Page 187 - End Procrastination Now Get it Done with a Proven Psychological Approach

Applying Techniques to Address Procrastination in the Workplace 151

The weaknesses you identified in the SWLO analysis are po-
tential procrastination hot-spot areas. You may have to deal with
these matters regardless of the kind of work that you undertake.
However, when you perform more of your preferred and fewer of
your less-preferred work functions, you’ll procrastinate less. Ad-
ditionally, you can use SWLO to

• Identify areas that you can use to determine the closeness of
fit between your strengths and your work.
• Sharpen your view about where you are likely to perform
best and why.
• Identify or reinforce the value of the functions you perform
that militate against procrastination.
• Identify work responsibilities to boost productivity when
procrastination is not part of the picture.

Working in areas where your strengths apply lowers your risk
of procrastinating, which can negatively affect your overall perfor-
mance. Doing what comes easily, what you enjoy, and what you
will work hard at is a formula for experiencing passion in your
work, for generating successes, and for procrastinating less.

The Five-Phase Self-Regulation Program

Each new instance of a hot procrastination process is likely to have
both familiar and unique features. Addressing each new episode
effectively typically takes tested strategies and innovative new ones.
The five-phase process can be applied to advance this initiative.
Up to this point, you’ve seen how to apply psychological strat-
egies to reduce procrastination and make performance gains by
using the time you save when you don’t procrastinate. Now we’ll
look at how to apply a management strategy that you can use to
regulate your efforts to help solve procrastination problems and
also prevent them.