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Put an end to procrastination

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, November 8, 2007

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Before you feel the urge to procrastinate, you need to ask yourself these important questions:

• What will happen if I don't deal with this now/today?
• Will not dealing with this affect others?
• Will not dealing with this affect how my performance is perceived?

Once you recognize that not dealing with an employee's evaluation will affect how quickly he or she gets a raise, you may designate a different level of urgency to this item. Not attending to a budget report may leave the chief financial officer (CFO) with the impression that you feel finances are not important. This could affect communications when you make a case for more departmental full-time employees. Self-discipline and self-direction are characteristics of effective leaders, and they come in handy when dealing with procrastination.

To minimize procrastination:

• Reward yourself when you attend to matters over which you typically procrastinate
• Give yourself a pat on the back and say "good job" to yourself
• After completing these tasks, attend to something you enjoy doing in your job, such as spending some time with patients and their families

Editor's note: The above excerpt is from the online course "Nursing CE Series: Time Management & Delegation for Nurse Managers." For more information on this and other courses in our library, go to
http://www.hcprofessor.com.

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