How can a SME Business Owner effectively fight procrastination?

Procrastination affects the best of us. And it’s particularly prevalent among high achievers, entrepreneurs and business owners. Whether it’s about chasing invoices, sorting out the company’s taxes or just getting up and out in the morning, when you own a business it’s even more important to stay ahead.

It’s such a commonly recognised problem that there’s even a national ‘Fight Procrastination Day’ on 6 September every year. The date may have passed but fighting procrastination should be an everyday objective to ensure your business thrives and survives.

Why do you procrastinate?

Digging a bit deeper into the reasons you are putting important tasks off to another day can be helpful in combating procrastination. You may find it comes down to a single reason, for example, anxiety about hitting deadlines. On the other hand, there may be various reasons behind your lack of motivation.

Here are some of the reasons business owners find themselves shrugging in the face of certain tasks and telling themselves they’ll do it tomorrow. We’ve also added some ways you can fight back against the urge to leave it for another day.

Reason 1: Certain Jobs are Boring

For most people, procrastination comes down to finding specific tasks unpleasant or just plain boring. And when you run a small business, there are always more interesting things than the accounts to do. But the backbone of the business lies in the day-to-day administration of duties that ensure there is always cashflow and props to keep the business going.

To get over your dislike of chores you perceive as dull, you can do a couple of different things:

• Set deadlines

This solution works best for people who thrive under pressure. Set yourself a specific time limit and dive in. This way, you know how much time you will be allocating to the task in advance. For example, decide to work on a job for 20 minutes. This will motivate you to just get it done, because you know it will only take a short amount of time.

• Break it down

Breaking the job down into smaller and therefore more palatable chunks can work well too. When you’ve finished a chunk, you can then reward yourself by doing something more interesting. Then, after a decent break, you come back and tackle the dull task for another set period of time. Repeat until it’s done.

Reason 2: Anxious Thoughts are Putting You Off

For some people, the idea of having to tackle a difficult task can lead to varying levels of anxiety. And when anxiety builds, it’s all too easy to just leave the task undone and turn away to focus on something else. This is particularly evident when it comes to doing something new, starting out on your own or launching a small business.

However, tackling anxiety head on is always the best solution, and that means examining the task ahead in detail. Try these ideas to help you get through the wall of fear:

• Plan effectively

A common reason for task anxiety is not knowing what you’re facing. Instead of worrying and putting it off, do plenty of research and plan ahead. If you understand what needs doing, then you’ll feel more able to get it done.

• Make lists

Breaking tasks down into bitesize chunks can really stave off anxiety. Write lists and be clear. This will help you prioritise effectively and fit more in to your working day.

Reason 3: You are Easily Distracted

Distractions crop up for everyone at work, whether you’re a small business owner or an employee. It could be colleagues chatting or any number of day-to-day office comings and goings.

You may think that working from home would sort out any distractions, but that’s not necessarily the case. Everything from the needs of your family to cleaning the house can somehow get in the way of work. Here are two ways to tackle this problem:

• Change where you work

If you work from home, try setting up a specific office area and let family and friends know that you can’t be disturbed while working. It can help you focus and give the feel of working in a dedicated space. Alternatively, try working outside of the house. Grab your laptop and head to a café, library or other space that comes complete with WiFi and concentrate on your tasks away from home.

• Structure potential distractions

By deliberately incorporating distractions into your day, you can get much more done. For example, if housework distracts you while you work at home, make space for it as another task. If you block out time for distractions, then it will allow you to focus on the task in hand. This works equally well if you work in an office. Be realistic about the kinds of daily distractions you deal with, and factor them into your day.

Reason 4: The Task seems Too Difficult

This is perhaps the biggest reason I come across as a SME Business Advisor. In many ways this is similar to Reason 2 as it inevitably leads to anxiety which only makes the problem bigger.

Sometimes you recognise there is a problem in your business that needs addressing but you don't really know what you need to put in place to make this happen. This can often be because the area needing attention is outside of your core skillset.

• Be honest with yourself

The first important step is recognising that you don't have all the necessary skills yourself, or in your team, to address a certain issue in your business.

• Enlist outside support

Getting outside help to support your business address a difficult area can provide you with the expertise to identify what needs doing in a macro sense and then provide the project plan to do this in a micro sense so that the overall task doesn't seem so daunting after all.

In addition, depending on how much you delegate to a 3rd party it can also free your time up to look after other areas of the business.

The expertise being sought could relate to a variety of different business functions from Finance to Sales, IT to HR, Marketing to Operations.

How we work with you at ICON Business Solutions

The first step is to sit down with you and carry out an in-depth analysis in order to get a better understanding of any issues facing your business before we make any recommendations. The results of our analysis are then presented back to you with options about how to improve your current situation. If you decide at this point to move things forward and use our services to deliver one or more of these options, we then put in place a step-by-step solution where we work together to design and put in place specific strategies to achieve the positive outcomes you desire.

What we use to achieve these positive outcomes are our proven consulting systems. These are based on the approach of the big consulting entities and have been adapted to fit the requirements of the SME market and focus on 7 business disciplines of Sales, Marketing, Production, Finance, Legal, Human Resources and IT.

If you would like to know more about how ICON Business Solutions can help you to achieve your personal and business goals, then please send me an email to: [email protected], phone me on 07879 912736 OR visit the ICON Business Solutions website www.iconbusinesssolutions.com.