Time Management - Marc Mancini

Procrastination: The Thief of Time 47
Delegating
Chapter 6 will consider delegation in more detail, but it’s a
good idea to start thinking about it now. In your personal life, for
instance, many opportunities exist for you to delegate tasks that you
tend to procrastinate on. For example, many services will pick up and
deliver products for you: pharmacies, dry cleaners, even grocery and
office supply stores.These services can save you time on a chore you
might find unpleasant. If you’ve been in charge of writing checks to pay
the family bills, you can arrange to have many of these bills paid automatically
by your bank. Or perhaps your spouse would be willing to
take on this task for you. If you tend to put it off, it might very well be
a candidate for delegation.
• Do it the first thing in the day. Often, if you can do an
unpleasant task before you’ve had much time to think
about it, it will seem easier. Or, if you do want to spend
some time thinking, why not think about how unburdened
you’ll feel for the rest of the day when the task is done?
• The night before, place the task where you can’t miss it.
Put that complaint letter you must respond to in the middle
of your desk. When you walk into your office, it will be
hard to avoid.
• Find somebody else to do it. Remember this: what you
find unpleasant, someone else might actually enjoy.
• Make an advantage/disadvantage list. This is for heavyduty
kinds of unpleasant tasks. List all the positive
things that will
result from getting
the task done and
then list all the disadvantages
to doing
it. Just seeing it all
on paper may relieve
your anxiety.
• Use the “measles”
approach. Several
time management
Eating the Elephant
Question:“How do you eat
an elephant?” Answer:“One
bite at a time.”
There’s great wisdom in this venerable
saying. Overwhelming responsibilities
or projects that seem indigestible—the
very kind we often dangerously
procrastinate on—become
easier to deal with when we nibble
away at them one bite at a time.