Why You Delay Important Tasks?Ways to Manage Procrastination.
Why the habit of procrastination can set you back in life, and how can you overcome it.
If you are like me, chances are you frequently postpone doing things that are so important that they make you slightly uncomfortable. You think you would handle it on a later day when the sun shines brighter or when you get up from the right side of your bed.
It need not be about work. You can procrastinate on having that haircut simply because you are terrified of getting a new hairstyle and bored with the same old. It can be as simple as calling your mum or washing those dirty dishes piling up in the sink.
There’s nothing to match curling up with a good book when there’s a repair job to be done around the house.” — Joe Ryan.
Procrastinating can be especially lethal in the workplace. You go about doing your mundane chores while that important presentation stays hidden in the drawer of your office. As the deadline comes nearer, you can’t help think about the impending task but still go on making those weird excuses which you would never give to any other person, for dilly-dallying on the most important project of your time.
If you have spent a considerable time on this earth, you have surely procrastinated or the other in getting those tasks done which looked uncomfortable, dull, or simply too necessary yet are kept out of sight for the time being.
Why do you procrastinate?
Humans have an uncanny attitude of denial when finding ourselves slightly out of our comfort zone. No one likes to be tested in the middle of a difficult situation, and our first instinct in such a stressful situation is to flee.
Run as fast as you can from things that make you feel icky about your skills and give you a feeling of not being good enough is often our motto.
The essential components of a procrastinating attitude are:
The task has to be necessary.
No one procrastinated from a task that feels pleasant and casual. When work is so essential that you cannot ignore it, you feel on edge. You doubt your capabilities and being perplexed with the feeling of not being good enough to handle such a significant event in your life; you put it on the back burner to tackle it on another day.
It brings you to the edge of your comfort zone.
We all develop a comfort zone where we do what makes us feel good or those that come easily to us. We rarely do things that challenge our abilities or threaten our sense of security and put us under the harsh glares of criticism and judgment of others.
It makes you feel negative emotions like boredom, disappointment.
Sometimes we put off things that are plain boring, uninspiring, or disappointing to us. They have to be done, but you do not feel happy or accomplished doing them. Such monotonous work like cleaning and washing those dishes gets put off until you cannot ignore it anymore.
You procrastinate when the things you are supposed to do falls outside your usual way of doing things. It makes you take a route that will challenge your capabilities and make you question all the good things you have thought about yourself.
Why is procrastinating is terrible for you?
Putting off doing things that are important for your growth will postpone your success. Procrastinating on important tasks can set you back on your road to success and prevent you from being successful early in life.
It can also affect your quality of work, as you would inevitably get it done at the last minute when you are rushing around to meet the deadline. In that way, you are likely to deliver less than perfect work and make more mistakes.
Endlessly putting off things that are vital for your wellbeing will create unnecessary stress for you. It will prevent you from enjoying happiness and fulfillment in the long run.
Why do you procrastinate?
1. You are a perfectionist
If you believe you need accolades for every minor task you do, it has to be 100% perfect, or you would not do it at all; you will get fewer things done on time.
Procrastination can often be a symptom of perfectionism. It is led by the fear of not being good enough or prepared enough to fulfill the task at hand. The perfectionist would rather have people think they lack effort than lacking ability.
2. You have an escapist attitude towards life
People by nature ignore situations that make them uncomfortable. When faced with problems that make us face uncomfortable truths, we dig our heads under the sand, pretending it’s not there. It’s mind over matter. If we don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
Whether it’s discovering a mole and avoiding a doctor visit to escape the detection of some awful disease or putting out ideas across only to fear the ridicule of others, we would rather stay in our comfortable cocoon of illusion where everything is alright in our world.
3.You lack the motivation
Sometimes people procrastinate when they feel that the work will not give them the feeling of being successful or the contentment they desire. When handling monotonous work that does not provide a natural sense of accomplishment, you don’t feel like doing them soon.
4. Others
Negative Feelings of fatigue, stress, etc., can also be the reasons for procrastinating.
How to make procrastination work for you?
Strange as it might sound, sometimes you can benefit by putting off your essential tasks. Procrastination can benefit you if you use that period of supposed inactivity by doing small doable tasks. Doing work that you can complete with ease will help you build the confidence to tackle the more complicated task you are running from.
Some of the other benefits of procrastination are
1. It helps you become more creative
Best ideas take time to generate, and as we go about doing our mundane chores like cleaning the room and making grocery lists, the conscious mind relaxes while the subconscious mind still ponders on the idea. So, when we finally get the creative juice flowing, it is ready to be presented to the world. As we all know, any great idea begins in mind before being brought into reality.
2. It puts your work into perspective
When we focus on delivering quality work, it often overwhelms us, making us want to postpone it. Doing other manageable tasks can help us see the cumbersome activities in a realistic light and make them more manageable.
Active procrastination helps prioritize the work and do them, leaving the less urgent work for another day.
3.It motivates you to learn and grow
When we keep on striking off the mundane tasks in our daily lives, we gain confidence, which will help us finally tackle the one work we were trying to avoid.
4. Procrastination, sometimes, can help you be more productive
A study claimed that some people perform better under stress. They procrastinate working until the deadline is close to experiencing the rush of adrenaline that helps them deliver a better quality of work.
How to manage your procrastination habit?
Robert Collier summed it up beautifully when he said,
“If you procrastinate when faced with a big difficult problem… break the problem into parts, and handle one part at a time.”
A sizable work can make you feel overwhelmed and give you a powerful urge to run away from it. But if you break down the long and tedious task into a bite-sized doable chore, you will finish it in no time.
Another way to manage procrastination is to make lists.
Making a list can be the one task you can start with while on the procrastinating journey.
Start making a list of the work that needs to be done, divide it into smaller units starting with monthly, weekly, and finally daily goals. Follow the list regularly and review it weekly to stay on top of it.
Then when procrastination strikes, go to the list and start finishing work. As we go on completing the ordinary chores, the original task will not seem to be so daunting anymore, and you can get it done finally.
Meanwhile, keep some time for daydreaming too. That would give you one more reason to procrastinate.
