Procrastination, who ME?

This week we are playing with some words that can definitely either hurt or help your home based business. Tonight's topic is procrastination. For those of you who may put off looking this up in the dictionary, procrastination can be defined as "to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done." (Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary) Sometimes procrastination can be a good thing for the home based business, but generally it is a bad thing.

One of the rare times procrastination is a good thing for business would be if you intentionally put off a decision and the results of not doing a particular action was actually the correct action. Remember, by not doing something, that in itself is an action. You are choosing not to do anything. The real problem with procrastination is that work that should have gotten done, gets rushed and possibly not completed to the best of your ability. We all procrastinate, I know very few people who don't procrastinate over something. The difference is specifically the what you are procrastinating about.

If you can't decide if you were going to pick up some inventory tomorrow or the next day, the world would probably not stop turning if you put off the decision. If you put off calling an irate customer, (and honestly, who really wants to call an irate customer?) and wait a few days, the damage can be irreparable. Even if you had procrastinated picking up that inventory, if you were completely out of a particular product, the worst that could occur is that you lose sales on that item. If you put off contacting that irate customer, the damage could be catastrophic.

If you delay talking with an irate customer, they could very easily contact everyone they know and tell them how upset that particular customer is with you and your business practices. That upset customer can easily influence people who have never used your services, or even knew if you existed. Those people would then only have a negative impression of who you are as a business person and you would have an uphill battle convincing them that you are not as bad as that one irate customer had made out. One negative person can easily influence a very large number of other people, many of them you will never have met...yet. The key is to not procrastinate over issues that can have a negative impact on your business.

How do I get rid of procrastination, you ask? First and foremost, you need to get rid of the fear that the particular task is creating. If it an irate customer, you need to not be afraid of what they may or may not say. Many times, the longer you wait to deal with the problem, the larger the problem becomes in that customer's mind. The sooner you deal with their problem, whether it is a real or perceived problem, the sooner the issue will be resolved. Many times, your fears make the situation far worse than it could ever actually become. How many times have you expected a huge problem, but once you confronted the fear, what you had personally expected to occur didn't? So, get rid of the fear and you may be less inclined to procrastinate.

Another trick to help get rid of procrastination is to insure that what you are procrastinating over actually needs to be done. This is particularly important when you manage your own home based business. So many small tasks that you may put off in the activity of your business may be causing you undue stress. Take a look at those tasks and honestly ask yourself if they really need to be done in order to keep and grow your business. If they don't need to be done, then cross them off your list and don't worry about them again.

Lastly, if you find that the task you have been intentionally putting off really does need to get done, instead of agonizing over what you have to do, just make the time and get it done. Once you have completed the task, you will find yourself taking a deep breath and feeling much better about the whole situation. This can be the hardest task, making time to complete the task. But, if you have looked at the work to be done, determined that this task is necessary for the business, then finding the time to do it will not be such a difficult task. Once you have the time to do it, you will easily get the chore done and then won't have anything to procrastinate over until the next task arises.

I believe procrastination is part of human nature. We will intentionally put off doing things we know need to be done, but the task itself may be unpleasant, so we put it off for as long as is possible. If you find yourself falling into that trap often, take a look at what you are doing, and see if there may be anther way to address the task that may not be as unpleasant to deal with. Better yet, is there someone else you can pass the task off to? Now there's an idea...

Until tomorrow...