

There is a primary philosophy gap that draws a clear demarcation line between the losers and the winners. The losers lack something vital: a sense of purpose. Often people fail to start or complete a task because they don't see any connection between what they're doing and what they really want to accomplish in life. If you sense that what you're doing is not directing a path toward a desired result, it's probably time to rethink your pursuits. The biggest gap in the world is between 'I should' and 'I did.'". On the other hand, if you know that your work will move you closer to your goals, you will be more inclined to see the task through. Actually in my opinion, we should be more specific about our desired outcome.

The whole case study has turned up to a statement that even if you have procrastinated in the past, you can begin working today with a new outlook on getting things done and use some fresh methods for avoiding procrastination in the future. Make yourself a promise today to put an end to the phrases "woulda, coulda, shoulda" in your life. This is definitely a big challenge but we should make a difference in how we view challenges.

I will end this article with an anecdote: Once I went to onsite for some of my project related tasks. There I met a team that is totally devoted to testing activities. They were 4 guys and three of them are too much roofed by procrastination. They always tried to defer all the actions to a later time. But there was a fourth guy who is just opposite to this. He was too sharp and IR type of guy. IR means Instant Response. Now the main point in this context is that the fourth guy (IR type) was physically challenged and the rest of the three guys are quite well. Once I said in a team meeting that we should learn with this guy (IR Guy) to behave professionally in office. I admired that guy a lot in that meeting and surprisingly when I visited next day there, I felt that the other three guys start working against their normal habit i.e. against procrastination. Although I haven’t seen those guys for a long time after that but I hope they must have changed their attitude.

-- Sanat Sharma