AviMarcus.net » Leadership Project

How to Help Procrastinators

Avi Marcus — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:42:09 +0000

Have you asked your spouse or friend for something, but they never seem to get around to it? You keep asking again and again, afraid to bug them and afraid they will feel offended as they once again tell you that they didn’t do it yet.
What can you do?
Procrastination is not about laziness. Procrastination is a method to remove anxiety, explains Neil Fiore in The Now Habit. The book explains many methods – sometimes you need them all! – to remove the anxiety from work. If you are trying to get someone else to help you, then remove the anxiety causing aspects before from the work yourself. You will have much happier people helping you sooner!

Overwhelming. Tell them where to start. Use a reverse calendar – break the work into smaller steps with their own due date. Large projects seem overwhelming, but small pieces don’t.
Perfectionism. Many people view any fault in their work as a reflection off their faults. Tell them that it doesn’t need to be perfect – perhaps you just need a rough start.
Criticism. Everyone hates being criticized. If people are concerned about criticism, they will be anxious about the work and won’t be as creative or resourceful. Everyone loves sincere praise, so heap it on. Don’t criticize – if you must offer suggestions, praise them first and tell them how to make it even better.

Don’t just do this for others – notice what makes you anxious and apply these ideas!

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Impatient Because You Value Your Time? Prove It!

Avi Marcus — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:10:51 +0000

Stuck in traffic? Gosh, how long will this take? you ask yourself. You may start tapping your foot impatiently, as the minutes tick by without any movement.

We get impatient when things take too long. We want to be doing the next thing, not waiting for it to happen. We don’t like people wasting our time.

Yet, do we ever get impatient wasting our own time? Did you ever get impatient while procrastinating? If you ever sat down to watch some TV because you didn’t feel like doing other things, did you let yourself get sucked in and waste lots of time?
Impatience means you value your time. Unfortunately, we only remember that when we stop running around and take a look at how we are currently using our time. Let your impatience remind you that your time is precious. You may want to spend your waiting moments to see how to use your time better. What could you stop doing? What action would move that important project forward? What things are just a waste of time?
Don’t let impatience be negative. Let it remind you to use your time better. Keep the message with you by constantly asking “Am I being productive, or just keeping busy?”

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Everyone Is a Manager And a Leader!

Avi Marcus — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:52:56 +0000

Anyone responsible for overseeing a project or goal is a manager. You decide how you want to get to the goal, and then take action. “What’s the next action?” is a necessary question in your toolkit.

You can delegate to other people, allowing you to handle more or larger projects.
You can delegate the work, but not the responsibility. You must make sure things are moving forward. Maintaining a list of what you delegated is essential. You may want to meet to advise and check on the progress.
Being a manager isn’t just about the project – its also about the people. In addition to improving productivity skills, you will want to improve your people skills.

When you choose projects, that makes you a leader. Great leaders are those who have vision. Reactive projects are only responding to the past, and not looking to the future.

Leaders determine what to do, managers are responsible for making it happen.

You are a leader. What are you deciding to do?

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Four Benefits from Scheduling Play Time

Avi Marcus — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:26:43 +0000

You set time for work, but did you do the same for play?
When I refer to work, I don’t just mean your job but all things that aren’t done just for fun.
Usually, you end up spending more time working than scheduled. Things come up, deadlines have to be met, or you just get so caught up in the work you don’t end up with play at all.
So schedule your play time now, and get there benefits:

You can be positive that life isn’t all work. Work is only a part of your life, you have play scheduled! If you only have work scheduled, then life can seem like all spinach and no dessert. Even I like dessert.
Play recharges your batteries. When you get back to work, you can approach it with more energy. When you know that you have play interrupting the work week, its much easier to stay energetic and excited!
You form a positive feedback loop. It may seem like a paradox, but the better you play, the better you can work. When you finish your work and get to your play, you will be able to enjoy it because you put in time working. When you get back to work, you can approach it with more energy, which leads to enjoying your play even more – a very positive feedback loop! Scheduling your play FIRST, and make sure you stick to it. Yeah, I am asking you to stick to a schedule of play!
You get subconscious problem solving. When you get your mind off a topic and relax, your subconscious gets to work on whatever was bothering you. Your best ideas for work may come up while playing!

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Finding More Time, Part 4: Optimizing

Avi Marcus — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:36:10 +0000

This series (1, 2, 3) has helped you to eliminate many tasks. Everything you still do can be done better and faster.
I firmly believe that everything can be improved. Not from a pessimistic viewpoint that things are bad, but from an optimism that however good something is, a new creative approach can make it BETTER.
Approach everything with an attitude that it can be made more exciting, faster, return better results, etc. simply that it can be improved! If nothing comes to mind right away, look around online, ask people you know, or just let it bother you, so that your subconscious will look for an answer.
Here are some principles to get you started.

Batching
When you do similar tasks in a row, such as paying bills or making phone calls, you have some great benefits:
*You need to start less. Starting is the always the hardest part. You only need to agonize over starting once, and then you can keep cranking. Instead of having to work up the courage to pick up the phone five times, with batching, you only need to start once.
*Less set up time. All things have a set up or preparation time – getting out the check book and calculator, preparing the ingredients, or looking up the directions. If you do them all at once, or in bigger quantities, you will set up – both physically and mentally – fewer times.
*Its lets you immerse yourself into an action that normally is too short. When you make a phone call, you get into a mindset that helps you make the next calls even easier.

Make It A Race
Have something that’s really routine or mundane? Race the clock! Try to beat your best time. This adds challenge and excitement. You may find yourself having lots of fun!

Parkinson’s Law
“Work expands to fit the time allotted.” Beware of this law! It applies to meeting, checking email… everything. Things will come up, you will be sidetracked to related issues, or ideas will come up that will cause you to spend more time. (For high value projects, it may be good, since you can start implementing new ideas right away.)You may also slow down if you have lots of time. Setting firm time limits will get you to work faster and find more creative solutions, so you finish sooner.

Pareto Principle – The 80/20 rule
Mentioned in part 3, use the Pareto principle to focus on the important parts for better results. Have you noticed that in person you usually make a sale, but not on the phone or by email? Then don’t waste your time with lots of long phone calls or emails answering questions, instead schedule a face to face meeting to make the sale.

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Busy Work vs. Real Work

Avi Marcus — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:42:05 +0000

If you tally up your actual working time for the day, it will probably be a pretty solid number. Yet, you may be disappointed with what you accomplished.
How can you work so long, but be disappointed with the results?
It has to do with what you consider “work”. If you answered email, talked to coworkers about current projects, and handled some things that came up during the day – then you haven’t done things with substance.
You probably avoided doing the larger tasks or projects that really count long term (quadrant II). At some point during the day, you probably noticed something you SHOULD be working on, but didn’t put any time in. Spending time on THOSE things – it doesn’t need to be the whole day – helps you to feel that you accomplished something.

Constantly asking “Am I being productive, or just keeping busy?” will help you from getting caught up in busy work. Write it in a place you will see every day!

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Finding More Time, Part 3: Eliminating Even More!

Avi Marcus — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:54:00 +0000

Using the 80/20 Rule
The Pareto principle, or 80/20 rule, tells us that 80% of the results come from 20% of the actions (the numbers aren’t literal, nor must they add up to 100). This is a tremendous realization: in any project most of the actual work doesn’t have much of an affect on the outcome. Develop the ability to notice the difference between the little that really matters, and the rest. In most cases, the unimportant parts can be dropped or done quickly.

Distractions – Think Long Term
Most distractions aren’t worth our attention, but we still choose to deal with recurring distractions over and over. Instead of dealing with the same thing repeatedly, prepare NOW so that it becomes less of a distraction.

One easy and common example is a newsletter or update in your email that doesn’t matter to you. The second it takes to delete it isn’t such a big deal, but it adds up. The next time you see one, instead of just deleting it find the “unsubscribe” link in the email, or the “junk/spam” button in your email client.
This takes some extra time now, but it saves in the long run!

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Finding More Time, Part 2: Delegating/Working With Others

Avi Marcus — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:00:44 +0000

In Part 1: Eliminating Activities, I suggested that you should make sure the work you are doing is what YOU should be doing. If something isn’t “worth” your time, then find the appropriate co-worker to do it, delegate it, or hire it out. Another reason to delegate is to have a more experience person doing the work.

These tips are about how to get other people motivated and get their creative juices flowing. The more positivity and creativity, the better!

Have Your Secretary Help
If you have a secretary, ask them to write a suggestion of how to handle each item before they put it in your inbox. With some training, you may find that they can handle most things themselves, or with only minor corrections. Make sure to give feedback on the suggestions, *especially* the good ones. This can save you lots of time. You may even be surprised by some creative ideas.

Get Them Involved
People work best when excited or personally invested in a project. See how the project may appeal to them. Find the benefits for them. Pitch it to them!
If someone comes to you with an idea, try to get them MORE personally invested in it. People love their OWN ideas, and will work with enthusiasm on them. Stop yourself from taking over and saying anything that will make the idea yours – encourage them, and help them become more enthusiastic about their idea.

Get Them To Problem Solve
When people come to you for help, does it ever seem they don’t really know what the problem is, or that they really could figure out the answer themselves?
To help them become more independent, ask (or demand) everyone to follow these three steps before they come to you:

State the problem in 30 seconds or less (15 might be enough!)
Think of 3 possible solutions
Choose which one you like best, and why

(Step one forces them to focus on what the problem really is. Step two makes them really look for solutions, with the assumption that many solutions exist. Step three gets them to make decisions.)

If you can install this habit in the people around you, the few questions you will be asked will be much more focused, and already have possible solutions!

Make Sure YOU Are The One Delegating!
In Time Power, Brian Tracy says one of the worst management issues is reverse-delegation. This happens when the person you delegated to asks you a question or needs a piece of information. They now must wait until YOU get the answer – after all, you are the boss so you have more experience. However, once they come to you, they have become the boss and are delegating to you! Get them to problem solve themselves (previous section) and suggest where they could look, rather than offering to do it yourself.

Don’t be a Bottleneck!
If your staff needs your approval on everything, that means that they are limited to YOUR speed – and they need to keep interrupting you!
When you delegate, make sure they know exactly what you want, and perhaps even why. Have them repeat it to you, so you know they understand. If they are clear with the goal, they can ask you less. Tell them that you would rather they decide minor things themselves than constantly ask you questions. When people are forced to think for themselves, they often come up with good ideas!

To really take advantage of all of these, you must learn to be more flexible. People will keep asking you to make decisions if you scold them for the decisions they make themselves!

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Don’t Walk Away – Decide NOW!

Avi Marcus — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:24:43 +0000

Most things we do involve making many decisions. We often fear making a mistake or giving up an opportunity. When we need to make decisions, even small ones, we may get an urge to stop and walk away. Often, we just don’t want to deal with it.

However, you probably won’t want to sit back down to your work until you decide. You won’t want to spend the time getting back into the background info and all the options, weighing them all – again – in your head. The longer you push it off, the less certain you will feel – which will further prevent you from making a decision.

Here are some ideas that may help you decide:

Deciding To Walk Away Is A Decision!
“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a decision!”

Sometimes, It’s Not A Big Deal
How much difference is there between the options you are considering? We don’t get stuck considering a bad option vs a good option. We only get stuck if the options are both good! If the difference isn’t that big, just choose one and move on. It’s not worth your energy to worry about it.

Delaying Can Hurt
Often, if we can’t decide, the whole project needs to be put on hold. Is this decision large enough to warrant putting everything on hold? If not, just choose one and move on. Don’t let it break the momentum.

Get More Information
Call someone for some advice. Search online for how other people handled a similar thing. Write out the pros and cons of each option.

If you make it a habit to decide right away, you will save yourself lots of time and energy!

Note: For large decisions, you may legitimately want to sleep on it. But make sure to actually decide the next day, otherwise you will just be using this as an excuse to push off deciding!
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Stick With "Stuck Tasks" to Avoid Even More Frustration!

Avi Marcus — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:01:49 +0000

(This is another reason to immerse yourself into tasks.)

If you don’t stick with the task until you finish, then you will end up wasting lots of time.
I vividly recall trying to complete a list of things for some software I was writing. Since I had so little time, if I got stuck on one, I moved on to the next. What soon happened was that I had spent some time on each – but got stuck on them all! I spent lots of time, but didn’t finish ANYTHING.

When you get stuck, don’t put it away and move on to the next thing. You won’t want to start on it again because you don’t know what to do next. You will lose your grip on the problem and it will take you lots of time to just get back to where you were – for you to get stuck again! Talk about frustrating!

Instead, just stick it out a little. You only need to think for a few moments – maybe a few minutes. Pause. Take a deep breath. What is the real problem? What can you do to work around it? It doesn’t need to be a perfect solution. As you implement a partial solution, you may realize the rest of the solution. The longer you spend on it, the better you will understand the problem. Knowing the problem is half the solution. You can also try looking around online – someone else probably has had the same issue.

When you do find a solution, take a moment to appreciate it!

If after 5-10 minutes, you can’t get it, then resolve to come back to it as soon as possible. The more it bothers you, the more your subconscious will work at trying to figure out answers. Expect possible solutions to pop into your head, and they will!

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