Posted on: 10 April, 2002
Author: Mary Anne Hahn
"Never handle the same piece of paper ... ... bit of advice kept swimming through my ... I stared at the piece of paper in front of me, ... what on earth to do with it. Not "Never handle the same piece of paper twice."This oft-heard bit of advice kept swimming through my thoughtsas I stared at the piece of paper in front of me, wondering what on earth to do with it. Not that this was the first time I'd touched this particular piece of paper. Not the second, nor the third. In fact, I'd tossed this sucker back into my in-bin several times during the last two months.The time had come to do something with it.But what? I'd already asked my boss for clarification on the assignment--twice. And who knew how many minutes I'd spent, on and off, studying it, mulling over it, and feeling guiltyabout not doing anything with it. It had become my nemesis,this piece of paper. How could I make it disappear, once and for all?Why did I keep procrastinating on this one task?That's when it hit me. Maybe I had at last asked myself the rightquestion. Instead of "what do I do with this?", perhaps the realquestion was "why am I *not* doing this?"Intrigued by this new insight, I looked at the piece of paper again.Within seconds, the answer came to me. I kept putting this task offbecause I simply didn't have enough information to complete it. And asking my boss for assistance hadn't helped because she wasn't asubject matter expert on this topic, either. But I did know someonewho was, and I knew that person would be more than happy to help me.I was finally on my way to making that piece of paper go away. Moreover, I'd learned a very important lesson on how to deal with procrastination in the process. During my research on this topic, I discovered an article by Dr. Kent T.Yamauchi at Virginia Tech, in which he listed three main causes for procrastination: inadequacy, discomfort and perfectionism. On top of this,the tendency to procrastinate something often increases exponentially with our desire to complete it; therefore, the more important the goal is to our feeling of success and well-being, the more reasons we find to put off doing it.So here we are, many of us, putting off returning to school, or writing thatbook, or starting our business, or whatever it is that we resolve year afteryear to do--but don't.So how do you overcome this powerful procrastination tendency? By asking yourself *why* you keep doing it. Is it because you feel inadequate to complete the task? Or does thinking about doing it make you uncomfortable? Or do you feel that if you can't do something perfectly, you don't want to do it t all? Once you understand the "why" behind procrastinating, you've taken a major first step towards dealing with it.In my situation with that miserable piece of paper, I'd felt inadequate to perform the task correctly. I needed more information. Once I realized that, I was able to take steps to get the information I needed, and theurge to put the task off disappeared.What if I had realized instead that I was uncomfortable performing thetask? Let's say the assignment was something that struck me asunethical, or that I perceived would cause me harm or embarrassment.Again, had I come to these realizations, I would better know what steps to take to address them. Maybe I would have expressed theseconcerns to my boss, instead of simply asking her for clarification,or perhaps I would have suggested that it be reassigned to someonemore capable of performing it safely.As for perfectionism...this is perhaps the most potent cause forprocrastination. While striving to do one's very best in each endeavoris admirable, settling for nothing less than perfect stops us from eventrying. At the 1976 Olympics Nadia Comaneci made history, becoming the first gymnast to ever score a perfect 10. Could she have achievedsuch an accomplishment without a great deal of efforts, or hundreds ofhours of practice? Of course not.So, if you're putting off something that means a great deal to you,ask yourself: Is it because you feel inadequate to perform it? Thenturn to those who can help you sharpen your skills. Does the taskcause you discomfort? Perhaps you need to break it down intosmaller tasks, until you can build up a comfort level that allowsyou to try something greater. Are you a perfectionist? Recognizethe truth in "practice makes perfect," and practice, practice, practice.And one more thing--try not to ever handle the same piece of papertwice. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com