10 Excuses Unproductive People Basically

Always Use
July 16, 2014, TIME

They moan. They wail. They shuffle around the office looking for free candy. Unproductive
employees have an excuse for everything. Here are a few of the phrases they use to explain
away the problem. Listen for them, then correct the action to get things back on track.

1. I’m overworked.
I hear this one constantly. What unproductive people might not realize is that we are all
overworked. We’re in an overworked age. Instant access to email and a mobile browser
means work is always just a click away. What separates the wheat from the chaff? The really
productive people don’t dwell on the problem. They just do the work.

2. That’s not my job.

I’ve written before about staying productive by focusing on your job and not doing the work
of unproductive co-workers. That’s always a bad pattern to set. Curious, then, that the really
unproductive people always seem to notice when they’re doing extra work to help a project.
They focus on their role too much and on what everyone else is not doing. Truly productive
people don’t even care. They just do whatever it takes to get things done and plow ahead,
analyzing the exact role definitions later.

3. I’ll finish that later.

Forget the Mark Twain quote about procrastination. Unproductive people waste time because
they live in a constant state of incongruity. The loose ends of their tasks never meet up, and
stay loose. They start one Word document, work on it for a while, drop it, then start working
on a PowerPoint. In the “picking up and setting down” process they waste time because each
tasks needs a jumpstart, which uses more energy.

4. I don’t have all of the answers yet.

Overly detail-oriented people use this one. They wait until everything is perfectly lined up
before starting a task, usually languishing in perpetuity because things rarely do line up. And,
ironically, some of the employees in your company who are wasting time mindlessly
browsing all day are the ones who think they have to wait for the project pieces to fall in
place. The solution? Productive people just do whatever they can now on any tasks that need
to be done. They don’t wait for the perfect timing.

5. I’ll wait for the boss to tell me what to do.

For any employee in a small business, a lack of independence is a true productivity killer.
While someone is waiting to be told what to do, a project will spin out of control. We all
know the “get it done” crowd just figures out the problem and starts working on a task.
Besides, if the boss has to explain every little detail, that’s using up valuable time anyway.

6. I don’t understand all of the variables.

Really? Is there an employee who won’t act until he or she has all of the answers? That is a
sign of someone who will be waiting a long time because no one ever has all of the answers.
The folks who started Airbnb and Uber didn’t wait for all of the regulatory issues to be ironed
out. And Google didn’t wait to test driverless cars until every state allowed them.

7. I don’t see the benefit for me.

We are living in a world of narcissists who take selfies every 30 minutes and post about their
inner feelings on Twitter. The underlying problem? They’re slowing down a project because
they only care about their own rewards. Productive people see the greater reward of a
successful company and want to play a part in building something cool. The selfies can wait
until the weekend.

8. I might not get the credit.

Related to that problem is another productivity destroyer: the need to take credit for the task.
The process of hyping up your work, demanding crediting, and pestering people to notice
your actions all contribute to an unproductive day. The employees who are slowing things
down the most are spending too much time trying to get the attention of the boss.

9. I’m worried about my quality of work.

Productive people know how to slam out good work in a constant flow of creativity and skill.
They care about quality, but they also understand that being productive requires a push to
finish. When the goal is to always create perfection, unproductive people create a serious
slowdown. Praise quality, expect proficiency, but encourage productivity.

10. I might fail.

The hallmark of every unproductive person at work is being worried about failure. It’s a time-
tested truth. If employees don’t ever start a project, they don’t have to worry about failure,
right? I’ve written about total failure before, but letting a few tasks fail is okay. It means you
are trying new things and staying busy. Holding back because you want every task to
succeed? It just means completing fewer tasks.