Procrastination has only four causes:

* Bad timing: Trying to accomplish a certain task at the end of the day, when your energy is depleted and all you can think of is getting home. Or focusing on a complex report at a time of low energy, such as right after lunch.
* Fear: The most common example of this type of procrastination in business is cold calling. Most people hate it, not because it’s difficult in itself, but because people tend to take rejection personally. So we postpone it until the next day, and the next day, and the next day…
* Overwhelm: The task seems like it will take a long time, or the sheer size of it is intimidating. We also sometimes don’t know where or how to start.
* Dislike: This is procrastination from hate. We keep postponing a task because we don’t like it and/or aren’t good at it.

Dealing with it amounts to applying one of the following options:

Identify where your procrastination comes, and the issue resolves itself:
Sometimes, the mere fact of identifying the cause of procrastination gives you the answer as to what to do. If it’s bad timing, for instance, the solution is easy – just postpone the activity until a time where you have more energy, such as the next morning. If you procrastinate because you don’t know where to start, it probably means that you have a piece of information missing for you to be able to get started, then go ahead and find it. If there are so many pieces that you don’t know where to start, the easiest is to write down everything you know about the task or project, then start to fill in the gaps, until you have a fully defined project, that you know how to handle.

Eliminate your procrastination:
Another option is to simply drop the task from your to-do list. Ask yourself what are the consequences if this task stays undone. If you can live with them, the task can be dropped, thereby freeing up your mind and your time.

Delegate your procrastination:
Another possibility to get rid of the activity you procrastinate on is to delegate the task. It often is the best choice if the activity in question is one you don’t like or aren’t good at. It will save you time, and you will often get better results than if you did it on your own.

Cut the procrastination-causing activity to bite-size pieces:
When delegating or eliminating isn’t an option, decomposing the activity in bite-size pieces usually is the solution. For instance, let’s assume that you need to write an article. Your bite-sized list might look something like this:
- Search for information on topic “prrocrastination”
- Print all interesting information found – Read article A
- Read article B
- Read article C
- Create outline
- Write causes of procrastination
Etc.

If you decompose your task or project enough that none of the individual steps outlined seems too big or threatening, you have a list that resolves your procrastination issue: Nothing feels overwhelming or threatening and, even if you positively hate a task, my guess is that you can force yourself to work on it for 5-15 minutes. If you schedule this list in your calendar, everything will get done without you even paying attention to it, and procrastination is gone for good.

Some sources of stress you can avoid, but many you unfortunately can’t. However, you can make sure that you regularly and actively reduce your stress level, so that you don’t suffer its adverse consequences.

The first key to stress management is good sleep. Yes, it does make a difference: If you sleep enough, you will be able to better handle things that come your way, and your stress response will be muted. So make sleep one of your priorities, and avoid late nights at work as much as possible.

The second key is to weekly make an appointment with yourself for at least a couple hours a week, devoted to relaxation. It can be going to the gym, practicing a sport you love, getting a massage (on this subject, see this month’s spotlight), sit down and read an entertaining book, do some knitting, whatever works for you. The key is that this is an activity that you enjoy, that you practice on your own (i.e. no co-workers to talk business while having a tennis game, no children interrupting you while you are reading your book, etc.) and that makes you feel refreshed once you’re done.

The third key is to make sure to have mini de-stressing sessions throughout the day. It can be as easy as taking a few minutes to breathe deeply; stand up and do a few stretching moves; get out and walk around the block; or use some of the de-stressing tools on the market. Ideally, experts recommend to take a 3-to-5-minute break every hour. It is especially important if you spend most of the day at a desk, and your body is stressed by the mere fact of not being able to move freely for hours in a row. I am in no way, shape or form a proponent of smoking (I don’t smoke, don’t like the smell of smoke, and definitely don’t want you to suffer the side-effects and consequences of smoking), but the cigarette breaks were good in the sense that they provided those necessary breaks both body and mind. So introduce your own non-smoking breaks in your day!

Now is your time to plan: Open your calendar, and figure out when you can include an hour or two of relaxation time in your week, every week until the end of the year. Then ask yourself the following questions: How will you organize your breaks during the day? When can you take a 10-minute break? Which relaxation exercises do you want to focus on?

First, create a follow-up plan: How will you keep in touch for the next six months? What will you offer to your prospects, hot and cold? At which frequency will you get in touch with them? Write the answer to all those questions in a time line of the type:

Contact # Timeline Contact type Content

where “timeline” is the amount of time from first contact until present one, “contact type” the way of contact (phone, email, mail, etc.) and “content” the actual content of your contact. This allows you to have a plan for each and every contact you make, and avoid re-inventing the wheel each time. It also makes it easy, almost mechanical, to plan any individual contact.

The second step is to make sure that the follow-up contacts actually happen. From my experience with clients, I have seen only two systems really work: The tickler file and the contact management software.

The tickler file is made of a container, 4×5 or 5×6 index cards, 31 dividers labeled from 1 to 31 for the days of the month, and 12 dividers labeled by month. In front of the box are the current and remaining days of the month: Let’s say today is the 15th of October, so you’ll see dividers labeled 15 to 31 in front of you, followed by the month dividers November, December, January, etc. Each index card contains the contact information of a connection you made, along with the contacts made, and is moved through the system as you go.

Let’s say that you just sent an email to a contact, and will send them an email again in a week from now to make sure they have received the information. If today is the 15th of the month, your next contact is scheduled for the 22nd. You then place the card behind the divider marked “22”, and forget about it. On the 22nd of the month, you take all the cards behind the “22” divider and know exactly who you need to contact, and what for. Now, let’s say that, instead of October 22, the next contact should happen on November 22. In this case, you simply put the corresponding card behind the “November” divider. When November 1 rolls in, you take all the cards for November, and dispatch them through the days of the month. When you get to the 22nd, your card is waiting for you behind the “22” divider. This system is very low-tech, effective, and allows you to schedule contacts up to a year in advance. It can however take a lot of space, and some people are more comfortable with an electronic version.

Outlook can be enough to electronically accomplish this follow-up. However, dedicated contact management software such as ACT! or Goldmine will allow you more flexibility. In particular, you can set up contact series, so that you need to enter those only once, and the software will automatically schedule all of the contacts you have planned without any intervention on your part. They also allow you to enter more information, such as notes, tracking of opportunities, etc. In that sense, they are more powerful than both the tickler file and Outlook. They require some learning, but are worth the expense and effort. I personally use ACT! and it has transformed my ability to stay in touch with the people I meet.

However, most of the articles talking about those differences in customs often don’t talk about the differences in how time is considered and used. In business America, we live by the “dictatorship of the watch”: Not being on time for an appointment is considered rude – even though many people do it, out of lack of time management skills; diving right into business within minutes of meeting someone is customary; cramming as much as possible in as little time as possible is the norm. We tend to think that, since we do it this way, everyone does it too, and sometimes commit blunders and lose patience or business because of it.

The truth is that other cultures see time very differently, both socially and professionally. While Anglo-Saxon and most North-European cultures apprehend time the way we do, other areas of the world don’t. Here are some examples, both social and professionals:

* In some cultures, arriving to work within a half hour of your official beginning of the day is perfectly normal. No one expects everyone to be at the office at 9 am sharp.
* The appropriate time to arrive at a meeting also varies from culture to culture. For us, and most of Northern Europe, arriving at the appointed time is the norm. In other cultures, your arrival time depends on your place in the hierarchy – the higher the later.
* When to arrive at a social dinner is also dependent on the culture: In some areas of Switzerland, you are expected to be on time; in others, 15-20 minutes late is the appropriate thing to do. I have heard that, in some areas of Spain (but don’t have first experience of it), arriving an hour late is customary. If you arrive on time, you run the risk of catching your host in the middle of dinner preparations, or in the shower!
* How time is spent in a meeting also depends on where it is held. In the US, no one will be surprised or offended if, within a couple minutes of the start, everyone dives into business. In France, it is customary to talk for a few minutes about family or general news before diving in. In some areas of the Middle East and North Africa, don’t even think about talking business before spending at least an hour talking about family, weather and recent events.

The meaning of the words around time might also be different from culture to culture. As Americans, we find it normal to give or receive a deadline, and for the work to be accomplished by that deadline, and the words about time have specific meanings. This, again, is not the norm in all countries of the world. In some countries, especially African and South American ones, “tomorrow” often means “not today”, not necessarily “tomorrow.” You might get what you requested the next day, or a week later. Also, deadlines may be indicative, rather than set in stone. “I need this done by such date” may be heard as “I need this done around this date.”

Those differences have tended to diminish in the past 20 years or so, as business practices have homogenized. However, they have not entirely disappeared. If you go to another country, learning about local customs – but also the local relationship with time – before you go can make the difference between getting the deal or losing it (Case in point: In the 70’s, Americans lost many deals to the Europeans in the Middle East because they didn’t worry about making sure that their shoe soles were not visible to their interlocutor when sitting on cushions, and insisted on talking about the reason for their meeting within minutes of its start.) Similarly, not all people coming to work from abroad know how we tend to use and refer to time. Taking the time to understand the person’s use of time, and teaching them the local way, can make the difference between keeping or losing a gifted collaborator.