Many technology professionals struggle with time management. Sometimes, our time is taken from us in the form of meetings and other obligations. But most of us can also do a better job of managing the time that is left to us, and learning to manage our time is a mission-critical skill for a successful career.
I first want to briefly make some distinctions between procrastination and a behavior that it is often confused with: laziness. In my view, procrastination is the spiritual opposite of discipline. So let’s start with my simple definition of discipline.
When I talk to people about why they delay doing some tasks but jump right into doing others, their explanation usually boils down to something like “I just didn’t feel like doing it right then.” And I understand this. I’m a writer, and sometimes I am very much not in the mood for writing. I’m rarely in the mood for reviewing edits (ask my editors). So it’s easy to put off doing these tasks—in other words, to procrastinate, to delay working on a project or finishing a task. Am I being lazy? Maybe.