Swarm all over it!
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. No, I’m not writing about Cole Porter in an article about business. I am highlighting the benefits of ‘swarming’ – focussing, acting collectively and gathering all the resources at your disposal and the best of yourself to overcome an obstacle, survival or advancement of your business. A powerful strategy proven to work and highly beneficial in today’s disruptive business environment.
Many of us when faced by a challenging task, change or the unknown procrastinate and instead of swarming we put off tasks that will advance us nearer our goal - fearful of what might happen by completing the task, rather than just getting on with what we have to do. Even though we know this will affect us negatively and that in the end we still need to get on with whatever it is that needs doing. But did you know that procrastination comes in three flavours:
‘Classic Procrastination’ where we consciously delay what we know we should be doing now, putting it off until the pressure to do so forces us to finally get on with it.
‘Creative Avoidance’ where we deliberately find any excuse or distraction not to take action. Making us feel productive but in reality, avoiding getting on with the thing we know we should be doing.
‘Priority Dilution’ where we end our day with our priorities incomplete because we allowed our attention to drift from what was our aim for that day. Instead filling our day with insignificant tasks or taking on someone else’s problems that override our own priority tasks. As Bob Carter said: “Poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine.”
Procrastination is not new, people have been doing it for centuries – putting things off, delaying the inevitable, making excuses. Causing anxiety for themselves and others, creating avoidable problems, wasting time, energy and valuable resources.
Many cite discipline as the answer, to plan better, be strict with yourself, not to be so lazy. However, procrastination is an emotion regulation issue, not a time management problem. Coming from avoiding negative emotions, not laziness. Whilst self-discipline may help, the fact that you procrastinate doesn't mean you're undisciplined. It simply means you're overwhelmed by negative emotions and coping with them the best way you know how - by pushing away the task that's making you unhappy or fearful.
The answer is to not beat yourself up but accept you are human, to forgive yourself. Then consider why you are putting something off, what is holding you back. This leads to finding ways to make the task less stressful such as breaking it down into simpler tasks, sharing or even passing it over to others. Finally, when you complete it - reward yourself, countering the negative emotions of procrastination with something positive.
To procrastinate is to be human, but once we master overcoming it, it opens us our ability to swarm all over tasks and relish challenges more readily than ever before. Swarming will save you time encourage collaboration and increase both the volume and quality of your output. Getting you faster to your goals.
