I planned to write this last week ... Time Management Part 2

I suspect I'm not alone that on occasion I find myself procrastinating. Most of us who have been in consulting for any amount of time are used to working to deadlines. And although we may rarely, if ever, miss a deadline set by a client for a deliverable or proposal submission, we may procrastinate a bit along the way.

It can be easy to feel stressed when you have a big deliverable or to-do list hanging over your head, and it feels great when the work is completed. There is definitely a sense of accomplishment and relief. I know I always enjoy that feeling. I think that is why so many people enjoy the consulting business, as there are so many opportunities to feel that sense of accomplishment. So why do we procrastinate?

I looked this up and found there are five basic reasons:

·????????Absence of structure - We deliver for our clients because there is imposed direction, but we don't do as well for our own deliverables when we are only accountable to ourselves.

·????????Unpleasant tasks? - This one is easy to understand. We avoid things that we don't enjoy doing, or find boring or uninteresting.

·????????Timing -This speaks to the gap between the time when we do something, and the time when we might actually see the benefit from the effort.

·????????Anxiety - Avoidance is a well-known form of coping with anxiety.?

·????????Self-confidence - Low self-confidence can cause us to avoid activities and perhaps miss opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills.

?So, what can be done to avoid procrastination?

?Eat that Frog

The most impactful technique I’ve ever learned to deal with my own procrastination and improve my own productivity came from the book Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy. This is the big idea from his book:

#7 Obey the Law of Forced Efficiency: You cannot eat every tadpole and frog in the pond. But you can eat the biggest and ugliest one, and that will be enough, at least for the time being.

“There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.”

The analogy of eating frogs originally comes from Mark Twain, who said that if you can start your morning by eating a live frog,?you'd have tackled the worst thing that can happen that day. Your ‘frog’ is your most crucial task—the thing you're most likely to defer, yet can create the biggest impact on your outcomes.?

I suggest you couple this idea with another concept from the book Getting Things Done- the art of stress-free productivity by Dave Allen regarding the importance of knowing our "energy-states." I'm a morning person. I'm at my highest energy level between 7am and 10am, and so I use that time to “eat my frogs.” Things that require less energy, or perhaps the tasks I enjoy more, I save for my lower energy times of the day.

In a nutshell: you need to figure out when your high energy time of the day is, and then schedule your frog eating for that time. If you’re an early bird like me, have your frogs for breakfast with your cereal, and if you’re a night owl, have your frogs for supper.

Other strategies that can help with procrastination include:

?Have a system

Create the same imposed direction for your non-work tasks as you have for your client activities. Set deadlines for yourself and hold yourself accountable.

?Take smaller bites

Make long-term goals feel like short-term rewards. Breaking big projects into smaller bites allows you to derive a sense of accomplishment when you complete each smaller action. Reward yourself when you get something done (that smaller action) by taking a break, connecting with a friend, etc.

?Take care of yourself

It’s important to de-stress: exercise, get a good night’s sleep, meditate – whatever helps you feel more relaxed and focused.

Sean Hanlon is CEO of?Dillon Consulting, a proudly Canadian, employee-owned professional consulting firm specializing in planning, engineering, environmental science and management.?Dillon Consulting?partners with clients to provide committed, collaborative and inventive solutions to complex, multi-faceted projects.