Kate Halewood is a Leadership, Careers and Life Coach specialising in behavioural transformation. Kate also runs ROOTBALL Coaching & Consultancy, working with private clients, entrepreneurs and corporate leadership teams to help them and their business thrive. In this two-part article she discusses the reasons behind our procrastination at work and how we can overcome it.

Hands up if you have said any of the following things at work lately;

'I've too much going on to focus on it'

'I would love to ...if only I had the time'

'I'll definitely start tomorrow'

These are all statements of procrastination. It is what we do when we postpone or delay activity and excuse ourselves from doing something. At one time or another we will all have done it in our lives and often the consequences are trivial. What about the times when we postpone things, even when we know we should be doing it? Like putting off fulfilling project activities at work.

Most of us already know the benefits we can get from completing those tasks; A better mood - happiness, stress reduction, a sense of accomplishment and even undisturbed sleep. They all sound like things we want, right? So, what causes us to delay the start of an activity? What makes us struggle to commit to it?

Here are a few possible reasons;

Fear of failure to start - 'I may not be good at it'.
Perfectionist Syndrome- ''I don't want to make a mistake'
Lack of self-belief to finish - 'I'll never stick at it'.
Lack of motivation - 'the reward is not big enough'.
Absence of Flow - 'I don't enjoy it'
Perceived physical barriers - 'I'm too exhausted'
Emotional states - 'I'm far too stressed’

When we do this, we excuse ourselves from having to reschedule the activities we are deferring. Two things result;

Guilt (because we believe we should be doing it).
We don’t get what we want.

Unwanted Procrastination

Unwanted Procrastination generates negative feelings like self- doubt, self-punishment and helplessness. When left to fester it can also lead to mental illness such as anxiety and depression. Physical health problems can then follow. To get what we want we must change our behaviour; our habits and find our willpower from within.

Tune in to part 2 of this post to find out how you can GET UP AND GO and stop delaying work!

Get in touch if you would like Kate’s help on how you and your leadership team can free yourself from procrastination.

GET UP AND GO Work-Life Lifts Part 1