Long ago, I wrote my doctoral dissertation on procrastination. (I completed it in record time, too, thank you very much!) As you might imagine, I encountered a few logistical problems while studying procrastinators. After all, these were people with personality traits such as low conscientiousness and a tendency towards impulsivity. Just getting them to show up on time was a major challenge. Getting them to return calls and paperwork was a nightmare. Sound like the sort of thing you might encounter as a financial advisor?
But what started out for me as an incidental nuisance variable – dealing with the inherent unreliability of procrastinators – began to interest me more and more. And what came out of that experience is part of what informs our work at Knudge.
Here’s what emerged from my long-ago studies: By and large, people who struggled with follow-through simply often lacked external structure and internal cues for action. Compared to their non-procrastinating peers, many procrastinators didn’t wear watches. They didn’t think ahead about whether they knew how to get to their destination. They didn’t plan for setbacks or interruptions. And they were notoriously inaccurate in their estimates of how long tasks would take to complete.
As a financial professional, you are likely faced with some of the same nuisance variables in your work. You’ve got clients who repeatedly put off making decisions or completing tasks. You’ve got folks who forget appointments. You’ve got perfectly lovely people on your staff or in your book of business who can’t seem to organize their paperwork, and who constantly lose track of stuff. You know that, by and large, these folks are willing and motivated to do the right things for their financial lives, but they just seem to lose steam along the way.
That’s where Knudge comes in. It’s a simple and elegant way to manage the To Do lists generated by your work. It provides the external structure needed to keep tasks from falling off the radar – theirs AND yours. It provides timely, personalized reminders of important due dates that are coming up, making it less likely that people will blow past important deadlines. Best of all, those reminders can be pre-programmed well in advance, and be delivered at a future date with the kind of impeccable timing that lets clients know you have their back.
Procrastination is still alive and well, but Knudge is dealing it a body blow.
