Putting Off Procrastination!

If you are like me, you have found yourself putting things off and heard that nagging voice talking to you. You know what I mean. You know that "should" voice. There are many reasons we procrastinate from lack of commitment to confusion to shame. Many of us have trouble getting started if the first step in the plan/process is too big. The antidote is to break the project into smaller, more manageable chunks. If there is too much on the plate, we resist taking action.  Commitment to a high priority plan leads to action every time.

Avoidance and procrastination are often interchangeable. We avoid doing things that make us feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, afraid; like a "perceived" confrontation which could simply be nothing more than a conversation I need to have with my boss.

I coached an MBA who hadn't filed his taxes in seven years because he couldn't get the paperwork mobilized. He was procrastinating because he didn't even realize that what he needed was an accountant! Plus his boxes of receipts were stored in many locations and he was terrified to face the IRS. Who wouldn't procrastinate? LOL Sound familiar? The reality is that once he stopped and we talked it through he was able to dismantle all of the parts so that each became a manageable project. Within two months he was mobilized and had a payment plan in place to take care of business. If he could do it, we all can! Just a matter of learning how.

A few simple tips for what to do about our own procrastination:

• Assign a specific time to do one baby step: vagueness will get you more procrastination. "This week" or "later" doesn't cut it. Be specific about WHEN you are going to do it.

• Narrow your focus to ONE task. This is the antidote to being overwhelmed by everything we have to get done all at once which actually immobilizes us.

• Think of the benefits and what it will be like to get something started- or even finished. Think of the pain you are in right now because you are procrastinating and what that is costing you.

• Make it about progress and not perfection or as a client of mine used to say "Progress IS perfection". Perfectionism will stop us every time. This is about "good enough" and being perfectly imperfect.

• Reward yourself by treating yourself kindly and gently just like you would a friend who ran the marathon.

Here's to moving ahead in all of the places you are stopped.

Have a productive day!

Coach Nancy

Improve your productivity by 41%!

I did a research project recently with a psychologist Dr. Edward Petrosky called the PSCI (Petrosky-Snell Coaching Index). We gathered data to help people be more productive and less stressed. One of the areas we looked at was time management and productivity. We surveyed over 225 business professionals ( they each completed a 100 question survey) to see where they stood in terms of crucial skills. One of the key findings that I  found pretty amazing, and highly relevant, is that one of the single best things you can do to improve productivity is: Don't agree to do ANYTHING until you identify the specific date and time you will do it. We found that people who do this are 41% more productive than those who don't!!

Look for more great tips from the PSCI research project for managing the tsunami and staying on top of your game.

Have a productive day!

Coach Nancy

Just Plane Productive: One Client's Story

I couldn't resist sharing this with you. I received the email from my client Adam who is a National Sales Manager for a large pharmaceutical company in the Boston area. It made me laugh and once again become present to the situation that so many of us face today; finding individual ways to be more productive and preserve some sense of sanity while we're doing it! Here's what he wrote:

"So as I write this I am sitting on a plane approaching Chicago  where I have a 2 hr layover then on to LA for tomorrow's full day of back to back meetings.

I am happy to say I did very well at my meetings in New York today…and I have been supremely focused  for two straight hours on this plane….which has lead me to an important insight:   I notice that I have   really unmatched productivity on these plane rides… precisely because I am trapped in a seat ..with no way out for hours……AND I don’t have to deal with interruptions…  it is as though the lack of choices….(choices like… I think I’ll go out for a coffee…or go for a jog..etc)   COMBINED with the fact that I cannot be on-line converge, leaving  me resigned to sit and get into the zone on big problems I’m working on.  I need to harness this when home..so I can get the productivity without the cramps associated with crossing the country in economy class.

Note: It’s 8:30pm Eastern as I write this… but it will be after midnight your time before it goes out… I don’t get to my hotel tonight until 10:30PM LA time..and I don t bother getting on line on the plane because the service is lousy   (which is why I get so much done )…"

Thanks Adam!

Wishing you all productive fly time!

Coach Nancy

Yikes! It feels like a Fire Hose Again! Typical Day?

My wonderful client Laurie is a senior level project manager with a major construction company in the Chicago area. She has been working for the same company , virtually doing this work for almost 15 years now. She finds herself lately sometimes working until 2 or 3AM ( seriously) to attempt to keep up in one way , shape or form to stay on top of the tsunami. Her days feel like the fire hose aimed directly at her gains more velocity . Here is an email I got from her earlier this week:

I am leaving work. I spent 4 hours in meetings today and 8-9 hours mostly working on two large change orders, two budget updates - all for the same big project.....one of five huge ones going on at the moment. I hate to say it but after being in the office for 15 hours ( email arrived at 11PM) I don't feel like I accomplished much. Pretty insane....huh?

I am going to have to postpone a meeting I have scheduled on Thursday that is also important because I simply have to get two more of the big deliverables done.

I have been tired all week. I can't work another 13 hour day - at least this week.

And on and on it goes. The sad truth is that so many of us can identify with Laurie these days.

Where are the answers? What can we do about it?

We discovered that some of this feels like an addiction to her inasmuch as a sense of accomplishment is such a driver that she will risk her very health for it. She also recognizes that she doesn't have systems in place which impacts how inefficiently she works sometimes. This is something she wants to address immediately and sees the benefit of taking the time to create simple systems.

One of the first things we did was to clear away a space on her desk where her calendar lives. Just taking the action and clearing off that space gave her a great sense of comfort and hope. She knows that she will have to do it routinely and that is OK with her because she now truly has experienced the value.

She also is embracing the idea of "slowing down to go faster" ( are you nuts?????) which is enabling her to actually get more done by pausing to think and think through before impulsively just taking action after action.

It all starts with the willingness to recognize that this type of work regimen- without boundaries- is not sustainable and that her very health and sanity are at risk and she is the only one who can make the necessary changes. Fortunately for Laurie, she does.

Pause – You Really Can Take A Moment And Breathe… In Fact, You Must!

No matter what issues busy and distracted executives are facing, from office interruptions and procrastination, to an overwhelming to-do list or needing to plan a multiphase project, pausing is always the first step. Pause gives us the opportunity to literally stop and think, to halt the frenzy and regain control before impulsively taking action. Pause is a chance to capture on paper the bazillion things we know we “have to” do: dangling loose ends, floating ideas that can immobilize us if we don’t know where to start, and dreams we’d like to accomplish at some point. The key to efficiency is to take hold of one knot in a seemingly tangled skein of yarn that is our workload on any given day and begin to unravel it. I always use a wonderful tool that I call a brain dump. It’s as useful a technique in planning a project as in confronting chaos and overwhelm.

A brain dump is a low-tech solution to a high tech problem that works every time: grabbing a pad and pen, and in no particular order, writing down everything that needs to be done. The point is to synthesize information, simplifying and demystifying whatever’s on our mind, so we’re able to focus on the tasks at hand. Capturing everything cleanly on paper and in one place establishes a consolidated central command post. The brain dump helps us to answer the question: “What is the first thing I have to do right now?” The act of pausing and taking inventory slows us down enough to begin to think, and to logically think it through.

In essence, this is a big STOP sign. Think about how we are running around all the time, we're impulsive, we're overwhelmed. We're also busy and get a false sense of satisfaction and confidence because we are accomplishing something-anything. Just because we are in action. Trouble however, is we're very often not purposeful or mindful of what we are doing and therefore not always doing the things that need to get done.

Pausing in the middle of all this activity and giving ourselves time to slow down, breathe and collect our thoughts will allow us to access the part of our brains that can plan and prioritize. This will allow us to think more clearly, stop procrastinating, address that sense of being overwhelmed and make good decisions all around.

This works....it really does. In fact it is one of the strategies the majority of my clients have come to rely on for getting things done.

Have a productive day!

Coach Nancy