Procrastination at Work, What are the Costs?

Frittering away part of the workday chatting with colleagues, checking social media sites, or taking a short trip to the break room to see if there's one donut left is easy to do. Procrastination on this level may seem harmless, even justifiable to a hard working employee, but its negative impacts are more significant that you might think.

Why do we procrastinate? A recent study from the University of Chicago suggests that our concept of time may have something to do with it. Researchers found that people who perceived a deadline as being in the future were less likely to get started in the now. At home, procrastinating may leave us with a pile of dishes or an overgrown garden; but in the workplace it costs time and money and can diminish the quality of our work, as well as our home lives.

Here are a few tips to help you stay focused on the job:

Set small deadlines: If the deadline for a major project is too far in the future to be a motivator, break the project into small tasks and set due dates along the way. Aim to accomplish a few specific tasks per week or day, and enlist a manager or a colleague to help you stay accountable. Learn how to set "now" deadlines.

Shed useless tasks: It's much more gratifying to organize your candy drawer than to tackle a task whose reward won't be felt for a while. But if you're spending time doing things that don't even need to be done, ever, you might have a problem. Use management guru Steven Covey's classic four-quadrant technique to figure out which tasks you should prioritize, and which tasks should be taken completely off the list.

Slow down: We all have those tasks at work that inspire the thought: "There has got to be an easier way to do this!" And maybe there is. Collaborate with others to examine processes that seem excessively tedious and brainstorm whether there are better ways of getting the job done.

Take control of your technology: Are you checking your email, or is your email checking you? Remove the tempting distractions of email and social media sites by keeping them closed and turning off notifications for part of the workday. You'll be amazed at how productive you can be in a short amount of uninterrupted time, and you may even find time for a real break.

Start today: Even the smallest tasks can seem daunting before you begin. Decide to make a beginning, however small, and you may find your motivation returning as quickly as it left.

It may take practice, but the benefits of learning to overcome procrastination extend well beyond increased productivity in the workplace. Getting your work done at work means that you won't feel so compelled to take projects home. The result is higher-quality free time, and less stress and anxiety about the following day.

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