Several years ago, a new buzz-word came on the scene: pre-crastination.
When I first saw it, the word appeared in Health Magazine and it was defined by Psychological Science as “hurrying to complete a task as soon as possible just to get it off your plate.”
Maybe you’re familiar with this concept. If you’ve ever decided to get something done at the moment it appeared rather than add it to your to-do list—simply because it would only make your to-do list longer—then you’ve lived out the definition of “pre-crastination.”
You’d rather knock it out NOW instead of add it to your to-do list for later.
Unfortunately, this means you could be spending time and energy on tasks that are of lesser importance, or worse—you have no idea where they fall in the order of importance or priority.
You just get it done, but at what cost?
That time and energy could have been spent making meaningful progress on your most important priorities, projects, initiatives or goals.
Unless you’re on an assembly line or you’re a customer service professional in a call center, you can’t afford to REACT to everything that happens around you and try to accomplish it as SOON as it happens.
If you work this way, you’ve just given away the power to control your day and drive itin the direction it needs to go.
When you REACT to everyone and everything else around you, you are therefore working REACTIVELY and not PROACTIVELY.
Said another way: you’re not driving your day. Everyone and everything else is driving you.
This will not only reduce your productivity and progress but it can also greatly increase your stress. Read on to understand the many POWERS you have to drive your day efficiently, proactively and confidently; and find out why “pre-crastination” will get in the way of your productivity and progress every time.
The power behind your productivity and progress
When you pre-crastinate, you relinquish all the powers you have to work efficiently, effectively and productively. Here is a list of these powers…
- The Power of Awareness
Most professionals are trying to juggle too many tasks from multiple sources in their workday and then they try to plan and prioritize them in their head or on a paper to-do list. They’re continuously reviewing email, voice mail, papers on the desk, to-do lists, files, meeting notes and more. They may have awareness of certain tasks for a few minutes, but only until they pick something to work on.
If this sounds like you, you’re working with blinders on. You’re not 100% aware of ALL of your tasks and without a centralized system in which to put them, it’s too easy to miss, lose and forget things—or a LOT of things. This leaves you in a VERY vulnerable position—one that doesn’t put you in charge of your workday, your productivity or your progress.
A centralized, digital Task List will allow to add ALL tasks and manage them well—no matter what source they came from or when you’ll take action—which will help you work more proactively and with a clear direction.
- The Power to Plan
When you work on tasks as they occur, your workday becomes a lot like a short-order deli, where the person behind the counter takes orders for subs and sandwiches on a first-come, first-served basis. Order takers and sandwich makers are not planners. They just accomplish orders as they appear, just as you might accomplish tasks as they appear.
- The Power to Prioritize
When you address tasks, people, email, phone calls and everything else as they appear, it means you’re treating everything EQUALLY. You’re not only lacking a plan, but you’re also not prioritizing.
- The Power to Make Decisions
When you choose to do tasks as they appear, you’re not making decisions about which tasks are more important or more valuable than others or when to do those tasks. You’re also not identifying which tasks to delegate or whether you should do certain tasks at all.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease
Something else can happen in your workday to throw you off-course.
When you’re working on a task, you may suddenly remember another task you forgot, and now you recognize it as MORE important than what you were just working on. Alternatively, a task may appear from someone else and they may deem that task to be a higher priority.
For whatever reason, this task seems to be the MOST important task to do right now and while it sounds like you’re spending your time wisely, how can you be sure? If you don’t have a COMPLETE inventory of ALL of your tasks and responsibilities, how do you really know?
Take your power back
When you’re not completely aware of ALL of your tasks and responsibilities, there is NO way you can accurately plan and prioritize tasks or make smart decisions about how to spend your time.
You may be taking action with only partial knowledge or with partial vision of your tasks, which will make you far less confident or certain that you’re working on the right tasks.
If you’re not sure you’re working on the right tasks, then you’re not sure you’re using your time wisely, and if that’s the case, you can be SURE you’re NOT making considerable progress on your MOST important projects or making progress toward your most important goals.
If we collected up all of your tasks, to-dos, reminders and projects, I’m certain you’d have a few priorities that stand out. You would likely agree that some tasks must be accomplished before others. But you can only make that decision when you have awareness of ALL of your tasks and this is where the power lies.
In order to work most efficiently, effectively and productively, you MUST have a total inventory of all of your tasks. The list must be digital and it must be complete, with nothing left out.
First, collect ALL of the tasks you’re responsible for, no matter where they came from or when you’ll take action. As you identify tasks, you can determine when to take action on each one. Every task gets a DO date or action date. This is when you get to prioritize.
Be realistic about your planning and prioritizing, and don’t overload a day with too many tasks. Take time into consideration, including where your time is already committed and how much time you can protect every single day.
Once you have 100% awareness of what you need to do, both now and in the future, you can prioritize with 100% accuracy and enjoy 100% certainty that you’re spending your time on your highest priorities—today and every day.
When you’re able to spend your time on your highest priorities, you won’t be working reactively anymore. You’ll be working PROACTIVELY since you’ll be SO clear on your most important tasks and priorities.
When you take back your power of awareness, planning, prioritizing and decision making, you can pursue your tasks and priorities with more energy, because you’re certain those are the RIGHT tasks to do at the RIGHT times. Plus, you’re likely to HAVE more time, because you’re likely to PROTECT more time to get those priorities done.
In an ideal work day, you don’t want to procrastinate, but you also don’t want to pre-crastinate either.
Avoid pre-crastinating just to avoid putting tasks on your to-do list or to get them quickly off your plate.
Once in a while, it’s fine to do this, but make it the exception and not the rule.
Instead, stay in charge with a complete, digital inventory of tasks. Make decisions with certainty, prioritize with precision and enjoy making more meaningful progress on the projects and initiatives that are most important to YOU.
