The Nights of Cram-A-Lot

The Creativity for Business class began last week at Drake.  The class load is a little larger than planned, but first impressions bare favorably on this group.  It would appear as though I have the bell curve that one would expect in a class such as this:  a smattering of those who are very highly creative and those who do not perceive themselves as being creative at all... and then the masses in the middle.

I'm amused by the "student mentality" of procrastination.  They had two assignments coming out of last week:  1)  fill out a questionnaire/survey; and 2) set up a blog for their personal journals (and then email me the link).  Our second class meets tonight, and I'm not surprised by the number of emails I've received in the last 24 hours about blogs and blog links.  Why do we perpetuate a mentality of procrastination?

Something my students should learn this semester (at least I hope they do) is that procrastination is the enemy of both creativity and accomplishment.  The fallacy that "I think best when I'm under pressure" is a short-term solution, but it really doesn't lead to long-term success.  This cartoon by Dave Walker made me chuckle; even I can get distracted by the internet's siren call when there's critical work to be done.

This year, I've been attempting something a little different with my task list, and it appears to be working.  Instead of creating a daily task list, which I can easily procrastinate from one day to the next, I've been making a weekly task list with no more than 25 items on it.  These are things I know I have to get done this week.  Either I need to do them, or somebody else is counting on me.  Once the list has been made, I've been trying to "front load" the activity, so by the end of the week, the list is virtually empty.  I've been feeling a lot better about my personal and professional accomplishments because of it.

Creating this list has also helped me with one other area of my life:  learning to say "no" to the non-critical things.  I take my weekly list pretty seriously, and I try to place only the most important things there... those that have an impact on the various roles I play.  (Yes, you caught me... I've been re-reading Stephen Covey's 7 Habits again.)  However, there's a lot of validity to centering our tasks around our most critical roles.

College students will probably never change.  If cramming the night before the test ever became passe, too many coffee houses would go out of business.  So now I'm curious.  To all of you accomplishment-mongers out there, what have been your best tricks for battling procrastination?

Comments

[Delaney Kirk]

I like your idea of a weekly list. I do the daily agenda list and yes, do find things bleed over to the following day or the one after that or.... Writing on my blog is my "siren" and what I find myself doing when I should be doing other things!!

[Josh Nankivel]

Great post Timothy. I've never tried the weekly task list but it sounds like a good idea. I think I'll try it out.

As far as battling procrastination, I enjoy Brian Tracy's idea of eating your frog first, focusing on the most unappealing and important tasks first.. In the project management realm, I believe critical chain techniques go a long way towards battling the 'student syndrome' of procrastination that is definitely NOT limited to the classroom. I haven't implemented critical chain myself, but the concepts are common sense and sound.

As a student juggling full-time work and family, I must schedule time to do my studies. I'm a procrastinator by nature, and for me it's crucial that I have a scheduled time. When it's "I'll work on it sometime..." I always procrastinate.

The other thing is multi-tasking. I try not to do it, at work, school, or when studying. I wrote about this on my blog. The cartoon is so true. I think people are so used to multi-tasking all the time with instant messenger, cell phones, etc. that it's hard to stop. And just because you're accustomed to it doesn't make it productive.

I personally combat multi-tasking when studying by allotting myself time to "goof off" (like post to my blog) after a piece of work is done.

Cheers,

Josh Nankivel
www.PMStudent.com

[liz]

Sometimes I like to just allow the procrastination because there are certain things I like to do under time deadlines - it focuses me and makes me only inlclude the really relevant information.

On the other hand, I have wanted to develop a blog for a while and was awed at the creative ways I procrastinated and still pretended to myself that I was working towards the blog.

Then, my brother started his blog on the weekend and offered to kick start mine. I spent the weekend designing it and playing with all the widgets - and nearly didn't write anything as I'd been caught in the last level of procrastination hell - wanting to only write something 'perfect & polished'. I just started writing and the rest is history.

My bro sent me someone's list of sentences and 3 in particular ring true about procrastination

less excuses ... more now ...less later

[Tom Haskins]

Timothy
I agree with you that procrastination is an enemy of creativity. Procrastination is also something to get creative about. I blogged about that this morning, thanks to you writing this delightful post. I have also taught creativity to business students many times.
Tom
http://growchangelearn.blogspot.com/2007/01/questioning-procrastination.html

[Sherry Borzo]

No doubt about it as I've gotten older I've learned the value of lists. I've also started reading way too many self-help books and even looking at tons of motivational blogs etc. Now the problem is I can get overwhelmed that I can't possibly get "improved" because I'm too busy looking at resources on how to improve.

I'm also totally with you on the computer thing. I need to write something and sure enough I migrate to blogs or just search my way around the universe.

The only thing I can say about my experience with procrastination is that I think I'm actually "working" on a problem when I do it. Often times, I'm actually festering and thinking and it is that process that becomes the force when I finall act.

Great post! Now back to work for me!

[Timothy Johnson]

Delaney - yes, the blogosphere is a delightful diversion... and I have to watch myself on that as well.

Josh - yes, taking on the most unpleasant tasks first is a wise tactic. However, sometimes, I'll give myself an "easy win" just to prime the motivational pump.

Liz - six very impactful words: well done

Tom - great post, thanks for sharing. We'll have to compare notes on teaching creativity sometime.

Sherry - it's important to distinguish between honest pause to consider and pure procrastination. I've tricked myself into thinking I was just pondering something when in reality I was procrastinating.