And The Biggest Procrastinators Are...

...usually the most sophisticated, sensitive, creative and intelligent people.

Nailed you, did I? Well, I assume you're in the sophisticated, creative and intelligent category. (I'm guessing that there are only a very few thick dullards who cruise this site.) That probably means you have large numbers of things stuck in your mind, in your briefcase, and on your desk about which things are not moving forward quite as consistently as they could be.

Major reason: the precise next physical visible activity (next action) has probably not been decided on the to-do's. The bright people usually have some sort of reminders about their projects and things to do on lists, in piles, or lying around, so they won't forget to think about their commitments. Bully. But every time they catch the briefest glimpse of any of them, they instantly race forward in their mind, rapidly and intelligently creating images of all the possible pieces that have to fit together and all the things that might have to be involved in getting them to happen and all the possible negative consequences if any one of them slips (and all the things that they might be forgetting in all this!) Whew. Freaked themselves right out. I'd quit, too.

Three solutions: (1) frontal lobotomy, (2) bottle-in-front-of-me, or (3) figure out the very next action required to move each of those projects forward. Each will take some of the pressure off, but I recommend option #3 for the most permanent and elegant fix.

I was recently reminded about this again graphically, coaching several executives on Wall Street one-on-one. You couldn't find many savvier, more creative, industrious, successful folks, yet each had varying degrees of "stuckness" about many important projects and issues. They simply hadn't thought these things quite through enough to get to the very next action step. When I got them to make that decision, tons of things uncorked and their own peace of mind went up dramatically. What amazed them the most was that it only took a few seconds to decide the next step, and that they didn't have to have the project totally figured out to get moving on it. Big surprise.

Don't just decide that you need to set a meeting--decide whether that's an email to send or a phone call to make, and to whom. Watch things move.

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You can find out more about David Allen and GTD at www.DavidCo.com.

The David Allen Company is a professional training, coaching, and management consulting organization, based in Ojai, California. Its purpose is to enhance performance and improve the quality of life by providing the world's best information, education, and products in the fields of personal productivity and work/life balance.

Comments

[loki]

my bad, I thought it was David Allen Cole, Not David Allen Co. I was curious as to why David Allen Cole would be on here.

[Artisbey]

The first paragraph to this article looks really interesting.

I'll finish if after my nap.

[tbone99]

if you just ignore it, half the stuff disappears on it's own.

[DragonMama]

particularly in interpersonal relationships... case in point, our divorce rate.

[RAStewart]

Well, as you know, we procrastinators can never resist throwing a procrastination joke into any discussion of our fatal flaw. (As I've done below, and probably will again when I get around to it.)

But I'll see if I can make number 3 part of my repertoire. (Without giving up the option for number 2, you understand.) Meanwhile, thanks simply for encouraging me to think of myself as something other than a lazy, inconsiderate moral defective.

[OtayPanky]

Does this "bottle in front of me" approach mean I don't have to go to my AA meetings anymore?

[edpell]

Work may pay off in the future but procrastinating always pays off right now.

[landmine]

I'm going to get to work right away, but have to do my blogs first.

[gcallaghan]

Why put off to tomorrow what you can put off to the next day?

[MoeSart]

I was going to read this, but I'll do it later.

[HeresJohnny]

As one of the very few thick dullards who cruise this site, I'm truly offended. The bottle-in-front-of-me should be the first option. I'll expect you to get to work right away on correcting this injustice.

[CaveatMagnusFrater]

Yes. The take next step in sequence and don't worry about the subsequent processes. Very simple, not so easy. Thanks for the reminder.

mike

[SomaMinneapolis]

"take next step in sequence and don't worry about the subsequent processes" Now should I order a bumper sticker or get that tatooed to my wrist. Anybody care to offer an acronym?

My boss and I call this project management by lurching drunkenly forward. It is amazing how well it works when I have no real idea what I am doing. Which is about 75% of my day.

[RAStewart]

"Project management by lurching drunkenly forward"--I love that phrase, may I steal it if I promise to take good care of it?

As for the acronym, I've put that on my to-do list. I'll get back to you next week or by the end of the month at the latest, for sure.