You need courage, not ''encouragement''
Mentors have a tendency to resort to "encouragement" when dealing with those under their guidance. Usually encouragement does provide positive results. However, with a procrastinator, the story is entirely different, and blunt encouragement is not going to solve the situation.
Once you have identified a procrastinator, the normal reaction is to start offering reassurances and encouragement. You believe that the procrastinator will find his or her own motivations to get going. You are wrong.
Anybody in the grip of procrastination does not see your encouragement as support but rather as an attempt to gain control and force him to work. He or she will most often view a mentor offering encouragement as being pushy and will reflexively start pushing back.
Understand that deep down inside them, many procrastinators are afraid they may not be up to the task. When you assure them of their abilities or intellect, they take you to be another who is deceived by degrees. Encouragement fails on procrastinators who believe they are undeserving, or are just trying to shirk work by being sly.
Following strategies seem never to work with people who are genuine procrastinators:
Pushing for work: Pushing for work, and asking them to ''just do it'' rarely works with procrastinators. They will always find excuses to frustrate you. You end up being frustrated yourself if you push a procrastinator the hard way.
Continual Checking: Continually checking on the procrastinator's progress just makes you somebody to hide from.
Using ridicule, criticism, or threats: You may think that shaming the procrastinator publicly will make him or her take action. Although you may humiliate the person into some quick action, in the long run, he or she will only remember the indignity, not the positive outcome.
Acting the smarter guy: Saying "I told you so" is one of the worst things you can do to a procrastinator who, for once, has done the right thing. The procrastinator already knows you are right. Patting yourself on the back is like rubbing salt into his or her wound.
What Works
Focus on the immediate: There are no universal solutions. However, two things are of the utmost importance. First, never forget your individual perspective; second, be flexible about your strategy. When working with a procrastinator, focus only on "now" and never on the past or future.
Establish clear limits, deadlines, and consequences. Involve the procrastinator in setting his or her work schedule, make the limits and consequences clear, and try to put everything into writing endorsed by the procrastinator. Then leave it up to him or her to live up to the agreement. If the procrastinator is unwilling to participate, set conditions unilaterally and communicate them effectively, clarifying that he or she is responsible for following through.
Set small intermediate goals. When creating the procrastinator's work schedule, set small intermediate goals. Procrastinators tend to concentrate on end-points and ignore the steps needed to reach them.
Respond immediately to successes and failures and move on. Recognition or punishment should be immediate, and you should move on to the next step right away. Always imply that you have forgotten the procrastinator's successes or failures in the past and that you are not concerned about what will happen in the future. You are focused on what is happening now and always will be as far as the procrastinator is concerned.
Concretely outline tasks. Procrastinators are notorious for being vague. They like unrealistic goals and think about what they would like to do rather than what they can do. Do not give the procrastinator leeway to pursue unrealistic goals.
Communicate your anger directly and dispassionately. If you are angry, communicate it directly, but don't overdo it.
Let procrastinators recognize they are more to you than their performance. If you really desire to help a procrastinator, let him or her know that you rate his or her other qualities besides productivity. Procrastinators often become depressed when they judge themselves solely on their productivity.
Procrastinators can be great workers if they are shown the way, but if the mentor does not understand them, he or she will find procrastinators to be the most obstinate challenges.
