Page 193 - End Procrastination Now Get it Done with a Proven Psychological Approach

Applying Techniques to Address Procrastination in the Workplace 157

Setting both mastery and performance goals is associated with
a reduction in procrastination.
Within any dynamic organization, you’ll have multiple and
often competing goals. Time managers say that you should do the
most pressing and important things first. This advice is rational
but not necessarily realistic. The hyperbolic factor is likely to be
present. The more pressing and important goal may be the one
that was originally put off until the delays could no longer be toler-
ated. At that point, you allocate resources to the pressing task.
In a static world, you can better predict what is going to happen
next. You know what to do first, second, and third. You’ll allocate
time and resources in that order. But we don’t live in a predictable
world where linear actions lead to goals.
In a dynamic world, which is more the norm, you’ll sometimes
have to reverse the ordering of your goals if you are directed to
do so by higher authority. However, if your mission is to decrease
procrastination in order to increase production, it doesn’t matter
that much if your priorities are shifted because of an external
directive. The value of pursuing the mission and supporting it
with achievable goals remains. You simply apply your counter-
procrastination efforts to a different challenge.

Create Clear Objectives. When you break your goals down into con-
crete and measurable objectives, you improve your chances of
achieving your mission. That is because smaller steps have shorter
deadlines and the rewards of completion are closer in time. Thus
they are more likely to get done. Objectives provide a sequence of
activities. Finishing one step sets the stage for finishing the next.
Suppose you have procrastinated on working to overcome
a fear of speaking before community groups. Your goal is to over-
come this fear. You can break the goal down to five sample
objectives: