The management we do of our work time is one of the most important aspects not only of work performance, but also of our satisfaction in the workplace.
Unfortunately, there are certain “traps” that workers from virtually any position in the organizational chart often fall into, and procrastination is one of them. Here We will see what this tendency to procrastinate consists of and how it is related to Parkinson’s law a very interesting idea about the use we tend to make of our available hours.
Procrastination is, in short, the tendency to leave for “another time” our responsibilities or what we had set out to do. It is a way of sacrificing medium and long-term objectives in favor of a much more immediate well-being that has to do with avoidance: the fact of not facing something that will require a certain physical and/or psychological effort.
The action of prioritizing the well-being of the present over the well-being of the future is a very frequent phenomenon and can take various forms; however, In the case of procrastination, a kind of mirage remains that makes us believe that we are not giving up what we had set out to do, we are simply postponing it. However, this is self-deception, which makes us lose sight of the fact that we do lose something: time and the ability to carry out that task in the best conditions we had when we decided to leave it for another time.
Furthermore, procrastination can also have a qualitative cost, not just a quantitative one. Let’s think about the times when we realize, too late, that to do that task we need more time than we had initially estimated. And it is that Not procrastinating also serves to prevent this type of accident, giving us greater room for maneuver to correct unforeseen events
What does Parkinson’s law say?
The so-called Parkinson’s law, proposed by historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson in the 1950s, is the idea that, in his own words, “work expands to cover all the time we have available.” That is, by default, The performance of a specific activity tends to “stretch” until reaching the last moments of the period that we had planned to dedicate to it practically without us realizing it.
The reality expressed through this formulation by Cyril Northcote Parkinson has clear implications in the world of companies and professionals in general: if we do not do something to avoid it, we will tend not to make optimal use of time and waste minutes, hours and days assigned to a task. There we improvised and decided that circumstances would dictate our work pace, we arrived at the time or deadline having barely achieved our objectives, and many times finding ourselves in the need to make a final acceleration.
Thus, Parkinson’s law is closely related to procrastination, since it expresses the way in which we do not even try to finish a task in less than the maximum time allotted for it. Since in most of the process we see that we have plenty of time, we decide to waste it through procrastination, taking the situation to the limit. Furthermore, since we do not get rid of that obligation or responsibility until the end, we are not even able to fully enjoy that wasted time distracting ourselves or taking too long breaks.
To combat procrastination and the tendency to waste available time, it is advisable to apply these strategies to work.
1. Subdivide tasks into sub-goals
Break down general objectives into smaller objectives that can be achieved almost immediately (in a matter of minutes) is a very good way to improve our work performance.
It will make it more difficult for us to waste time, as we are exposed to the temptation of completing a task in the sequence in question by doing it for a very short time, without even needing to take intermediate breaks. Which brings us to the next tip.
2. Incorporate short breaks into work sessions
These sessions will allow us to always be in good condition to tackle the next task, and at the same time they will act as temporary references that They will help us to be constantly aware of our progress and the time we have left.
3. Put isolated tasks one after another
If we make the “loose” tasks form a block, in a very short time we will have the feeling that we have done a lot and that will motivate us to continue with that pace of work.
4. Set action triggers
To avoid wasting time, it is good to create action triggers. It consists of psyching ourselves up with the idea that, at a certain very specific moment, the next task to do without excuse is to start another block of work For example: “When I finish eating, I will go back to my office and open the document file that I have to complete.” It is about connecting one action with another, so that we need a very good excuse to dissolve that link between one situation and the next.
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