Occasionally you'll get stuck in a costly procrastination rut. Here's a look inside a counseling session on procrastination, giving you insights into how you can handle this common problem.
Ted is in serious trouble. His staff is waiting for their performance reviews; he's six-months behind. He received a final warning that his job is on the line. Yet Ted continues to delay. (I stripped identifying information including situational factors and possibly even gender.)
During the course of his counseling, Ted finished the performance reviews and saved his job. He was the first to finish the following year. This is a typical outcome for successful procrastination counseling.
Through this reading, you may identify areas to probe, questions to ask yourself, and a deeper understanding of an extremely complex area that weaves through life.
Counseling Interaction
Bill: Ted, tell me about the performance reviews.
Ted: Dextron (not the real name of the company) keeps me hopping. I'm too busy to get to the reviews. Besides, everyone knows that the reviews are a crock. They're just busywork. They're a waste of time. I can sell and my people can sell, and that's what's important. But I want to keep my job. I can't believe that I let it go this long.
Bill: That doesn't surprise me. Procrastination is an automatic habit that can go on like it has a life of its own. This is one of the more challeng­ing problem habits for people to deal with. Practically everyone has at least one area in which he feels burdened by the habit and feels baffled about why he can't just do something to start and finish. This may happen when a change takes place, and for some, adjustments can prove challenging. In your situation, the change was the introduction of the performance review system.
Ted: I'm relieved that you said that. I thought it was just me.
Bill: Let's see if we can figure out what is going on. Let's start with your view that performance reviews are a waste of time.
Ted: Yeah, they are a waste of time. I have better things to do. I shouldn't have to do them.
Bill: What do you do for each review?
Ted: I have to fill out a rating scale and make general comments.
Bill: On average, how long does it take to complete each review?
Ted: It takes half an hour to do and-half an hour to give the results.
Bill: So would 20 hours be a realistic estimate for the reviews for all five salespeople and your assistant? That would include putting together the information and handling rescheduling issues.
Ted: I should be able to get them done in less time than that.
Bill: So the amount of time it takes isn't as much the problem as what you make of the reviews themselves. Are performance reviews part of every manager's assignment?
Ted: Everyone has to do them.
Bill: I understand that performance reviews have been in place for a few years. What's your understanding about their use?
Ted: I think we put them into place for several reasons. We had no objective performance standards. We wanted to keep track of how well our people were doing. Our corporate legal consultant recommended that we have a way to justify both disciplinary actions and bonuses and promotions. She said that our company had grown large enough that we needed a way to be sure that the appraisals were job-related and based on measurable and reasonable standards. It was important for employees to have a pathway to appeal their reviews if they disagreed with the findings. The reviews provide a basis for performance improvement plans. I guess they make some sense. But I still don't like doing them.
Bill: It sounds like you have a clear understanding of their purpose. I agree, you don't have to like every part of a job.
Ted: Okay. Now we are getting somewhere. You've agreed that I don't have to like them.
Bill: Right. But your job is on the line for not doing them.
Ted: I know. I have to get them done. But I shouldn't have to waste my time doing them.
Bill: Should is one of those words with different meanings. One is a reminder: I should remember to buy a loaf of bread. Another is a tyrannical or coercive should. If you think that the reviews are unfairly dumped on you, that they are a waste of time, and that you should not be required to do them, you might view them as taking time away from what you'd like to do and feel resentful and resist doing them. Another view is that you should live up to your standards by doing whatever you undertake perfectly well. So it isn't the word so much as its context and what it means. (Long pause) If you use should as a reminder, you'll probably feel differently from the way you would feel if should meant that you must do performance reviews. Of these three views on should, do any fit?
Ted: (Long pause) It's funny that you put it that way. I think it's two ways. I resent doing them. But I think that if I must do them, I want to make them really meaningful for my people. I want them to make a difference. I want my people to have new insights into how to be super salespeople.
Bill: And when you think you must make your performance reviews meaningful, what follows that thought?
Ted: I think they'll be disappointed.
Bill: Because?
Ted: (Pause) I won't do well enough. I'll get criticized.
Bill: And how do you feel when you think that way?
Ted: Tense, depressed, miserable.
Bill: It sounds like you have high standards for yourself.
Ted: I've always had high standards. My mom used to call me Mr. Perfect.
Bill: When you think about the performance review and view yourself falling below standard, what do you think about yourself?
Ted: (Pause) Like a loser and a failure.
Bill: Perfectionist thinking involves the idea that if you don't do well enough at what you think you should do, you're a flop. Others will think ill of you. When you think that way, do you feel anxious about the possibility of performing poorly?
Ted: That sounds about right.
Bill: So, you're either a winner or a loser. Is there anything that may lie in between?
Ted: (Laughs) A partial loser?
Bill: It's better to laugh about what lies in between than to take the extremes seriously. But you can also consider that you are a person who is challenged to find a way to break through a procrastination barrier. Meeting the challenge becomes the issue. That gets you away from making character generalizations about yourself, and this may help you fix your focus onto solving the problem. By the way, is there any universal law, other than Ted's law, that requires you to be perfect?
Ted: No. I hadn't thought about it that way. Can I appeal Ted's law and change it?
Bill: Hey, you're the judge who interprets that law. You can change it anytime. Do you think you put off doing the performance reviews to avoid failing?
Ted: It's beginning to sound that way.
Bill: Is having your reviews challenged part of this picture?
Ted: I worry about that.
Bill: What would it mean if you had your reviews challenged by one of your people?
Ted: They'd think I was a jerk. I'd lose respect.
Bill: And what would you think about yourself?
Ted: That I'm a loser.
Bill: You'd have to be a mind reader to know what others think. But even if you were right, and some people thought you were a jerk, would that make you one? I mean, if someone called you a green grasshopper, would you start eating grass?
Ted: (Laughs) I've been called worse than a green grasshopper. I guess what you're saying is that I am exaggerating, but that even if I'm right about what people think, I'm still making too much of it.
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