Fast forward a few decades and ironically, I find myself in a position of this article being delayed, despite it having been planned and scheduled for weeks, showing that procrastination happens to most of us in some shape or form. 

It was that certain level of discipline my mother instilled in me that kept me focused and hardly ever let me miss a deadline, until a few years ago when I took on a demanding, executive-level role. I had too many “balls in the air” to juggle without dropping one occasionally. Still very much dedicated to not only meeting the targets but turning in a project that was presentable to the senior leadership team, I came to the realization that my expectations of completing timely deliverables at near-perfection-level quality were probably not reasonable. Something difficult to admit.

My manager at the time used the expression “if you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute”, which I now know to be part of Parkinson’s law.  First appearing in The Economist in 1955, Cyril Northcote Parkinson wrote an article stating that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” The theory behind this is that we will use as much time as is given to us for the completion of a task, allowing for procrastination.

Often times knowingly seeking a distraction and delaying a certain assignment will leave us with feelings of guilt, anxiety or stress further debilitating our productivity. So, what can we do to pull ourselves out of this downward spiral of draining energy and get things done? 

How about shifting our perspectives? When we feel like we have no- or a limited choice in the matter, we are naturally inclined to fight the task or project ahead of us. No one likes to be told what to do and how to do it. However, when we are able to pivot in our thinking and choose to imagine that we have control over what that outcome looks like and focus on how satisfied we will feel once said task is accomplished, we no longer believe we are a victim of circumstances. 

I speak of experience. I feel so much better, now that I completed this article and hope that your take-away from reading this is that we always have choices in how we are looking at matters and that there is a great sense of satisfaction in getting things done. Don’t wait until the last minute!

Procrastination is one of the most commonly discussed topics during my coaching sessions.  If you feel that being held accountable by a career coach could help you overcome waiting until the last minute contact me.