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How to beat procrastination in the workplace at a small business

Procrastination can plague workplaces and have a huge impact on the productivity of the business. Therefore, it’s essential to tackle the issue, whether it’s yourself as the business owner or your employees. Procrastination is putting something off that needs to be done, to deal with at a later time. You might procrastinate by focusing on exciting things. However, if you are ignoring dealing with business taxes because you’re working on a new product, this could lead to serious problems.

beat procrastination in the workplace

There are ways in which you can make sure that you are able to work around procrastination. Everyone has to deal with it at one point or the other, and it’s important not to penalise your staff but help them work harder by encouraging and motivating them. Here are some ways you can make a more productive workplace and avoid procrastination.

To do lists

Lists can be great because they give you a visual of the things you need to do. You also get a sense of achievement and accomplishment when you can tick tasks of your list. This can be great way of motivating you and boosting productivity. However, lists can sometimes be daunting and off-putting. You may look at your list of ‘things to do’ which seem endless, and be discouraged completely, putting you off doing any work. Therefore, you will have to decide if lists really are for you.

Prioritising

Having a good idea of all your tasks that need to be completed can be good, however, you need to master the art of prioritising. You need to make sure that you are able to prioritise tasks so they are completed when required. For example, you may need to do your employees schedules for the following month, but you may be too busy setting your goals for next year. Here, you will need to prioritise depending on time and what’s more important in the present.

Delegate

As a business owner, you may think that you can do everything by yourself. This may be the case if you work alone, however if you have staff they are there for a reason. Your staff are there to help you run your business, therefore delegation is key. If there are tasks that you are ignoring but need to be done then delegate them to a member of your staff that has the knowledge to complete the task for you.

Multitasking can hurt your productivity

Although multitasking is seen as an impressive and productive way to work, it can actually be damaging to your work. When you are multitasking you are not focusing on one task and giving it your all, you are doing multiple things at the same time. This will result in work that is not of the best quality and could be better because you have not put 100% into it. Think of multitasking as depleting all your brain power by focusing on different tasks; where each task takes some of your brain power, and they are all completed at a mediocre level.

Be the motivator

As the boss and the owner of the boss, you will need to be the motivator. You will need to motivate yourself as well as your employees when there is a slump. There are multiple ways of doing this, from celebrating successes to helping those that are struggling. If you are feeling unmotivated, which will happen from time to time, you will need to get yourself focused again. You can do this by setting yourself new goals to achieve, taking time off if you can and focusing on what made you become an entrepreneur in the beginning.

More on productivity and motivating your employees.

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