Leadership & Procrastination = 90/10?

I think procrastination or avoiding behavior as some call it is actually an emergent property of another motivation.

In other words, it’s not like you are trying to avoid something or procrastinate intentionally.

Some people would call it procrastination, or avoidance, and it could be.

However in my view, it’s none of those but a person being drawn away from the rote routine or detail; having to do types of things that are less interesting and much less motivating.

Yet, while avoiding some things serves your other motivations; perhaps low order, low honor, low tranquility, low acceptance, high independence, high curiosity, other things could be entering into the equation.

That avoiding behavior, as a matter of fact, may happen to be the ways in which you function for specific reasons: you could be pressure prompted, causal, emergent; AND, routine, detail, and other issues could be present that actually serve you best when you avoid things like structure, routine, or detail.

This is the reason I suggest to people that the 90-10 rule would work for most people who think they are procrastinators/avoiders, often because other people have who are different have labeled these behaviors negatively. In order to get the 90% of your freedom to avoid, you might give the 10%. This often can capitalize on someone’s utility motivation, or even reverse idealism, etc.

Here's the key.

Each day has 1440 minutes.

Your deal with yourself is to use 144 of those minutes in specific focused activity and tasks surrounding what really matters, then receive the remaining 90% to use as you wish, PLUS a bonus of an extra 288 minutes for the two days it’s not required on weekends!

For me (because I’m utilitarian), this is a great tradeoff. YET, I still have trouble doing things that are boring and frustrating for me. So, even at 90-10, it’s not necessarily easy to do. But give it a try. Watch your productivity sky rocket!

If you can't make 90-10, start at 95-5 and spread the 15 minutes out 4 times a day, your productivity will still go up dramatically.

Most people need a coach or someone trained in “importance” inquiry to help them move through these kinds of structures.

A great way to begin is to get your own Motivational Profile Assessment: http://www.reissdesireprofile.com.

Here’s to the 10% that makes a difference!

mike