How to beat procrastination at work with one simple poem

I can be a great procrastinator. Shocking, I know, but you have to be honest with yourself. Upon reflection, I am sure this held me back during the early part of my career.

My productivity was low, and it seemed to take me an age to do what other people seemed to do quickly.

I came to realise that I needed more time to think things through. When I did, it was quality work. That was me. But I came to realise it was more than that. I needed to know where to start. I needed a trusty route map to follow.

Why smart people still procrastinate at work

I always knew my starting point: that blinking cursor on a new blank document. How I would curse that cursor! It was like it was laughing at me, even taunting me. It knew I didn’t know how to get to my destination. Like Google Maps, I need a route plan to get me from that blank page to my objective, be that thinking about a problem, creating a presentation, building a business case, or achieving your annual objectives. In fact, the list is endless.

Then one day I came across a poem by Rudyard Kipling. The poem that begins with “I keep six honest serving-men”. It appears in his 1902 book “Just So Stories”, specifically in the story titled “The Elephant’s Child”.

I keep six honest serving men

They taught me all I knew

Their names are What, Why and When

And how, where and who

These simple lines remind me constantly of the importance of asking fundamental questions. It is my secret to beating procrastination, and now I use it all the time.

How to use the poem: A simple three-step method

Let’s look at how this simple poem can help you survive and thrive at work.

First, put your problem or topic in the centre of a mind map. Then take each honest man and brainstorm your thoughts under each heading.

You then take those brainstormed thoughts and expand each one using the “freewriting” technique.

As if by magic, you now have the foundation of your document or presentation. The blank page is banished, and you have a route map you can play around with and revise.

Remember those six honest men, and they will never let you down.