A reader writes:
I have a bit of an issue with procrastination at work. And when I say a bit, I mean I’m extremely anxious and constantly terrified I will be fired and it’s kind of ruining my life. I should probably seek therapy for the anxiety bit, but I would still like to know where I stand vis-à-vis the rest and I would really appreciate your input.
It basically started in my last job. I hated the work with a passion since it was only tangentially related to what I studied in (think sales vs design). At the beginning, I kept it together, but it went sideways when my brother got in a car accident and was badly injured – for a few months, most of my energy went into helping him. At work, I started spending a lot of my time (most of it, if I’m completely honest) aimlessly wandering the Internet. I felt like crap because my family taught me that if you have a strong work ethic, you’ll commit to whatever job you have and give it your best, and, well, I obviously was not able to make myself do that. And I tried, I just … I don’t know. I still wonder why I couldn’t. It just felt so heavy.
Anyway, eventually, my supervisors found out. They didn’t notice because of any issue with my work, oddly enough (I somehow always managed to complete everything that was required of me). They actually became aware of the problem when an employee spotted me on the Internet and wrote down what I did every day for a couple of weeks. My supervisors then confronted me with that data, and, well, seeing the detailed breakdown of my failure as an employee was really not a great experience even though I knew I deserved it. After I explained my personal life crap, however, they decided not to take action provided I immediately stopped wasting time at work. I was terrified I’d lose my job on top of everything else, so of course, I promised I’d do better. Amazingly enough, I did, until I left because I happened to find an excellent job doing the work I wanted to do.
When I started my new job, I thought all of that was finally behind me. I love this job so much: the work is challenging and stimulating, my coworkers are all nice people, my boss is brilliant … even the commute is enjoyable. I’ve been here for over a year now and my boss is reportedly very pleased with my work.
To my shame though, I realized recently that I’ve started procrastinating at work again. It’s very far from being as bad as it was in my old job and I don’t think it’s actually affected my performance (yet), but I’m terrified that it might devolve into what it used to be at my old job. I’m starting to be terrified that my coworkers will notice what I’m doing and that history will repeat itself. However, I cautiously brought up the subject when talking to a colleague over a beer the other day, and she laughed and said that things are different from my last job because we’re professionals and what we do is often abstract and highly intellectual, so we can’t really be expected to spend every minute of every day doing work things. She said even our boss browses social media at work to de-stress (it’s true, actually, I’ve seen her and she didn’t seem bothered by it at all, although, I mean, she’s the boss).
So, my questions are the following: is what my coworker said true — that in work environments like mine bosses might not care that much about how employees spend their time? And, just so I can stop feeling this anxious all the time … any tips on what I should do to get my procrastination problem under control?
How much procrastinating are we talking about? If you’re spending 20 or so minutes a day on news sites and social media, that’s pretty normal in a lot of jobs and your coworker is probably right about what she said. (And in some jobs with especially light workload, some people might spend even more time not being productive without it being a problem.) But if we’re talking about hours a day, then yes, that’s outside the norm.
It’s rare for a boss to not care about how people are spending their time, but good managers care most about the work you’re producing. If you can produce A-level work in less than full-time hours, I’m not going to hassle you over messing around on the internet the rest of the time. On the other hand, if it’s more like C-level work, then I’m going to care.
So the real question is: How’s your work? Are you meeting all your deadlines, without having to rush at the last minute to complete things, possibly sacrificing quality? Are you investing enough time and attention into your work that you feel good about what you’re producing, or does it feel like you’re skating by and your work might not stand up under closer scrutiny? Do you feel guilty about what you’re producing (or not producing), or do you just feel guilty about the internet use (even though things are ultimately getting done)?
The answers to those questions will tell you how alarmed you should be, and urgently you need to change things.
As for combatting procrastination … It helps to figure out what’s behind it. At your last job, it sounds like you hated the work to begin with and you probably had so much energy going to your brother’s accident that there wasn’t a lot left over to keep you invested in a job you hated anyway.
But I suspect your anxiety is playing a role here too. Being constantly terrified of getting fired and yet choosing to operate in a way that could get you fired is an interesting contradiction, and I suspect it’s not a coincidence. It’s sort of like being terrified your partner will break up with you and simultaneously acting in a way that will cause that to happen … so that then at least you have some control. Sometimes people feel safer (even if only subconsciously) if they nudge their fears into reality, so then at least they know they made it happen … whereas it feels a hell of a lot scarier if you try your best to avoid disaster but the universe has its way with you anyway. In other words, at some level you might feel that if the rug is going to be pulled out from under you, you’ll feel safer if you’re the one doing the pulling.
Or maybe that’s not what’s happening at all. But therapy is a good place to start unraveling whatever it is that’s going on.
Meanwhile, as for more practical advice about procrastination, one thing that has helped me dramatically is focusing on (a) how much I hate the feeling of having things undone and hanging over me and (b) how much I love the feeling of having those things done at last.
I used to procrastinate horribly when I didn’t feel like writing something. Every day I’d have to deal with the guilt of not having done it yet, as well as with the dread of having to actually do it at some point. I finally realized that was giving those projects so much more room in my life; something that might take me a couple of hours once I actually sat down and did it would instead account for days and days of negative emotions while I put it off. Plus, once I finally did whatever it was, I’d feel a huge sense of relief and exhilaration at having it done, which is a feeling I love. So I started focusing on both of those feelings a way to motivate myself — I remind myself of how crappy it feels when I have something hanging over me, and how awesome it will feel once it’s done. Sometimes I think of doing the work now as giving a gift to Tomorrow Me, who will be thrilled not to have it hanging over her. That has mostly cured me of procrastination and for the most part now I’m ridiculously disciplined, because I hate feeling guilty and I love feeling relief and triumph.
Another option is to try to harness the feelings you had when your lack of work was discovered at your last job. You don’t want to feel like that again, you don’t want to be perceived like that again, and you don’t want to risk your job like that again. What would Former You, who was mortified to be confronted about her work habits, say to Current You? Can you use that experience as motivation to choose to spend your time differently now?
And then of course, there are lots of practical tips and tricks you can try, like the Pomodoro method (telling yourself you just have to work for 25 minutes is weirdly effective, plus once you start you’ll often just keep going) or setting yourself interim deadlines or blocking your access to your favorite internet distractions.
But I think your anxiety is playing a role here that you haven’t untangled, and I would focus there too.
how can I fix my procrastination problem? was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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