Diary of a Recovering Procrastinator (S01E05) Precrastination

To almost every ‘pro’ there is a ‘pre', the opposite end of the spectrum. The word precrastinate does not actually exist but it is not stretch to figure out what it means. If to procrastinate is to put off doing something then to precrastinate is to do something almost immediately. You get a hot email and you respond to it almost instantaneously.

A good thing right? In its extreme case precrastination could have negative outcomes but it is a better stance than its mirror opposite.

One of the best ways to make precrastination a part of your approach to getting things done is attacking the day before it even happens, planning out your to-do list for the next day in the evening. Ranking your deliverables in order of priority. Having your meetings listed so that your know how your day will play out.

Another way is getting ahead of critical items like giving feedback you promised way before the committed time. This shows that you’re on top of things. The procrastinator let’s things run away from them. Responses are only provided when a chaser is made and you do not want to be that guy.

One the other hand, precrastination has its own negative outcomes.

Imagine trying to complete a task immediately to get it off your plate without fully understanding the elements required in its completion. You will end up having to redo the work. That over productivity comes to bought.

With a finite to-do list, doing things with speed could result in plenty of idle time. This downtime could counteract any momentum developed during your precrastination zone and if you are known to procrastinate, chances are you will.

So should one pro or pre-crastinate? The later is less of negative vice. The goal is to find a middle ground leaning more towards precrastination so that you can get more things done.

My name is Nigel and I'm a recovering procrastinator...trying to precrastinate.

 

Diary of a Recovering Procrastinator (S01E04) Relapse

It happens more often than not. That sinking feeling, you’re afraid to look at your to-do list, your Microsoft Outlook inbox or boss’ boss standing over with a disappointed look on his face. Its happening again. The one thing you have been working so hard to banish is back with a vengeance. Some how after riding a wave of productivity, you’ve ended up back at square one. Procrastinating.

After a bit of head scratching and soul searching, I have come to the conclusion that a procrastinator’s relapse occurs for because of two reasons:

1. Complacency

The confidence that ticking things off your long list of tasks can be a serial procrastinator’s worst enemy. You believe you’re always in control of the situation and start letting one or two items spill over into the next day’s page of your organizer. The 2 items you had at the end of Monday turn into 5 on Wednesday morning and because you’ve let them hang around this long getting them closed makes you anxious because you have to walk into an offices to admit you dropped the ball…..or you’re back at it.

Solution = nip the carry over task in the bud. Simple. When you have someone to call to close out a pending item, do it!


2. No Support Structure/Robust Control

When you’ve struggled long with taking your time to do things tearing down the habits and mentality that complimented that behavior means building up new ones fast enough for old habits not to creep up. You’ll be wise to remember that your mind likes what is easy and what easy is what you’ve always been used to.

Solution = if you like opening emails that require a response and moving to the next in line, stop that… either you act on it, delegate it to someone else or delete it. A month of this and you’re on the road to recovery….AGAIN.

In my view, other reasons are offshoots of these core causes and number 1 would not exist if number 2 is firmly in place. It takes the form of vicious circle/cycle that seems easy to break in theory but difficult in practice.

My name is Nigel and I’m a recovering procrastinator….who relapsed.

Diary of a Recovering Procrastinator (S01E03) Hack The System

After days and weeks of sole searching, my productivity had not improved after admitting to myself that I had serious problem with getting things done on time or before the due date. I was no closer to breaking this procrastination loop than before I realized I was perennially stuck in it.

With the beauty of the age we live in now, solutions and/or suggestions were not very far away and I happened to come across one when I actively decided to reduce the amount of time I spent on social networks I viewed as adding little value to my productivity. Out went religiously tweeting between waking up in the morning and lunch time and in came LinkedIn. It was there that was found a link to an article on 5 bad habits that are holding you back in the office. I went to the resulting website without hesitation because I hungered for tips to get me out of my continuous rut. That day, themuse.com become one of my favorite websites.

Since then the number of articles I have tried assimilate is astounding but I did manage to keep my focus on which advise to focus on. Here I was introduced to productivity ‘hacks’. Tricks to help keep the mind focused, sharp and those to keep at bay the distractions that often characterize your typical working day. I have been guilty of trying out almost every hack suggested, some yielding positive results while others don’t make it passed 48 hours of trials.

I have come to realize that embedding a hack has a habit takes work and dedication, and it is very easy to slip back into what seems natural (procrastination) and rationalize not using your newly learned trick. If being doodle, and I don’t mean this in any harsh way, has been with you for the best part of your life you should expect it to be a miracle cure. It is a process whose duration is wholly a function of your dedication.

My is Nigel and I’m a recovering procrastinator!

Diary of a Recovering Procrastinator (S01E02) Case of The Snooze Button

It's 4:55am, the alarm is gently chiming to its climax telling you its time to get your pursuit of happiness on the road but guess what? The inventor of the alarm also included a snooze button. Before you realize it the time is 5:45 and the time allocated to your morning meditation and yoga is all but gone. You're upset with yourself that you missed a critical part of your new me programme. If left unchecked, this single sequence of events could derail your day, sending your to-do list to the scrap pile with only 2 out of 10 items crossed out.

Discipline is difficult to instill if you're a serial procrastinator like I was. To develop the habit of ignoring the snooze option requires patience and practise, telling yourself what needs to be done to achieve excellence.

Simply performing an action for 21 days straight embeds it in you subconcsious and you can break free of hitting the snooze button repeatedly.

Diary of a Recovering Procrastinator (S01E01)

pro|cras¦tin|ate

[prə(ʊ)ˈkrastɪneɪt]

VERB

Delay or postpone action; put off doing something

Two days in the making. That took long enough. Getting started when you've been as bad a procrastinator as me is always the biggest challenge. You put off finding the right words till tomorrow, then the next day and the next and before you realize it you've been talking about starting a blog post series for two months from the date you originally hatched the idea.

What drives a procrastinator? Is it a lack of drive? Is it in your blood or did you pick it up somewhere along the way? From experience it feels like a combination of both. If you have self esteem issues or low confidence, you will put off what anything that challenges you.

I liked a girl back in my younger days. As a teen, she was a sight to be hold. My friend and I were both had the hots for her but I had first 'dibs’. Pretty juvenile concept this dibs thing but it worked in getting my mate to allow me to go first. Unfortunately, my low self esteem resulted in me always putting off asking her out because I was terrified she'd turn me down. Well, I blew my dibs, she dated my friend and rest is history. I figured I had more time and that is what most procrastinators think. We roll over a task every time it comes up until the deadline is passed.

How do you break a habit that ties into your character make up? Maybe not break it but reduce it to an absolute minimum.

Master or Slave. Does Technology Have You?

Some of man's inventions have mainly been an extension of the human mind or human interaction. Take the personal computer for example, it was made to possess a processor mimicking the cognitive centre of the brain; Read Only Memory is akin to our genetic make up that cannot be altered. So if technology is an extension of humanity, it's purpose to do some form of work for us thereby establishing a master-slave relationship. Man being the master, technology being the slave.

Artificial intelligence on which the movie "Terminator" is based maybe decades or centuries away but it seems that while we went about making things that are supposed to make life easier and more enjoyable we flipped the master-slave balance in favour of technology. The smartphone is meant to be a problem solver in quick reach yet we find ourselves wholly dependent on it. Social networking websites started out as ways to connect people separated by vast distances but have slowly replaced the need for actual physical interaction. The Internet, which I call the ring leader, was built as a way to interconnect the globe for information sharing but now we spend a good portion of our waking breaths doing something that involves the Internet. If your service provider suffered an outage right now that was projected to last a week, would you just say OK or think about switching?

An argument may be put forth that there is no master-slave relationship, only pockets of people addicted to technology and that argument may have merit. Some are able to use technology when they absolutely need to but from my observation a good number have already fallen victim to this silent addiction. Need proof? Download an application that monitors how often you unlock your phone to use it. If you're like me you'll be astounded by the results.

The best way to make sure you don't fall into this master-slave trap is by practising disconnection; time away from technology be it hours or days. Then you'll discover that you only us gadgets when absolutely. Make technology work for you and not the other way around.

On which side do you sit...the master or the slave?

"Where's My Traffic Alert Message?"

I don't understand .... Why would i have to wait for a news report on the radio to here that traffic in some parts of town has been blocked because of riotous behaviour by students from the University of Zambia. Shouldn't The Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) have some form of real-time messaging system to inform every motorist residing in a specific town about the situation on the roads?

Every person getting a licence or registering a motor vehicle supplies their mobile number and town. An automated script can single out numbers  for those in an affected town and send a broadcast message. I honestly think it's that simple to do.

Apart from this, I think we should have started creating some form of traffic control centre that monitors traffic on all roads whether it has traffic lights or not. Imagine the people charged with road safety being able to adjust the behaviour of traffic lights at peak periods to make driving around much easier. Only if all roads had traffic lights. The one with roundabouts are a special case but at least they (RTSA) would be able to see things build and send an officer to regulate.

Road fines is another area that could benefit from some technological advancement. You get stopped at a road block or randomly and are found with expired road tax but instead of having your car 'seized' or licence taken from you, all the officer does is charge you for driving with expired road tax, scans your vehicle registration barcode, puts a marker on the vehicle that this record must pay a fine before renewing and marker on the driver's licence as well or a reduction in points for deserving a licence. All this in real-time. Think of the accountability and easy of use. Cars with outstanding fines as well as drivers can be deemed not worthy to be on the road if they default. Its impact on bribery is another topic because all together though. And all this is not that farfetched, we already scan our vehicle registrations when purchasing road tax.

The Road Transport and Safety Agency has made some botched technology advancements though, they ordered a machine to assess vehicle fitness that didn't work very well initially. I do not know if the machine is being used now but it would be a case in point for apprehension over making leaps into the unknown of technology. Proper research and consultancy is needed, reports on all the options provided and government to sign off on the one that meets cost and objective.

At the time of writing this, the RTSA website, www.rtsa.org.zm, has been down for more than 3 weeks which is not acceptable. In the meantime, be a responsible motorist and let your fellow drivers know about road blocks and demos via Facebook or Twitter.