As they say, "to err is human". To procrastinate is definitely a human error condition.
Yes, I am human. In fact, that is why I am writing this post, I just had a recent incident caused by waiting too long and then running into problem. I lucked in and had a really good experience with a very helpful service desk. It doesn’t always work out like that.
It’s interesting that about 40% of our PenForms (an application we built) users were completing their annual returns to the government in the last week (or later in some cases), even though they knew about the requirement a year ago. Stress levels were high. People tended to not bother reading on-screen instructions or figuring things out on their own. Calls to our service desk went quite high that week.
This is both a cost and an opportunity. We had a chance to shine because we did have good support with real people answering the phones and customers were happy.
Some would also argue that their best work gets done under pressure. Fear is a motivator for sure.
But ultimately procrastination is a problem. Treating everything as a crisis leads to excess stress. Too much stress is bad. As well, rushing leads to mistakes.
So I resolve to not procrastinate… until next time.
