Perfume Factory

Aditya, yet another SE, is working at a big MNC for over last two years. He was hard working although lazy sometimes and used to complete his work much before the deadline. He had handled most difficult tasks very well and was alpha geek in the team.  Considering Aditya’s excellent performance his pleased boss put him in an very important project of some big client. But after few months, client started complaining about Aditya’s performance. Aditya was not doing his work at all. Inspite of repeated warnings from both client as well as from his boss, he did not do even a bit of his assigned work. Finally, Aditya was taken back from the client project.

What went wrong with Aditya ?

Giving a thought to this, his boss recalled that during last two years Aditya never used to do certain tasks that he feels uninterested. As he used to carry out most of difficult tasks successfully , those unfinished certain work were always given to someone else in the team. Aditya always had a freedom to choose what tasks to do first from the bunch of tasks that were assigned to him. Out of all tasks, he always used to complete 90% of tasks in less than 50% of allotted time. But he never used to do those remaining 10% tasks and those were always assigned to some other in the team.

At the client location, they used to follow strict order of doing tasks and Aditya was never allowed to choose the tasks that he wants to do. Unfortunately, he was assigned to do the tasks that he never wanted to do. The tasks, which he feels interesting, were queued after these uninterested tasks. Due to Aditya’s basic procrastinating nature, he never finished those uninterested tasks ( which client wanted to finish them first before taking rest of tasks ). Aditya failed terribly and was taken back from the client project.

How Aditya, his boss and the client could have handled this situation better?

The answer is Structured Procrastination.

What is Structured Procrastination?

Structured Procrastination is an approach / strategy discovered by John Perry. It is a way of doing everything else inorder to avoid one important task. It is a technique, if properly used, makes structured procrastinator most efficient than anyone else in his team.

How it is different from procrastination?

Normal procrastinators always avoid doing important tasks ( that are really important and urgent ) and also they don’t do other less important tasks inorder to avoid those important tasks.  They just procrastinate everything.

While structured procrastinators always avoid doing important tasks ( that are not really important and not urgent ) and they do other less important tasks ( some of these tasks are really important and most difficult ones ).

Got it? NO? Let me explain in detail.

How to become Structured Procrastinator?

The first step to be structured procrastinator is to create self-deception point.  Given a list of tasks, choose one or two tasks that you don’t like ( and are not so important or urgent ) and mark them as very important high priority tasks ( self-deception ). Mark the actual important tasks as low priority tasks. Creating self-deception for yourself, now you have to do all those low priority tasks ( which are actually important tasks ) inorder to avoid those high priority tasks ( which are less important or urgent ).

This may initially feel awkard / funny / weird. But as you go on practising it, you will achieve tremendous productivity.

How bosses should handle Structured Procrastinators?

There are many approaches:

Suppose say if there are six tasks to be done by a sub-ordinate which normally takes 18 days considering avg 3 days for each task.

1) Making him fool:  Assign all six tasks to him. Tell him that one out of six is very important task ( which is actually not an important task ). He will do rest 5 tasks in 9 days and will avoid 6th task which he don’t want to do. When he finishes 5 tasks, assign that 6th task to someone else.

2) Understanding what he likes and what he hates: A boss should always understand what his subordinate likes to do and what he hates to do. Always attach a task ( which he hates to do ) along  with other tasks. He will do rest of all tasks inorder to avoid that task which he hates. when he finishes rest of tasks, assign the remaining task to someone else.

3) Let him choose: Assign bunch of tasks and leave it to him. He will choose one task which he don’t want to do and will do rest of tasks. He will usually keep that as last task. As usual, you can always assign that last task to someone else.

Where bosses do mistake?

Structured Procrastinators are not normal workers. They need special treatment. You cannot treat them just as any other worker.

1) Assigning one task at a time instead of bunch of tasks where he will loose the freedom of doing rest of tasks and avoiding important task.

2) Enforcing to follow strict order to complete tasks such as Task A must be completed before taking Task B and Task B must be completed before taking Task C.. etc. If  Task A is the task that he hates to do, then he will never do it and thus he will not be able to do none of them.  ( This is what really happened to Aditya at client location in the above scenario ).

3) You can never ever force a structured procrastinator to do a job that he hates to do. Scold him, threat him, beg him, request him, kill him.. but he will never do that job. His boss must understand this.

Conclusion: Structured Procrastinators, if properly utilised,  take 50% of time to do 90% of tasks while normal workers take 90% of time for the same.  Structured Procrastinators are not black spots at workplace. Only their bosses should know how to handle them properly.