We all know procrastination – the art of putting things off until it’s just about too late.
What about the other side of that coin?
Psychologists call it precrastination: the inclination to complete tasks as soon as possible.
I’m guilty of having this mindset when it comes to two-minute tasks. If it’ll take two minutes or less, I feel a strong pull to check that box once it enters my line of sight.
Over the years I’ve gotten better at tightening the reins, but still occasionally fall prey!
Is it just me? Let’s take a closer look.
Activity vs. Progress
The 2019 paper published by Rosenbaum, Wasserman, et. al. explains PREcrastination as, “the tendency to attempt to get things done as soon as possible, even if that involves extra effort.”
They conducted the Penn State Bucket Experiment:
- Participants were told to carry one of two buckets down a long alley to a finish line.
- Buckets were filled with pennies and identical in weight (~3lbs / 1.4kg)
- One bucket was placed closer to the starting line (meaning if you grabbed it, you had to carry it farther).
- The other was placed further down the alley (meaning you had to walk more before picking it up, but carry it less overall).
Rational choice: Pick the farther bucket. Less carrying distance is less overall effort.
What actually happened: Most participants picked the closer bucket, even though it meant carrying it farther and expending more effort.
What? Why??
The study found that most participants would rather feel the relief of starting to get something done than reap the full rewards of getting it done efficiently.
Sound familiar?
It can look like any of these for Reps:
– A rushed chunk of emails sent off into the void just three minutes before the weekly 1:1 so you can say you “hit your prospecting quota.”
– The demo scheduled before you understood the buyer’s world (even a little bit), but hey… a call’s a call, right?
– The complex proposal sent before you’ve had a chance to discuss it, just to “keep things moving” or “honor their process”. Oof… hope you didn’t spend too much time on it!
As well as any of these for Leaders:
– Delegating vision before plans for execution are underway.
– Always being “The Fixer” for your Team instead of equipping and enabling them.
– Always being “The Yes-Man” (or Yes-Woman!) no matter the sometimes-mind-numbing lack of sense behind a given ask.
Each of these shortcuts can feel like an efficiency-gain in the moment, but they are simply compounding drag in their overarching cycles.
Moving Forward > Moving Fast
I covered a point about this in my 7 Business Myths article on LinkedIn. It was about “moving with purpose, not just moving for a longer period of time.”
In sales, we often see less experienced reps translate this oversight into the CRM by thinking of activity as progress.
At first, it feels productive, and it always wows any untrained eyes looking at dashboards… but it is silently strangling cash flow in plain sight.
Why?
Rushing through any portion of your sales cycle (outreach, discovery, or follow-up) only gives the warm-fuzzies of momentum for a short while before it becomes more akin to sprinting in the wrong direction.
Don’t get me wrong here.. the market does reward speed in many cases. However, as much as it loves speed, it despises haste.
So how do we walk the line?
The Discipline of Depth
The answer is intentionality.
The best salespeople know when to pause, breathe, and embrace pumping the brakes a bit. In fact, they know precisely when to slow down their sales cycle in a manner that speeds up their sale.
“Say what now?”
Instead of rushing to “complete” a task, they ask: Will this increase trust, provide the client greater clarity, or a require an immediate decision? If the answer is no, then “completing” it quickly doesn’t matter… for them or the client.
In today’s modern sale, there’s so much automation and rapid-fire follow up that this concept can easily become lost on us.
Your Turn
Audit your week. Where did you mistake speed (or activity) for progress?
Where did you “check the box”, but without intentionally moving forward?
This is your sign to try it; replace one rushed task with a thoughtful, depth-driven one.
In fact, I challenge you to A/B test this concept and see which earns the better response. Over time you’ll find that one thoughtful outreach can unlock more pipeline than a dozen rushed touches.
Now that’s speed that pays, and it’s exactly how you can be quick without rushing.