Procrastination The Thief Of Time - What It Is And How To Beat It

Posted by Hosanna on February 27th, 2021

The word procrastination comes from the Latin 'Pro' meaning "in favour of" and 'Cras' meaning "tomorrow". It is defined therefore as "The act or the habit of delaying or putting things off'.

I suffered with procrastination for many years and I remember kicking myself whenever I left things undone, and I mean even things that were very important to me. Procrastination cost me my job back when I was in my twenties. This is a serious problem for many people and many of them have no idea how to address it. Beating procrastination is not going to be easy. If my own experience is anything to go by, then it's going to be a challenge for most people. The key is to be disciplined and to stick to the plan.

Procrastination is usually the result of believing that the task you are to do is overwhelming, that the task is unpleasant coupled with the associated pain caused by this belief. The pain you feel is a form of stress and it shows up as physical or psychological symptoms (like feel tired or anxiety). When a task to be performed or the situation the task is to be performing is perceived as painful, dangerous, overwhelming, difficult, uncomfortable, or boring it will be seen as stressful. Once it has taken root in your life, procrastination can be triggered at any time. Procrastination for some people can also be a symptom of a serious psychiatric problem such as depression.

Consequences of Procrastination

There are many consequences of procrastination, here are a few of them:

Missing deadlines: This one is easy and covers this from failing to return a rented movie because you were watching an episode of 'Law and Order' to failing to order replacement stock for you business because you were reading a book.

Tardiness: How many times have you been late for an event; some people are 'always late' no matter how much time you give them?

Problem in careers: When you continuously miss project deadlines, or late for meetings this will make it hard to be promoted. You also may end up being fired or even demoted.

Poor performance: Failing to properly do a term paper because you waited too long to begin writing it.

Medical problems: Not going to the doctor when you have certain bad symptoms.

Incurring unnecessary expenses. Failure to pay you utility bills on time and having to pay more to have them reconnected.

I am sure you can come up with many others but as you can see procrastination causes a lots of problems for us some of them more serious than others.

Features of Procrastination

Procrastination has three main elements or features.

1. Escape. Here the procrastinator instead of doing the task at hand does something he enjoys doing. Short-term gratification is chosen over long-term gain, at the cost of the benefits he would receive. By doing this the procrastinator temporarily gets away from the stress of task he should be doing, or the situation he should be handling. The more the procrastinator escapes, the more addicted he becomes to procrastinating and the more guilty he will end up feeling about not having done what he is supposed to. This in turn creates more stress to escape from and thus the alternative activity will continue because he doesn't want to have to deal with the situation.

2. Skipping it. With this the task has already past yet it is the whole program that is being put off. So when he skips having a bath in the mornings what he is really putting off is his "Total personal hygiene" program. What he is really saying to himself is "I'll have a bath tomorrow morning"

3. Do it Last. This is where you do the simplest, easiest, most pleasing, less unpleasant tasks first. What generally happens here is that you end up putting off the more important tasks and find later on that there is not enough time to complete them.

Causes of Procrastination

Procrastination is based on a disregard for any negative outcomes and a warped idea that short-term pleasure is far superior to any sacrifice foe long-term gain. The causes of procrastination is wide and varied and is not limited to the following:

· Anxiety

· Addiction

· Pride

· Fear

· Aversion

· Bad habits

· Discouragement

· Unconscious motives

· Disorganization

· Distraction

· Fear of failure

· Feeling overwhelmed

· Frustration

· Indecision

· Lack of awareness

· Lack of time management skills

· Lack of or low ambition

· Low self-esteem

· Stress

· Paranoia

· Perception of difficulty

· Poor self-control skills

How to Beat procrastination

Because procrastination is not just a matter of not doing something, the mere doing or taking action does not solve the problem. The mental barriers that exist must also be addressed and eliminated, as procrastination is the 'cause of not doing'. Here a few things you can do to beat procrastination:

Planning

Part of the problem for many procrastinators is that they have no plan for what they want to do and this makes what needs to be done seem to be difficult or overwhelming. In developing your plan consider the following:

1. Write done what is your goal. Be as specific as you can be.

2. Success criteria. Find the things your plan must have in order for it to be a success.

3. Come up with strategies. Work out different ways of achieving the goal and write them down.

4. Choose a course of action. This will be based on your success criteria, and the strategies you came up with.

5. Develop your chosen course of action. Do this and break it down to the basic tasks.

6. Take action. Do each task, as you will have listed them.

Work out a schedule.

Once you know the tasks that need to be done you will get through all or most of them once you have a schedule. A schedule is really a list of tasks that have a specific start time to begin and a specific time in which to be done. So for each task to be done consider their importance and schedule them accordingly. Make sure you have enough time slotted that is reasonable enough to get the task done. As you finish one task move on to the next. You may have to make adjustments as you go through the tasks just keep going.

Prioritize your tasks

As alluded to above the tasks to be done each has a degree of important, so some are more important than others and some have a shorter time frame than others. When you prioritize you have to balance the two elements of time and importance to determine which tasks should be done first.

Create a to do list and a daily task list.

Write down on a notepad the list of things you need to do as you think of them. At the end of the day look at your list and choose those that are priority and include them in your task list for the next day. Then when you go through each task as you have listed them the next day.

Do one task at a time

When you have many tasks to be done it good to choose the one with the highest priority and then focus on that task only. When you have finished that task move on to the next one. As you finish each task mark it off your list, at the end of the day it can be an encouraging thing to look on your list and see just how much you have accomplished that day with the time you had.

Breaking the task down

Here you take the task and breaking it down into its simplest components until you begin to see the specific actions you will need to take. This will make the task manageable and easy in some cases as you go through each component.

Get started quickly

Because procrastination is a problem of not getting started and this becomes a habit. Then by changing this bad habit you will begin to take quick action. So what can do is to practice starting your tasks as quickly as is possible everyday. I use to have my plans ready for the day but end up early in the morning deciding to put off starting until a later time during the day. As the day went on I would either not get started at all or start but not accomplish what I hoped to by the end of the day. This would leave me angry with myself. So for me the key was to practice starting out as soon as the day would allow and just continue until I had finish most if not all I had set out to do.

Get rid of uncertainty

Many procrastinators will avoid a task because they are unsure or do not know where to begin. Spend some time figuring out where to begin and what to do ask for help if you find it challenging to do. Research and find out any information you may need to begin and complete the task.

Commit to small blocks of time

Whenever you have a task that will take a lot of time to complete and you are seeing it as a massive undertaking and prohibitive. Try committing yourself to working on it for five minutes. Because this is a short period you won't feel so pressured. Then once you get started you may begin to realize that it is not as bad as you thought and word through it.

Reward yourself

Simply put, you can reward yourself when you have completed a task no matter how insignificant it seems. The reward must, however come after you have completed the task and not before. Choose something you enjoy and do not experience on a daily basis. Your reward should never be something that you have or had already experienced as it will loose it's sting and become like everything else that doesn't motivate you. Keep employing the reward system and overtime you will begin to enjoy doing what you are doing to the point where you will no longer need a reward and if you do it will be a smaller one.

Get your friends to help

Let your friends and colleagues know what it is you are doing and what your plans are. Have them remind you of your goals and hold you to a higher standard. Many of us do our best to meet our friend's expectations.

Eliminate distractions

This is a major cause of procrastination for lots of people simply because it gives them an option to do something else. Remove from your immediate surroundings whatever is causing the distraction. So if you're studying and have the TV on and find that you cannot concentrate then simply turn off the TV. If you can't remove the distraction then maybe you can take yourself away from it. Go into another room or even a friends place. If you are having distracting and energy consuming thoughts what you can do is to write down each of these thoughts as they come to you and commit to getting back to them once you have finished your present task. If this doesn't work it is advisable to see a psychologist for professional help.

These few steps above are just a few of the ways in which you can beat procrastination. Give them a try and see what happens but you must b totally committed to making them work. If they don't work for you it could be that the problem is greater than you can handle alone and you may need to see a professional.

Get This Book Now