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We all know the panicky feeling of procrastination. How many of us, in our youth, put off doing our homework, lazing through the weekend then frantically cramming on a Sunday night because it was due first thing Monday morning? Unfortunately, for some of us, this is something that’s carried over into our adult lives.

Oddly enough, it’s not those who are unsuccessful in their careers that are plagued by this habit. Perfectly smart and talented professional women catch this ‘mamaya na’ bug, such as in the cases below.

Problem Procrastinators>
As a copywriter for a large multinational advertising agency, Lorna is an ace. She is what even clients call a crackerjack creative, whipping out concepts that are truly innovative, groundbreaking, award-wining—and right on strategy. Only her teammates and her creative director know the truth—Lorna gets away with it by the skin of her teeth. Most of her campaigns are patched together under breathlessly tense, hair-raising circumstances. The art directors hate being teamed up with her because it means they will have to work three times as hard on storyboards at the last minute and under the direct gaze of an irate and impatient account executive on her way to the presentation. Even when Lorna gets two weeks notice to do a campaign, she spends the first week puttering on anything but the campaign. Real work doesn’t begin until the middle of the second week…and actual writing doesn’t happen till the afternoon before the presentation when Lorna gets ill-tempered, snapping at everyone. “I need the lead time to brainstorm and percolate,” she rationalizes. “I do my best work under pressure.” But does she really?

Becca is a college instructor at one of the local universities and she appears to have the same problem. One day—before it’s time to hand in final grades—she is buried in paperwork, skips lunch, and even gives her class a free cut just so she can get the grades done. Once she was asked to give a special lecture on poetry for the class of one of her co-teachers. The day before the lecture, a friend asked her if she was ready. Becca answered, “I haven’t begun to write it yet.” The result: she makes an acceptable though unremarkable job. Later she admits to friends, “It would have been better if I had had more time.”

Michelle, a writer, confesses she is a procrastinator. “It’s because I’m a perfectionist daw. That’s what my friends say but I don’t know if that’s it.” Michelle seldom finishes a project unless there’s a pressing deadline. Asked to fax in a manuscript by noon, she usually manages to get in four hours later…on a good day. Usually, she finishes and passes in her copy the morning after the deadline.

Lorna, Becca, and Michelle are all fairly successful, but all of them are starting to figure out that things could be better. And even their bosses as well as the people they work with, acknowledge that while they are talented, their habit of procrastination stands in the way of achieving complete success.

Michelle accepts the reality that she has to change. “I don’t want to keep living like this. Mahirap. Nakaka-high blood. But everytime I scrape by, the sense of relief I feel is high. But the next time, I’m in exactly the same situation. I think the problem is I know the business, the deadline isn’t really a deadline. Editors always have a time cushion…and knowing that it’s there keeps me procrastinating, giving myself more time to make it better…because I know the time is there.”

Solutions
Rissa, who works as a manager for a small non-government organization, says she used to be a really bad procrastinator, but decided last year she no longer wanted to live her life that way. “I was making myself a basket case. Because although I didn’t start working on a particular project immediately. I started worrying about it from the get set go. It took a while to shake the habit…and sometimes I slip up. But most of the time, the problem is under control.” Rissa’s solution? “Psychiatrists would probably call this self-hypnosis. I tell myself something is due a week before, or four days before it actually is. I allow myself an hour of fretting, then I jump right into it.” The result is that while she got by with adequately written reports in the past, now she does excellent work. “The extra time you have to improve your text, to check facts, add substance or subtract the extraneous does a world of difference, Rissa laughs. “It’s also nice to sit back and relax, take a long lunch the day the report is due…just because you can.”

“Sometimes, a job is so daunting that you really feel you can’t face it,” concedes Nancy, a freelance writer. “Which is why whenever that happens, I take a look at the job—divide and conquer. A long feature article that involves extensive research and interviews will require two or three phases of work: research, interviewing, and drafting.” Nancy urges writers especially not to sit back and relax just because the research is done and the interviews have been conducted and transcribed. “A lot of us tend to slack off once the data gathering is over. The thinking is, kayang-kaya na. But that’s the trap.” Once Nancy finishes the research, Nancy takes a deep breath and jumps right into the writing. “I like to have time to polish the work. I don’t want to just pass in a rough draft.”

Effective time management is something that evidently comes with tenure at work. “I used to be the worst procrastinator,” says Dada, an entrepreneur. “When I started working for myself, I had to learn effective time management the hard way.” Dada advises procrastinators to learn how to estimate the amount of time it will take them to do a particular job. “Then you find that piece of time somewhere in your week. Even if it means plotting out your week day by day. When that time comes, you site down and do it. Consider it a commitment to yourself.”

For Procrastinators who are Perfectionists
There is also the theory that the reason people procrastinate is because they are such perfectionists. They want the job done so perfectly there is never enough time to get it that way. So they keep taking more and more time, not wanting to give up their high standards. The result: they never finish a job to their satisfaction or on time, for that matter.

Linda Sapadin, Ph.D. and author of It’s About Time, maintains that changing one’s procrastinating behavior is a matter of changing the way you think, speak, and act. She suggests that it may be helpful to think back to all the occasions when you were, in effect, “done in” by your own bad habits of procrastination. As you examine the problems you’ve had with perfectionist procrastination, you will begin to understand how these problems have interfered with your happiness and productivity.

Sapadin gives us a few guidelines to help change how you think and act:

Acknowledge perfectionism is your problem. There’s nothing wrong with having high standards per se, but it is important to realize that this is what is causing you to procrastinate.

Strive for excellence rather than perfection. Excellence can be distinguished from perfection, and it is perhaps, a better standard. Perfection means flawlessness and therefore it doesn’t exist. Excellence does, and what’s more, it can be achieved.

Focus on what’s realistic rather than what’s ideal. Don’t try to think of the best way something should be done—that could take too much time. Instead, think of several ways it can be done and then select the most realistic method, given your time and resources.

Practice self-acceptance rather than self-condemnation. Be kinder to yourself. Allow yourself to do your best given the time and resources you have. Motivate yourself. Be positive. Don’t beat yourself up.

Why Change?
Certainly, nothing is going to happen unless you want it to. Change, especially behavioral change, must come from within the individual. If truth be told, some procrastinators remain this way and nothing really bad happens to them. They don’t get tired. They still get their annual salary increase. The people they work with work around them provided the procrastinator is really good at what she does. That can happen: of course it can.

However, those afflicted with the mañana habit should take a long hard look at their lives. Are they happy with their careers? Do they think they are achieving success? Or could this idiosyncrasy perhaps be the one thing that’s standing in the way of their professional productivity. Some reflection and self-evaluation will benefit any adult.

And if the answer is yes, these people can take comfort in the idea that many people can change just like that, if only they want to. And what’s more, they can do it not later…but right now.