Episode 59 | Priority Management and Procrastination

Hello, hello, you're listening to the Better Workday Podcast with me, Niamh Moynihan.

In this episode, I want to talk about the difference between prioritizing work and procrastinating on work. So this is a follow up to last week's episode. If you haven't heard that, maybe go back and listen to that first. Or of course, if you are thinking maybe I have been procrastinating and you want to get straight into it, keep on listening here and you can always jump back after this episode. So the reason I want to talk about this today is because

I fell into this trap myself this year and I mentioned it briefly last week. So I had to take a slightly longer podcation from the podcast. So I did their podcation than I planned because I had realized I was using the podcast to procrastinate on a project I had been needing to get started. Now, I absolutely loved doing this podcast and because I enjoy doing it so much, of course, I would much prefer to do this.

then something that made me feel uncomfortable, bit awkward, a little bit outside my comfort zone. And so when I realized what I was doing, I had to stop the podcast for a little bit. Now it did coincide with the summer, so it was absolutely fine, so that I could get my Momentum series up and running. And basically what that is, is it's a six week online masterclass series that teams can join in a shared cohort, which is really nice because there's usually a couple of different companies that would join.

Or of course, individuals can join as well. And I wanted to do for a long time, but look for different reasons. It was a stretch for me. And in order to do it, I had to recognize I was procrastinating, first of all, and then take the action. And of course, the good news is as soon as I paused the podcast, would you believe I got it up and running in no time at all? So quickly, fact, that I ended up running the first series of it in, I think it was June, and I'm doing the second one in a few weeks time, 15th of September. So yeah, it just goes to show.

Once you put in the effort, it's easy to get things going or at least easier than it felt. So I thought that, look, if I fall into this trap, I assume a few other people do as well. I've had a chat with a few people over the summer and yes, it is true. It is official. I am not the only one. So today what I want to do is I want to talk to you about how to tell the difference between prioritizing work or procrastinating on other work.

And there's a couple of episodes that I spoke about this topic about in the past. So way back, episode 17, I actually talked specifically about procrastination. So I will put the link to that in the show notes. And if you'd like to go back and have a listen to that and episode 54 as well, we're going to touch on that and we're talking about urgent people versus urgent tasks. We're going to start there actually, because first of all,

Before we understand are we procrastinating, we have to take a look at how we prioritize our work. OK, so I don't know what role you're in, but, you know, regardless of what job you're in and what your personal circumstances are, we always have to prioritize one thing over the other because we have only one set of hands. There are only so many hours in any given day and we can't do it all at the same time. And so when we look at prioritizing things, we look at how important we feel they are.

So what's going to be the impact if we do them or what's going to be the cost if we don't do them? All right. And what the urgency is. OK, so is it something that's due today? Is it something that's due next week? And that's something that we can definitely kind of I suppose that can mislead us because if it's not due immediately, can kind of like really drop off the list. And then finally, you know, who's driving it? OK, so this is where that episode 54 on urgent people come in.

So sometimes, you know, the party is driven by other people creating their own urgency, creating their influence and adding that into the mix and making things a higher priority than they would be if that person wasn't involved. All right. So like when we take a look at those things, you know, how important it is and how urgent it is and then maybe what's driving or who's driving it. We get an idea of, you know, how we arrange our tasks, how we decide what we're going to do today instead of doing tomorrow.

And then on the other hand, procrastination, when we procrastinate, when we feel like we've got loads time to do it. OK, so if it's not urgent, maybe. If we're unsure about like why we're doing it, what the result is going to be, is it going to be good enough and all those things. So like what is the impact going to be? And of course, you know, if it just makes us feel stressed, bored, worried, fear of failure, any of those things are going to make us all procrastinate.

And so in my case, you know, I suppose because I hadn't run a shared cohort live before. Well, I had to years ago now in fairness for my Better Work Day workshop, but I hadn't done it in a long time and I'd never pitched it at team level. OK, so because I wasn't sure, you know, how that was going to be received and whether or not to be successful. Of course, I had been putting it off. All right. And I was prioritizing the podcast because

there was an urgency there or definitely perceived urgency because I had committed to putting it out every week. See how easy it is to fall into that? Even though, of course, the impact of of doing the momentum series is very big and it's great. But, know, that urgency was definitely driving. All right. So what can you do to see if you are prioritizing or procrastinating, if you're suspicious that maybe this is happening to you?

So what I suggest you do is take a step back away from your calendar, away from your inbox and look forward. So take a step back to look forward, but like look forward to next month. So the end of October. All right. And ask yourself out of all the things that you're working on now, which ones are going to be coming up as really important around that time?

All right, so we're not looking at the short term stuff that might be, you know, shouting for our attention at the moment that might be tempting for us to work on. I want you to take a look and say, right, look, next month, either the end of next month or maybe mid next month, like what's going to be important? What will I want to be doing? What will I want to have achieved? Right. And you might find that the stuff you're prioritizing now will have vanished by then. Right. It's got a very short lifespan. It's going to be gone.

But the things that have been on your list will still be there and might even be getting more time sensitive. All right. So that's a really good way for you to kind of take a look to see, know, are you having the right mix in your working week of working on short term actions and those mid to longer term projects? Now, the next thing you can ask yourself is, you know, how often are you putting this task off? All right.

So it's absolutely normal and fine and expected to defer stuff. So like in order to prioritize something, you have to put something else off. All right. But if you, for example, say I'm going to work on this task on Thursday at 10 and then when it comes to Thursday at 10, you put it off next Monday and then comes to Monday, put it off to the following Friday and so on and so on. Well, that would signal to me that there's something else going on. Either someone else is driving your day.

which means that you've got an urgent person on your back and you're not able to work on the important stuff or you are procrastinating. So what I want you to do is if there's stuff that you're worried, are you actually deferring or are you procrastinating? Every time you reschedule it, I just want you to keep account of that. OK, so do you reschedule once, twice, five times, ten times?

And look, I do this by just keeping a count, like a little number next to the task on my notebook. So it's not high tech, but it's very, very effective. Very effective for showing you, you know, are you just rescheduling things every now and again, which is natural and the nature of work, or are you chronically rescheduling things? And then the third thing that I would suggest you do if neither of those are kind of showing anything for you is ask yourself this, right? And this is what really caught me out now. If you were told tomorrow,

by your manager or your stakeholders or by your boss or whoever it is, you know, that's important to you in terms of school. If you're told tomorrow that you had to prioritize the task you haven't been doing and work on nothing else, how would you feel? So in my case, you know, if I was told that I had to prioritize that momentum series and work on nothing else until I got up and running, how would I feel? And I love this.

because your reaction to that will tell you whether or not you've been procrastinating. So if you're like, oh, my God, I would feel relieved, excited, delighted. Thank God I'm finally allowed prioritise this. You know, I've been waiting to get stuck into it. I really want to do it. And that shows that you have not been doing it because other things have been taking your priority. All right. And if you're procrastinating, it's not because you want to, right? It's because maybe, again, other people or other plans are driving your day.

And by the way, once you recognize that you can do something about it. But if you're like, ⁓ I don't know now. Like, I don't know now if I have to really get into this, you know, today. ⁓ I don't know if I'm ready. Actually, I have a few more questions and, you know, I'm not so sure about the project after all. And, you know, you're uncertain and you're like, God, I wish I had something else to do, anything else to do. You know, if you started to do what I might kind of deep clean the windows, you know, like trying to find stuff to do. That's your cue that you're procrastinating.

All right. And it's OK because we've all been there and we'll be there again. All right. It's a very natural, very normal thing to do. But once you recognize it, it's good for you to do something about it so it doesn't become a bigger problem or that you don't miss out on an opportunity. So, for example, you know, I did the Momentum series, as I said, back in May, June, and I absolutely loved it. Like, it was great. Like, I really enjoyed delivering it and it was really successful. And again, I'm looking forward to doing it again.

But sure, wouldn't have ever felt that if I hadn't done the work. And so if you find that you're procrastinating, maybe do what I did. So just pause something that even though you love it and you enjoy it and it's a part of your work, but you know you're spending too much time in that area at the moment and it's not critical for the speaker next week. OK, so maybe there's something to compare back a little bit of time. Maybe only pair back it by, I don't know, 20, 30 minutes and use that 20, 30 minutes.

to explore the thing you have not been working on or explore the thing that you haven't been spending enough time on and just get onto the hood and figure out what do you know for sure, what you need to get clarity on, where can you get support and how can you move forward even an inch on this. Okay, take it from somebody who's absolutely delighted that I did stop procrastinating and I prioritized something I had been putting off. You'll feel all the better for it.

And again, as we look towards the latter half of the year, it could probably mean for you that there's going to be less hurry, less stress as we head towards November, December time. So that's all good. I would love, love to hear from you now, by the way, if you've been caught in that procrastination trap like I had and if you took action as a result of the podcast.

Thank you for joining me on this week's episode of the Better Workday podcast. If you enjoyed the show, the best way you can support me is by giving the podcast a rating, leaving a comment, sharing this episode and subscribing wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. For more information and to sign up for my mailing list, head over to abetterworkday.com. Thanks again for listening and I'll be back in your ears next week. Until then, stay well and have a better workday.