Lesson
29
IMPROVING WORK HABITS-1
(Dealing with Procrastination)
Developing good work habits
Good work habits means, being organized and prioritizing tasks according to their importance. Good work
habits and time management are extremely important because of the current emphasis on enhancing
productivity. They are also important for the personal success. Effective work habits are beneficial for
yourself and your organization, because if you have good work habits, you have control over yourself, and if
you have control over yourself you are productive, and if you are productive you have good human
relations.
Work habits refer to a person’s characteristic approach to work, including such things as organization,
priority setting, and handling of paper work and e-mail.
Procrastination
The productivity can be enhanced by improving work habits relating to procrastination. Productivity is the
amount of quality work done with the resources consumed. The leading cause of poor productivity and
career self-sabotage is procrastination, delaying a task for an invalid or weak reason. Even productive
people have problems with procrastination at times.
Reasons of procrastination
Delaying or postponing of assignments makes you less productive or unproductive. There may be a number
of reasons of procrastination.
Key reasons for procrastination include:
(1) Unpleasant tasks
If you do not like the tasks or assignments which you are supposed to do, might be the reason of
delaying them.
(2) Overwhelming
Sometimes you think that the task given to you is so huge that you can not handle, you keep on
hesitating to initiate it.
(3) Concerns about negative consequences of one’s work
Sometimes the fear of negative results of doing a task becomes the reason of postponing it.
(4) Fear of success (worry about assuming too much responsibility)
Just like the fear of failure, the fear of success also becomes a hindrance in performing a task. One
thinks if he/she successfully completes some task he/she might be chosen for some bigger assignment.
(5) Lack of a perceived meaningful reward for doing the task
If you feel that you would not be rewarded meaningfully, you would hesitate to do that work.
Rebellion against being controlled
Another reason of procrastination is that you do not like to be controlled by others. You think that you
will do your work as and whenever you like it to do.
(6) Enjoyment of the rush derived from scrambling to make a deadline
Some people enjoy doing things at the eleventh hour.
(7) Perfectionism
People also become victim of procrastination due to the habit of perfectionism.
The tendency of perfectionism can be measured through this self-assessment quiz.
docsity.com
