How to avoid the deadly sin of procrastinating important tasks

LET’S first look at what a sin is before we proceed to how you can avoid it. A sin by definition is an act that breaks or defies a belief or religion. A deadly sin is therefore far greater and the consequences are just as deadly. When we meet new people, we tend to make promises, and after a while we realise we have forgotten to fulfil the promises we’ve made.

For some strange reason, we keep postponing (procrastinating) tasks and lying to ourselves with the hope that we will ultimately get to it. Days go by and we suddenly find ourselves ashamed to send the information that we might have promised to send as it might now be outdated.

We fall prey to the so-called “call reluctance” because we failed to meet our initial promise. We tend to make certain assumptions that make us want to keep away, but the secret to dealing with the above concerns is to simply do “follow ups”.

One of the deadliest sins of networking is not following up on your promises. It creates a negative perception to your customers. This is one aspect that can literally cost you tens of millions of rands (if not your entire business) if you do not put a considerable amount of time to it. Let me give you a brief example, I was in the market to buy a property and I saw one I liked, contacted the agent and set-up an appointment. The meeting never materialised and I followed up with the agent, set-up another meeting and even tried to get a convenient time for her, but still no meeting. I presumed a lot of things about the agent, none of my presumptions were positive. The end result is that the agent lost a potential sale and potential commission. Can you see how easy it is for us to lose money? How much do you think you might have lost in the past as a result of not making the necessary follow-up? This could have been making a critical call, setting up a meeting or sending an e-mail.

As simple as it looks, this is basically the foundation of effective networking. Interpreted differently, it’s all about keeping your promises. Remember that your first impressions can go a long. Most clients take the little things into consideration when they meet you and you not fulfilling simple promises you made, makes them wonder if you will be able to handle bigger things. The last thing you want is your clients having doubts about your capabilities. Keeping your promises is generally a good character trait to develop for anyone and for a networker; it’s like the oxygen that keeps you alive. One way I know of ensuring you do not fall short of this challenge is by having a good system in place, a system that will ensure you do what is necessary, when it is necessary.

Kholofelo Pholafudi is the author of the The Psychology, Science and Art of Turning Contacts into Connections