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Why doing "something" gets very little done

It’s common (for me at least) to feel busy, but find at the end of the day I haven’t accomplished much. It’s frustrating; there’s always that monkey hanging on my back, bogging me down despite the fact that I’m always doing something.

That “something” that I’m always “doing” is the key. Because doing “something” is often Procrastination Through Alternative Productivity. It’s when I’m working to keep from doing something else I don’t want to do.

Dreading cleaning the bathroom? I’ll organize the book case instead.

Boring project at work? I’ll sort through some of this e-mail I’ve been meaning to respond to.

Phone calls to return? I think I’ll write a blog post.

Sound familiar?

The result? We do a lot but we don’t get much done and the thing we need to get done isn’t going away; meanwhile we’ve wasted a lot of time doing a bunch of little, unimportant tasks. This can leave a person feeling frustrated, stressed and wondering, “Why can’t I seem to make a dent in this project?” It’s even hard to enjoy down-time when there’s a nagging burden in the back of your head, always reminding you of the work you haven’t completed.

It’s interesting to note that when I hear that nagging, my thoughts of, “But I organized the junk drawer!” never seem to make it go away.

I admit that when I learned about this idea a couple of weeks ago it hit a bit too close to home. I’m very good at convincing myself that I’m being productive (“But creating e-mail filters in Outlook is an investment in time! Think of how much more efficient I’ll be in the long-run!”) and what’s perhaps scariest is that I don’t realize I’m doing it.

So how does one change their behavior to avoid Procrastination Through Alternate Productivity? My best answer is to first identify when you’re doing it and then force yourself to stay (or get) on task through sheer will power. Don’t think about how much you don’t want to do the task. Instead, create a good mental image of how good it will feel to have the project off your plate. What are you going to do when it’s finished? Focus on the benefits of being done instead of what’s keeping you from doing it.

It’s something I’m going to make a concerted effort to work on. After all, if I’m willing to work, I might as well be accomplishing something.

LivSimpl

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Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 9:30 am and is filed under Efficiency, Home, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.