Yes!! You Can Overcome your team’s Procrastination With First Floor strategy.

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When the marketing department at First Floor fell behind schedule, productivity was like pouring money down the toilet. Things were at dismissal, the team always thought they are in a creative process. But the output was nil, it was a difficult situation to answer and prove the worth of the work being pursued.

It is often a situation faced by many organizations, you can see the team is trying hard but things aren’t falling in the right place. It was the roughest time because the team effort was visible, but results weren’t shown.

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There was a point I realized might be my beloved team is procrastinating their work. Procrastination is complicated and often confused with the creative process or the incubation period of productivity. But what exactly is procrastination??

Procrastination is the act of delaying work that you typically dislike or that may be challenging for you. And it was at that point where we discovered the crew was rushing their job without even being aware of it. They were given the new responsibility of generating leads! They were putting off doing their task, and instead of working on lead generation at the designated time, they carried on with their regularly scheduled activities which they like!

Big reveal!!

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So team meeting was scheduled to address the situation. When the team met, they didn’t have thought of procrastination and relevantly it was a new term for the entire team! So when I burst the bubble and asked them did they like Lead generation?? And why there was a delay in this particular task??

The team took time to realize that they were pushing off that particular work and their research data were insufficient too. Post the team discussion we decided to work on a solution and stick to the ground to achieve it.

4-Way Solution

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We have to come up with a plan of action to address our current procrastination issue. A wide range of options for resolving the situation was considered and presented.

At the individual level, overcoming procrastination was simple; however, at the team level, it was extremely difficult. Throughout several meetings and discussions, we came up with First Floor’s original approach to overcoming procrastination which is the 4-way solution.

Stay Focused

So we as a team decided to have a healthy interval of discussion on:

• Are we focused?
• Are we doing good?
• Is the task boring?
• Anything concerning, which would delay the project?

We asked each other these questions, and it did help a lot! We had a public discussion board where any issue concerning the project focus could be raised, and that had a big impact on us. We were able to maintain our attention on the task at hand both as a team and even as an individual task.

Being focused is a strategy for overcoming procrastination in every situation, although doing so on an individual basis is simpler than doing so on a team. However, the open forum for debate on maintaining focus helped our team accomplish much more than the intended job. It strengthened our team’s relationship and dedication to one another. All levels of team communication were simple, which aided in everyone’s ability to maintain focus. However, our biggest issue was how communication would be established, therefore at first floor, we came up with the solution of making a funny sound to signify when you are losing focus. Our team was able to bond on many levels because of this unique and engaging method of communication.

You guys can implement this strategy too! A team of two or a team of 50–10, having a forum to support each other in staying focused on the task is fantastic, which would help to achieve the intended task on time.

Disconnected to reconnect

As a marketing team, our work is both technical and creative. When technicality meets creativity things can stir up, Using more technology will emancipate your creativity to a certain degree. To stay on par with both technology and creativity we chose the solution of disconnecting to reconnect.

We take a break as a team for an hour or two, then reconnect to discuss the progress. We adhere to a decorum no-contact motion during which we avoid meetings, discussions, and other types of interruptions.

We as a team notice that this is the period when productivity is at its highest. People aren’t interrupted in this setting, and they are free to express their emotions and original ideas without interference and the project quality is high. At First Floor, we frequently hold meetings after which we notice a breakdown in communication that prevents us from properly wiring our brains for increased productivity.

Disconnecting to reconnect has always been a hero trick to beat procrastination. We usually wait till we are reconnected post the assignment has been allocated before receiving the insights. Even though it was difficult to allocate time for creative endeavors, delaying the project is still a blunder for productivity. We were careful to set reasonable goals so as not to overwork the staff or affect the quality of their work.

Time Please

Post the disconnection and reconnection are established, These are the questions we ask to ourself

Are you satisfied with the work?

Does the task need to be redefined?

Is the output satisfactory?

Is the project projection going in the right direction?

The project’s direction and each contribution would be known to us by the end. The best strategy to beat procrastination is to constantly confirm and redirect while managing one’s emotional self. However, it might be challenging to manage the emotional self of the entire team. As a result, we included a “Pause” button that, is tapped, when individuals or teams feel exhausted with a particular task. We take a brief break before returning to the specific task after a day or two. The entire team decides to pause and switch to another task. Developing a consensus across the entire team in this circumstance is extremely challenging because one person may be exhausted with one duty while another may still have input. In this case, individual requests are managed and shifted to another task as necessary.

#Writersworm than brainstorm!

One of the original solutions to procrastination at the team level is this. In a circumstance like lead generation, which is taking place at the First Floor, this approach is completely the opposite of brainstorming. We had the idea to hold a typical brainstorming session, but the outcome wasn’t fantastic because some of our introverted team members were barely heard, which had negative effects. The team’s degree of dissatisfaction increased. It ultimately increased the team’s growth of procrastination. Lead generation was ghosted by our team, and they switched to a task where they are heard and acknowledged.

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So we started coming up with ideas! Here, the team as a whole receives a shared document that contains the project’s common outcome. And using a variety of ideas, the entire team discusses how to get there. Every proposal is acknowledged and taken into consideration by the entire team. This approach improves team cooperation and dedication to a single objective. And when everyone in the team participates actively, procrastination among team members is significantly decreased.

We are beating procrastinating our work at First Floor. We are managing our deadlines and doing a great job. How about you?? Do you procrastinate without your knowledge? Don’t worry follow our 4-way solution.