You planned to do your homework and write an essay all Saturday, but by the evening you found yourself scrolling senselessly through the feed on the social network. Most likely, you are faced with a phenomenon that psychologists call the word “procrastination”, in other words, postponing for tomorrow. We will tell you why there is a desire to postpone until later, how to overcome it, and realize everything that was planned.
What is procrastination?
Procrastination is a condition in which you can’t start doing important things and tasks until the deadline for an exam or project is approaching. And if we are talking about a long-term goal and there is no “delivery date”, there is a risk of never getting down to business.
WHY PROCRASTINATION IS HARMFUl?
- The case is adjourned to the last minute.
- The quality of the work performed is deteriorating.
- By failing or being late, you can miss opportunities and let other people down.
- You feel guilty or ashamed.
The two main types of procrastination are procrastination and decision avoidance. In the first case, you have a task, but you postpone its execution again and again and you can’t get started. In the second case, for example, you need to decide where to go: it seems that there is time, and you put off the choice until later. At the same time, problems accumulate, it becomes more and more difficult to deal with them. As a result, it turns out that you are not ready for the exam or for admission.
Procrastination is always accompanied by a feeling of guilt or shame that we did badly, at the wrong time or wrong. As a result, getting started next time becomes even more difficult. In trying to overcome guilt, we waste energy that could be spent on useful or enjoyable activities – and in the end, we do nothing. Finally, guilt prevents us from taking responsibility for our mistakes or negative consequences. We begin to blame everything on circumstances and do not fix anything.
Why do we put things off until later?
The thing is that there are different zones in the human brain: the ancient cortex, which is responsible for emotions and instinctive behavior, and the neocortex, which makes decisions based on logic and knowledge and plans for the future. The desire to be distracted by momentary pleasures is the influence of our “reptilian brain”. He lives in the present and does not know how to assess the negative consequences of such behavior. To move towards your goals, you need to overcome this influence and begin to consciously manage your life. Have you ever tried yoga? We recommend using yoga studio software․
There is no need to ignore the problem or try to overcome procrastination by force of will. Most likely, you won’t get anything. Scolding and blaming yourself is also not worth it, it will not help you cope with yourself. The most constructive option is to find the causes of this condition and deal with them.
Constant procrastination: causes and how to deal with it
Lack of motivation
It happens that a person takes upon himself the obligation to do something, although he does not need it and is not interested. And he agreed, for example, because he wanted to be good in the eyes of another, and wanted to use his agency tools. There is an internal conflict. On the one hand, we want to fulfill the promise and get the reward we expected – a good attitude. On the other hand, we don’t want to get down to business.
In this situation, it is important to think about how important this benefit really is to you and whether it is possible to get it in some other way. For example, think of another way to build a good relationship with a person: to win his respect by doing what you like and want.
Failure to reward yourself
Praise yourself for every step you take and take regular breaks if you have to deal with complex and lengthy tasks. Otherwise, you will get tired and it will be difficult for you to do everything planned. Instead of doing business, you will start playing on the computer or watching TV all day, and as a result, you can get to know what is Email Marketing Automation.
Perfectionism
The need to do it perfectly or better than everyone else forces you to postpone the start of work or engage in some unnecessary trifles. For example, you need to make a presentation, and you get stuck at the stage of choosing a template because none of them looks perfect, or for the presentation, you should study the best WooCommerce plugins․ But even if a perfectionist gets the job done, they may be so afraid of criticism that they won’t send it.
Perfectionism often comes from guilt and shame that you did something wrong. To cope with it, you need to learn to distinguish between them and understand which feeling is appropriate in this situation, and which is not. For example, you took a test, made a mistake, and got a bad grade. Taking a notebook and seeing the result, you feel ashamed and begin to scold and blame yourself. But this does not help us to correct the mistake and next time not to make it. It is more constructive to understand that mistakes are normal during training, to sort them out, and move on to using apps for consultants.
Self-doubt and fear of failure
In this case, we cannot proceed, because we doubt ourselves, and the success of the whole enterprise, we are afraid to fail, to be disgraced in the eyes of other people. The fear of failure or being judged by others causes us to put off, again and again, the start of our plans until it is too late.
By doing last-minute and bad work, we can always say: “It’s because I didn’t have enough time, and if I had enough, I would have done well,” and relieve ourselves of responsibility for a bad result.
High anxiety or depression
With increased anxiety, all our strength goes to overcoming it, and things are constantly postponed. The same thing happens with depression. If the problem with postponing things and the necessary activities has become chronic, this is a reason to go to a psychologist or seek help from a doctor.
Eight steps to overcome procrastination
- Admit the problem
- Determine if it is a one-time or occurs regularly
- Understand what will happen if the deed is not done at all
- Move in small steps
- Set a reward for completing each stage
- Focus not on quality, but on time
- Start simpler or more enjoyable
- Remove all distractions
Final Thoughts
By the way, procrastination takes a lot of energy, have you noticed? Sometimes we spend much more time and energy on shirking the upcoming task than it would take to complete it. Yet the real trouble lies elsewhere: when we put off making decisions or doing work, we experience constant anxiety. We feel guilty for being late, ashamed for a hasty, sloppy task, and deeply regret missed opportunities.
