“I work better under pressure.”
How many times have you heard someone say this as a justification for waiting until the last minute to do something? How many times have you said it yourself? Most people don’t intend to procrastinate. They simply have a job that they aren’t looking forward to tackling, or they have other more pressing things to take care of. Somehow, work that needs to be done gets pushed off longer and longer until there is very little time left to get the job completed. It can be easy for this to happen to the self-employed. As a small business owner, there isn’t a boss looking over your shoulder, checking to see if you’re making progress. It’s entirely up to you to manage your workload and meet your deadlines. If you’ve done it before and things worked out, it’s even easier to let it happen a second and third time. There a number of problems with procrastinating and they can all have a negative effect on your small business. Are you still kicking around the idea of incorporating technology into your small business's operations? If so, you really should check out our free online inventory system. We support it for free and you use it anytime and anywhere. Signup here.
- You have less time to research options. When you are under a time constraint, it’s easy to convince yourself that the first solution that you find is the right one. It takes time to research and evaluate multiple options. When you don’t allow yourself that time, you are likely missing out on some things that could really benefit your business.
- You’re more likely to make mistakes when you’re in a hurry. We all know it’s true, you are more likely to forget things, or produce shoddy work when you are in a rush. You are also more likely to be injured when you are scurrying around, not taking the time to be careful.
- No time to check your work. If you complete a project in advance you have time to come back to it later and read it over with fresh eyes. If you are completing it at the last minute, even if you have the time to review it, your review won’t be as thorough or as successful as it would have been if you had been able to take a break and come back to it.
Most of these probably aren’t a surprise to you. What may be shocking is the negative effect that procrastinating on your last project can have on your next project.
When we procrastinate, we ended up “cramming” to get things done. Instead of devoting a few hours each week, we end up working very long hours at the last minute. Perhaps it works out. The project is done, the work is satisfactory and we breathe a sigh of relief. What happens that next week? What about our next project? After working long hours and being stressed about the previous project it’s unlikely that we are ready to tackle another one. We tend to feel as though as we’ve “earned a break”. We need a little time to regroup before diving in to the next task. Suddenly, the timeline for our next project is already slipping. There are physiological effects associated with procrastinating. Fatigue, poor eating habits, eye strain and more can all be attributed to the overwork often associated with procrastination. Now we really don’t “feel” like working on another project.
Procrastinating can become a vicious cycle. In the end it costs our business money, opportunities and more - even if we get all necessary projects done on time. As the owner of a small business you can’t afford to procrastinate. You owe it to yourself, and your business, to manage your time wisely and complete projects in a timely manner. If you need some tips on getting things done, check out our previous blog posts here and here.
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