Precrastinating: a danger to efficiency

“I like to keep my affairs up to date,” “I can’t relax while I have pending tasks,” “I prefer to finish projects on time.” Do you identify with these statements? If so, you surely consider yourself a fairly productive and efficient person. However, Meeting your obligations as soon as possible is not always the best strategy and this may be a symptom of your tendency to precrastinate.

You may have never heard this term, but you probably know another similar one: procrastination. We can say that these are the two extremes of a continuum: While procrastinating is putting off pending tasks, precrastinating is rushing to complete them as soon as possible, even before it is necessary.. Although the first option has a bad reputation, neither of the two is appropriate or beneficial, and below we will tell you why.

What is precrastination?

Precrastination is the tendency to take care of pending tasks as soon as possible, to get rid of them quickly even if that time is not the most appropriate time to tackle them.

Those who precrastinate want to finish work quickly and fulfill all their obligations in the shortest time possible, This way they feel productive and responsible. They cannot stand having unfinished business and are incapable of leaving something for later.

We can define some traits that these types of people share and that characterize their way of proceeding well. They are the following:

They are very active, nervous people and with difficulties regulating their energy levels.They have little patience and tend towards immediacy, it is difficult for them to tolerate waiting. Having pending tasks generates great stress and a mental load that they do not know how to manage, which is why they choose to “clear the land” as soon as possible. In fact, research suggests that in order to lighten this mental load we can opt for actions that require more physical effort and are less efficient. They may be insecure people with low self-esteem who They cling to this “quick production” to prove their worth.. They feel that by delivering ahead of time they are proving to be efficient and valid.They have difficulty distinguishing between what is urgent and what is important. They need to take care of everything “now”, even if this means a bad investment of resources and time.

How does it affect efficiency?

We are all clear that procrastinating makes us more inefficient. If we postpone obligations and leave them until the last minute, it is likely that we will do them with a dose of extra pressure that will not favor performance. However, precrastinating also has important disadvantages.

Let’s agree that efficiency is the ability to adequately fulfill a function, to obtain the best result with the least possible investment. However, to do a good job it is essential to have planning, analysis and time. Excessive speed in the execution of a task can easily lead to the execution containing errors, is incomplete or does not present the expected quality.

It is essential to know how to choose the most appropriate time to attend to each activity in order to invest the necessary resources in each one. Writing a project at eleven at night, after having worked all day, may not be the best option, since we will be physically and mentally tired.

Likewise, making a decision immediately prevents us from weighing the options, analyzing the pros and cons, and choosing the best option. Hurries are not good advisors and “do it sooner” does not mean “do it better”, it is generally the opposite.

How to stop precrastinating?

Abandoning the habit of precrastinating is complicated, especially because it is perceived as a virtue. Acting as soon as possible is associated with responsibility, efficiency, productivity and value. In addition, taking care of these matters quickly relieves the anxiety and guilt that comes with having pending tasks.

Speed ​​of execution is usually considered an advantage, even if by acting untimely and advancing efforts we are obtaining a much poorer result than we could achieve. Thus, The first step is to become aware of how this trend is leading us to be less efficient.

Additionally, the following tips can be put into practice:

Begin to distinguish between urgent and important, and establish a priority hierarchy between tasks.Plan time based on available deadlines for each task. Find the ideal moment to do each of them.Respect the allotted time and not advance deadlines. Learn to regulate impatience and intolerance of waiting. Get used to work calmly and serenely.

Implementing these guidelines can be complicated at first if we have tended to precrastinate for years. However, we will soon see an improvement in our efficiency. Choose wisely the best way to invest your time and energy It will allow us to obtain much better results than those derived from acting hastily and prematurely.

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