Procrastination Costs Money

After speaking with a business coach briefly this morning and telling him time management was probably my biggest issue when it came to my business, I realised procrastination was the real issue.

 I’ve never thought of myself as a problem procrastinator, however this morning’s conversation, a recent flurry of time-management related reading and the fact I had put off my accounts for six months made me realise I do procrastinate. I don’t think I do it to the point where my business will suffer, but I do put off tasks I am not interested in until I absolutely have to do them.

As a service provider I make money from my time. Clients pay for the time I spend working for them. I don’t have a product I can add-on so my potential for earning money is in the amount of time I work and once time has gone I can’t get it back again. I think it was this realisation that made me consider my distractions – like emails, talking to friends, doing the housework etc – was actually me procrastinating. Unless I create a product that will make me money while I sleep (that is the subject of another post altogether), I have a limited resource to utilise for my business – my time. I have made a deal with myself that I will become more organised and block out time on my working days in which to do certain tasks, ie two hours first thing Monday morning will now be accounts and admin.

I also made a deal with the business coach that I would read Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog!

 The book shows readers how to gain time by not procrastinating, but instead “eating the frog” (or doing the worst thing you will have to do each day) first so the rest of the day will be smooth sailing. I ate my frog earlier this week and caught up on six months worth of accounts I’d been continually putting off. As it’s the end of the financial year I had to do it, but I felt so much better at the end. It was one less thing to stress about – and I had been stressing about it for months.

So I’m led to the conclusion that my procrastination costs me money, as it is time I am not spending working for my clients or working on my business to gain new clients.Has procrastination affected your business?