"Time Keeps on Slipping, Slipping, Slipping..."

The underlying cause of IT managers' chronic screaming and yelling about projects that never seem to be finished may, in fact, be their screaming and yelling.
 

An article on procrastination in Psychology Today suggests that procrastination is, at least in part, a response to the screaming and yelling of authoritarian management.

Attention managers: yelling may feel good, but it doesn't work. In fact, your yelling may further entrench the very behavior you seek to change.

So, alright then, what does work?

Kitchen timers. That's right, kitchen timers.

According to a guy named Francesco Cirillo, a simple kitchen timer can help focus an individual's attention on getting tasks started. A description of his "Pomodoro Technique" (his kitchen timer is shaped like a tomato, the Italian word for which is "pomodoro") of time management can be found at http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/.

                   

 

Perhaps the solution for the chronically delayed completion of IT tasks and projects is finding ways of getting them started in the first place? For some procrastinators, a little investment in a kitchen timer might yield large returns in productivity