Procrastination isn’t about not doing something. It’s about not starting it. An average colleague who gets things done contributes more than a high potential who sprinkles their attention round like an excited puppy.
Most productivity problems stem from the culture we work in. Asana claim that employees waste an average of 13 hours per week on duplicate or misaligned work due to a lack of clarity: crazy busyness right there. Procrastination is different. It is more about our mindset and mood.
Here are some reasons why we procrastinate:
Addictive apps. We have power over our own eyeballs. Put your phone out of reach and get your dopamine hit from doing some fulfilling work instead.
The task is complex and you don’t know how to start it. This is the important, not urgent stuff. Instead of blocking out time to start it when you don’t know how, take the pressure off. Block out time to figure out how to do it instead. What’s the exact spec and purpose of the task, what help and resources do you need, what are the success measures, outcome, who needs to be consulted and so on. You’ll complete it much quicker once you’ve put in this pre-work. Add in milestones to maintain momentum and reward yourself when you hit each one. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just good enough to get over the line.
The opposite of this – you are busy but bored. Find a way to put some juice back. Tasks expand to fill the time available so you will find room in your calendar if you have something interesting to get your teeth into. There may not be promotion for you now, but you can still be enterprising and create extra responsibility. Mentor someone, get involved in a side project, do something with all that data you are collecting. Solve a problem, fix a bottleneck, find an opportunity, learn something. Work out how to automate one of your tasks. Don’t wait to be asked and make sure you get good visibility for doing it.
You aren’t feeling it. Tough! People don’t finish things because they have more energy. It’s the other way round. They have more energy because they’ve got the buzz of getting their work done. School kids don’t have the option of maths class when they feel in the mood for maths. They start maths class on time, whether they are motivated or not. Their motivation catches up.
You need a more focused to-do list. I used to allow two hours to write my books early each morning. Usually this meant at least 45 minutes of dithering, what sales expert Nicola Lutz calls ‘procrastafaffing,’ before I got anything down on the page. When I switched to a goal of writing 600 words a day, my brain quickly focused on doing just that, usually with time to spare. That was switching from time focused (too vague) to task focused. A daily to-do list will help you to move seamlessly from one to another without getting distracted in between.
You aren’t accountable. In research by Gallop, only 34% of workers felt that their managers knew what they were working on. It’s easy to drift when you there aren’t guard rails around your day. Good managers are returning to a daily standup/scrum/meeting with their team, to put some structure back in the day. If your manager doesn’t do it, or you work solo, then find an accountability buddy to keep you on track.
A caveat
Maybe slowing things down is the right thing to do.
I’ve learnt to tune into my gut feeling about procrastination. Delaying starting might be low-frustration tolerance: a psychologists’ term for avoiding discomfort with something unpleasant or dull. Can’t be arsed in other words. In that case – provided it’s worth doing – I do it. But sometimes it’s a helpful instinct that I should sleep on a reply or decision rather than leaping to action. We are hard-wired for urgency and that’s not always the best thing. Feel free to share this with the procrastafaffers you work with.
How’s your 2026 shaping up?
Managers, now’s the time to earn your stripes. In a volatile world people want to be part of a team with strong boundaries, values and purpose. They want to know what you stand for. Clarity is compassionate leadership. Ambiguity and inconsistency just create more stress.
Let me know if I can help your leaders step up to the challenge. If you are members of The Henley Partnership then my webinar Giving Your Team the Confidence to Grow on 26 February will explain how to empower and build accountability.
My regular Crazy Busy event for the London Business Forum is on St Patrick’s Day, Tuesday 17 March. I still have some space in the days around International Women’s Day to talk about getting past imposter syndrome and procrastination (they go hand in hand). Please get in touch.