Time is all we have and it’s far less than we think. Still, we keep on procrastinating. Why do we procrastinate on important tasks? Is it possible to form a system that helps us beat procrastination?
Let’s uncover these concerns in this post. What if — I tell you that the number of hours we waste every day in procrastination can actually add up to one year of our total life span or even more?
Shocked?
Yes! Imagine. You’re wasting one entire year doing nothing but procrastinating when you could have — lost weight, finished a course, learned a new language, got a new job, acquired new skills, shifted to a new city — in that ‘wasted’ year. Procrastination is a habit that penetrates into your lifestyle like a termite and eats up your productivity before you realize that you’ve become a habitual procrastinator.
Who are the procrastinators?
Do you have questions such as “how do I stop being lazy and stop procrastinating”? Do you think that people who procrastinate are lazy?
That’s not true! Lazy people are inactive and they don’t show the willingness to do any task. They don’t delay, they simply don’t do. Period. Those who procrastinate are easily sidetracked and end up doing unrelated activities when they should be working on more important tasks. For example, you have got a test tomorrow and you’re doing everything other than studying for your test — you’re not lazy but a procrastinator!
Here are a few examples of how we succumb to procrastination in our lives:
- Want to improve your eating habits? Waiting for the perfect diet plan.
- Want to lose weight? Waiting for a good gym membership.
- Want to plan a holiday? Waiting to start savings.
- Want to be an entrepreneur? Waiting for the perfect time to resign from your job.
- Need to call a friend? Waiting for leisure time.
- Need to finish household chores? Trying to make up your mind.
- Finished reading a wonderful book? Struggling to implement those learnings in your life.
These tasks seem really simple to do when heard. But still, most of us find it difficult even to begin. Why does it happen? Why do we keep on procrastinating?
Let’s understand.
5 reasons why we procrastinate and how to stop procrastinating?
Do you also keep telling yourself — “today is the last day when I’m wasting my time”? And then, you do the same the next day? Then you feel guilty and the cycle continues. If such is the case — honestly, you need an intervention! We all procrastinate doing certain things that we ought to do. And we have our different reasons for not doing something and delaying it. Here are some:
- Reason 1: You don’t have sufficient time
This is one of the most common reasons for procrastination. And it’s an easy excuse — “I don’t have enough time”.
You want to head to the gym — no time! Similarly, you want to start meditation — no time! Furthermore, you need to learn a new skill — no time! See, time is a savior! It saved you from the trouble of going to the gym, starting meditation, or learning a new skill. Isn’t it? Whatever you want to do, you can’t do it because of the non-availability of time. You easily get away by not doing these activities as you’ve already put the blame on time. Now, it’s easy for you not to put any effort into managing time for yourself as the blame is not on “you”. Do you understand my point here?
Stop dancing to the tune of the time
You need to take charge of your time. Whenever you’re procrastinating on a task due to a paucity of time, you’re creating a limiting belief that it’s futile to put effort. Since you’ve already decided that you don’t have time, you seldom try to manage your time. You can learn to overcome your procrastination habit by replacing it with an empowering habit. If you’re not able to do some tasks due to a lack of time, you can start a time tracker routine — by the end of the day, take out a few minutes to write down where and how you spent your time. Over a period of time, this habit will prove beneficial. Just keep track of your time— see how you’re wasting your time and note it down. Write it down till the time you feel extremely guilty about it and will take action for the same!
- Reason 2: You want everything to be perfect
Often, perfectionism fuels procrastination. Some people feel that being a perfectionist is a trait of a successful person, when, in actual fact, perfectionism hinders your ability to achieve a growth mindset. It stops you from making positive changes as you cling to the fixed mindset.
People who crave perfectionism keep on waiting for the perfect time. If they want to read a book, they won’t until and unless they get a perfect ambiance. If they want to start eating healthy, they won’t get started till the time they stock up their kitchen with all the ingredients.
It’s okay to be imperfect
Perfectionists procrastinate because of the fear of making mistakes or fear of failure. And because of this ‘fear’, they don’t even begin. They don’t want to do any task that looks less than perfect.
Tell me, honestly — Is perfectionism helping you thrive, or is it creating more stress in your life?
When you try to do everything in the best possible manner, it creates stress and performance anxiety in your life. Perfectionism addiction can be broken by allowing yourself to be free. Condition your mind to face failures and rejections. If you want everything to be perfect, you would never be able to begin. Get perfectionism out of your life! Being perfect is simply an illusion. Be action-oriented rather than performance-oriented. Don’t worry about your performance because you always have the option to improve. But not taking any action hinders your ability to progress.
- Reason 3: You’re over-excited
Overexcitement may lead to daydreaming. Maybe you’re overexcited about starting a new project, shifting to a new city, or getting a new job. When you get too enthusiastic about something, a lot of time gets wasted daydreaming. Instead of getting started with our pursuits, we spend more time visualizing and contemplating how things would turn out. It doesn’t take us anywhere and we simply fritter away our precious time. So, be conscious about mind wandering — whenever you start daydreaming, shift your attention back to your current task. Taking action is the only pathway to fulfilling your dreams. Do what is required.
- Reason 4: Distractions kill your time
Distraction is not about your inability to focus, rather it’s about focusing on something else while you’re doing some other task. The work that we do is shallow when we are surrounded by digital distractions. The modern lifestyle is equally responsible for making us feel distracted all the time. Smartphones are the first thing to blame — everything is just a click away!
In today’s age, focusing on a task without any distractions is a great skill. If you’re having trouble focusing on your work, have a work chamber where your body and mind reflexively avoid distractions. This place should be dedicated only to work purposes. You need deep focus while learning a fairly new skill. You will find it difficult to grasp new concepts if your mind is distracted by other things simultaneously. For instance, you’re learning to code but during your lessons, you pick up your phone several times and check amazing deals on amazon, or you quickly run through the Instagram feed. When you’re not focused, you pick up bits and pieces of a concept and this is when you fail to master a skill.
Keep yourself away from the lure of internet surfing and practice adopting the technique of “deep work”. Deep work is a term coined by Cal Newport. He says that a cognitively demanding task requires focus without distraction. And deep work is the key to overcoming procrastination as you set a specific time for work and avoid “time killers” such as social media.
- Reason 5: You find it difficult to get started
Does it happen to you that you’ve got a perfect plan and yet you’re unable to get started with things?
Sometimes, we resist initiating a task especially when it’s too complex, to begin with. Let’s assume that you need a financial plan or you require the right strategy for clearing a highly competitive exam. But whenever you sit down to work on a plan, you feel lost. You simply don’t know how to begin. Sounds familiar? It happens to most of us. Well, a little bit of organization can definitely help you. First, break a task into small chunks and get rid of any uncertainty. Choose a distraction-free place and clear all unnecessary thoughts from your mind and focus on your priorities.
Ask yourself important questions:
- What’s stopping you from getting started?
- How specifically will you get rid of that distraction?
Procrastination breakthrough
Look, every second that you lose in futile activities is never coming back. Procrastination is responsible for creating more stress in us. Won’t it be better if we simply do things right away instead of delaying?
- Step 1: Train your brain to take immediate action.
Start by carrying out easy tasks quickly in order to avoid making procrastination a deeply rooted habit. Make your bed as soon as you wake up, do the dishes, clean your wardrobe, get the groceries, and organize your table —these tasks do not require any special preparation, so, there’s no point in procrastinating. Just do them immediately!
- Step 2: Ask questions to yourself.
Do you want to inculcate the habit of going for a morning walk? But every morning you convince yourself that you will start tomorrow. What prevents you from going for the morning walk? Who is stopping you? Ask yourself questions whenever you put off doing things. You get to know yourself better by asking questions and this will certainly help you to find an action-oriented solution. Sometimes, you don’t take action for some work because deep down you don’t want to do it. You get better clarity of your thoughts and mindset when you throw questions at yourself.
- Step 3: Understand how the pain and pleasure mechanism works.
We all avoid tasks that require hard work. It’s perfectly normal. However, do you know why do we behave like this? Human beings are evolved in such a way that they seek pleasure. Hard tasks give us a tough time. We prefer to escape them as they create pain for us. You’ve got a screen in front of you, you know that you’ve to start working. But you don’t. Instead, you simply start browsing the internet. Or you might open amazon and look for good deals. Or you might end up wasting your time browsing the Instagram feed.
Why?
Because we are easily drawn toward the feeling of pleasure. Watching a youtube video, online shopping, grabbing good deals, stalking celebrities, peeking into people’s lives— all these things give us pleasure! You see, it’s really easy to do any useless work. Washing utensils, cleaning the wardrobe, organizing your table — that’s quite a pain. So, learn the art of associating the emotions of pleasure with the tasks that you need to complete. Go for a run. And see how good your body feels. Ignore the tiredness. Shift your attention to where the grass is greener! ”
- Step 4: Practice “deep work”
Deep work helps you complete all the difficult tasks in one go. Maybe you want to write a book or make a presentation. Such work requires focus. Learn to get rid of distractions when you’re doing a cognitive task.
- Step 5: Get comfortable with the discomfort
You can’t grow if you are too possessive about your comfort zone. Period. When you avoid discomfort, you stop yourself from taking steps that help you change things. For example, if you want to avoid junk food and start eating healthy food, you would have to get comfortable with the taste of healthy and nutritious food.
Push yourself little by little to get out of your comfort zone. Practicing discomfort will bring mental willpower to get through difficult tasks. Finally, let me tell you — If you’re still waiting for the perfect time, you ought to know what Benjamin Franklin said:
“You may delay, but time will not”
The choice is yours.
Also Read: Career Planning & Goal Road Mapping
