Page 68 - Time Management

Mancini04.qxd 1/16/2003 4:28 PM Page 53
53
Procrastination: The Thief of Time
6. You fear failure. The most confident people fear failing at
something, so they put it off, sometimes forever. A good exam-
ple is public speaking. People fear making a mistake in front of
a large group of people because they believe that their failure
will be magnified. In most surveys, the fear of a failed speech
ranks higher than the fear of death.
Truman Capote once said, “Failure is the condiment that
gives success its flavor.” Franklin D. Roosevelt put it more
famously: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
7. You tend to overcommit. Many people are so dedicated,
ambitious, or enthusiastic that they take on far more than
they should—at work, at home, or in their communities.
Different factors may drive this tendency—the inability to say
no, a desire to please, or even merely the otherwise great
virtues of a zest for life and a broad range of interests.
But no one can do it all—certainly not all at the same time.
If, in looking over the list of pending tasks you composed earlier
in this chapter, you find one or two items you could (and
should) unburden yourself of, it’s possible that you tend to take
on too much. In the future, before volunteering to take on new
commitments, take a few moments to review those commit-
ments you’ve already made but haven’t completed. You may
wish to engage in a very useful form of procrastination—putting
off new commitments until you complete the ones still pending.
8. You’re addicted to cramming. For some people, doing
something at the last minute triggers a rush of adrenaline that
fuels them on. This is a dangerous habit because:
• Last-minute work increases the odds of making a mis-
take.
• You have no time to correct mistakes—or sometimes
even to discover them.
• A new, unexpected demand may come up that will steal
time from your last-minute sprint and hurt the quality of
both tasks.