How To Stop Postponing And Get Work Done

Postponing is to miss out on life.

Psychologists agree that “procrastination” has deeper causes than meets the eye.

Many behavioural scientists point out that the root cause of procrastination is childhood.

He says that the oppressive and harsh behaviour of the parents prevents the child from doing his duties willingly.

The child, who is treated harshly, reacts by behaving “as if he is doing it”, “hanging around” and “taking it slow”.

Managers in the workplace have a similar effect on employees.

Instead of values ​​and principles, managers who want to discipline, judge and blame by intimidating cause employees to postpone their work.

In business environments where such a culture is dominant, employees exhibit procrastination behaviour, which they know very well from their childhood, and they begin to act as if they are doing the work rather than doing it.

Postponing or procrastinating is one of the most important issues that threaten not only individual but also corporate performance.

The job stress that comes with increased competition increases the performance anxiety of both employees and managers.

The procrastination “illness” that threatens business life causes companies to waste their potential.

Although procrastination provides relief and pleasure at first, it creates stress, anxiety and restlessness in the long run.

Every job that is postponed inevitably creates a feeling of guilt and inadequacy.

Once procrastination begins, it quickly becomes chronic.

One soon becomes adept at producing “justifiable reasons” for procrastination.

There can be many reasons behind the procrastination tendency. Researching this subject at the University of Calgary, Dr Piers Steel lists some of these reasons as follows:

➡️ If a job does not make sense to us, we find it difficult to find sufficient motivation to start that job.

➡️ If we do not like the work to be done, if we do not find it interesting, if we find the work boring, we may prefer to postpone the work.

➡️ Many studies reveal that perfectionists resort to procrastination more frequently.

➡️ Unrealistic expectations are discouraging. Perfectionism triggers procrastination.

➡️ Not knowing where to start, unclear workflow, and not being able to visualize the whole process in one’s mind cause delays.

Lack of planning justifies procrastination.

➡️ If our self-confidence is insufficient and we think that others will judge us negatively, we tend to delay instead of starting work, and we think that we are also delaying possible failure.

➡️ If we do not know exactly what is expected of us, if the objectives of the business are not clear, it may seem more “rational” to do nothing instead of starting the business.

➡️ The less communication and feedback in an environment, the more people tend to procrastinate.

➡️ If the knowledge and skills we have are not sufficient for the tasks we undertake, if we do not have the necessary equipment and knowledge to carry out the tasks in question, we delay the decisions that need to be taken and postpone the work.

➡️ Instead of admitting our lack of knowledge and skills in a field, postponing that work -even for a short time- can make us feel better.

➡️ Procrastination is also closely related to indecision. If we are a person who has trouble making decisions and having trouble making choices, we can convince ourselves that it is better to procrastinate.

➡️ Difficulty in making a decision can be a personal as well as an institutional problem.

If a company’s management staff cannot make a decision for one reason or another, procrastination is a very common method in that company.

Suspending decision making and procrastinating is a much more serious problem than innocent laziness.

We have to deal with this problem and keep ourselves away from the complacency of procrastination.

We should all strive to foster a “culture of urgency” rather than “procrastination.”

We have no resources to replace the time lost by procrastination.

“To procrastinate is to miss out on life.”

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