One of the reasons people put off project-type work is that they’re thinking about the end result and not the very next action they need to take to move the work forward.
Whether it’s a complicated negotiation that’s become problematic or an administrative process improvement project, we can sometimes get stuck because we just know the outcome we want but we’re not clear how to get there. And since we don’t like that feeling, we start procrastinating.
Surprisingly however, the simple act of determining our next physical action to advance the work/project is sometimes all it takes to get unstuck.
The trick is to get extremely concrete (again, about the action). For example, the next action to get unstuck about the negotiation may be to go out to see your secretary and request a document status list for your review. (Rather than endlessly mulling over possibilities in your head based on incomplete information, such a doc list would help focus you.)
The next action on the process improvement project might simply be for you to find the two month old email you were sent outlining the document templates that your paralegal recommended for approval.
The point is that in both cases, you know, at one level, that you just want the thing done! Your eyes are on the horizon. But you have to take some step, and since you’re not sure what that step is, you don’t take any step.
So think of some matter or project you’d like to move forward but which hasn’t moved in a while. What’s the very next physical action to take? Don’t over-think it. Is it getting out of your chair to pull the file? It is picking up the phone to call someone?
Sometimes the bogeyman of procrastination doesn’t need to be exorcised at a deep psychological level. Sometimes it just takes getting clear on the next action.
