I’ll Do It Tomorrow: Understanding the Difference Between Prioritising and Procrastination
I often put things off until tomorrow.
Yet, problems can occur when tomorrow becomes the next day. Then the next day. And the next day. Then the day after that. And before I know it, tomorrow becomes next week or next month,
This issue almost disappeared once I understood the difference between prioritising and procrastination.
Prioritising helps you do more in less time
Is your to-do list unwieldy?
Prioritising involves arranging your tasks based on their urgency and importance.
- Urgent and important: Complete these tasks first.
- Not urgent, but important: Schedule time this week to work on them.
- Urgent, but not important: Automate or delegate these tasks.
- Not urgent or important: Can any of these act as a small treat for getting your tasks done? If not, delete them.
This way of deciding what to do, delay, delegate and delete improves your productivity.
(inspired by Covey, 1989; Eisenhower, 1954; O’Toole, 2014)
Procrastination often harms our productivity
Procrastination occurs when we choose to put something off that needs to get done.
But unlike prioritising, we’re not delaying this task to focus on one that’s more urgent or important. Rather, we’re putting off an urgent and important task. Often it’s our most urgent and important task.
Prioritising becomes procrastination when:
- The delay is unnecessary or irrational. We know it’ll harm us and goes against our best interests. But we can’t help it;
- We continue to put the task off despite potential negative consequences. We pull an all-nighter, produce low-quality work and get poor results.
- The delay comes with subjective discomfort. Our feelings of guilt, stress, and fatigue increase.
(inspired by Dionne et al., 2020)
Reflection
- Have you recently put off a task?
- Were you prioritising or procrastinating?
References
Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Restoring the character ethic. Simon & Schuster. link
Dionne, F., Gagnon, J., Raymond, G. (2020). Déjouer la procrastination pour réussir et survivre à vos études: Une méthode scientifique basée sur l’approche d’acceptation et d’engagement (ACT). Les Presses de l’Université du Québec. link
Eisenhower, D. D. (1954, August 19). Address at the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Evanston, Illinois. The American Presidency Project. link
O’Toole, G. (2014). What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important. Quote Investigator. link