Are You A Procrastinator? Effective And Efficient Nursery Management Tips
Do you avoid having that difficult conversation with a member of staff, instead spending time with happier colleagues? Do you leave your finances or spreadsheets unmanaged, instead occupying yourself working with children or parents?
Procrastination can be best described as the avoidance of starting or completing a task that should be done. Often we replace unwanted tasks with more enjoyable ones instead, or we carry out less-urgent tasks rather than the more urgent and important ones, which leads us to putting off impending tasks to a later time, or even never getting round to them at all.
Does this sound familiar to you? Do you avoid having that difficult conversation with a member of staff, instead spending time with happier colleagues? Do you leave your finances or spreadsheets unmanaged, instead occupying yourself working with children or parents?
We all have preferred learning and working styles, and I like to match my tasks with my mood – if at all possible (it isn’t always). And sometimes this includes scheduling tasks to the time of the day, or day of the week, that best suits my style or motivations.
I like to get the uninteresting things done in the morning, which gives me a sense of achievement and relief, and allows me to be open to more conversations, distractions and creative work after the inevitable celebratory and rewarding lunch. If I have a column to write, last thing on a Friday is ideal (which happens to be when I am writing this one!). It leaves me feeling happy, productive, and imaginative. And I can cross it off my ‘to do’ list as well.
Could you be more efficient?
The ways in which we each procrastinate are really useful signpost questions. And we need to take notice of them. Think about the following examples and consider whether they connect with some of your behaviours. Do you…
- Tidy up everything before starting a difficult job
- Fantasise about crises and interruptions taking you away from unwanted tasks
- Doubt you can complete specific tasks at all, thinking you don’t have the skills
- Overestimate the time a task will take
- Think you can never find enough time in your diary to start a job in the first place
- Find time to chat even when you have a pressing deadline
- Leave difficult jobs to the end of the day, and go home instead of finishing them
- Say “Well, another day won’t hurt, will it?”
- Eventually have to work late, at the weekends, or on holiday, to get those avoided jobs done
- Often miss deadlines, or complete at the very last minute
James Hempsall OBE is director of Hempsall’s training, research and consultancy. Visit hempsalls.com or follow him on Twitter at @jhempsall.
