Procrastination : What, Why, How

Nowadays, everyone seems to be suffering from procrastination in one or another area of their life. We are living in a world where choices and opportunities are in abundance. We are continuously spoiled for choices. It results in us taking more on our plate than required. There is just so much that we could do that we often end up doing nothing at all.  

Being successful in life is everyone’s goal. But most of us fail to avail of the golden chances and opportunities life presents to us. The main reason behind this is we become victims of procrastination. Believe it or not, Procrastination is one of the biggest dream killers. Because you have so much demand for your attention, it is becoming ever tougher to stay focused and act on the things that would truly give you an extraordinary quality of life.

We often tend to waste our most precious asset, TIME. The way how you use your time determines where you are moving towards success or failure. To push past short-term obstacles to create a life of fulfilment, you must have an effective strategy for overcoming procrastination.

• What is Procrastination
• Define Procrastination 
• Change how you define that ‘P’ word
• The Hidden Costs Of Procrastination
• Getting branded as a lazy person
• Creates clutter
• Low self-esteem and morale
• You have no leeway
• It gets more and more ugly
• The root cause for procrastination.
• What fear has to do with Procrastination?
• Fear #1: The Fear Of Failure
• Fear #2: The Fear Of Unpleasant Or Painful Experiences
• Fear #3: The Fear Of Missing Out
• Make Procrastination Work for You
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What is Procrastination

Can you recall some occasions when you procrastinated at some point in your life? 

They are countless! Nothing to worry about; You are not alone.:) We all are the victim of it. For some of us, procrastination comes and goes but, for many, it is a permanent part of life. It is a frustrating habit that often prevents them from ever achieving any of their dreams and goals. Ask yourself, which category do you fit?

Are you 

1> Occasional procrastinator or

2> Habitual procrastinator

One prominent characteristic of the procrastinator is preventing changes and not taking action. Logically, rationally, and consciously you want to move on, but subconsciously you are comfortable with your current state and want to change a not even a bit about it. 

By procrastinating, you are literally preventing yourself from taking the actions that you know you need to take to achieve the results you desire. So although you know what you want and even how to get it, you still do nothing and remain UNABLE to act on it.

Learn why do you procrastinate and how to break this sabotaging habit

Define Procrastination 

One of the most accurate definitions of procrastination is…

Procrastination is an irrational delay, aversion, or even evasion of a task or action. 

Irrational because we cannot explain this behavior from a rational point of view. We can only explain and understand it from an emotional point of view. 

Most often, it comes in the form of “I don’t feel like doing it.” 

For example: 

Your goal is to reduce some weight and become healthy.

On a rational level, it’s obvious that you MUST take action. You even know and are worried about how your health and vitality are deteriorating recently. 

But on an emotional level, it seems too painful to give up the foods you are addicted to. And also to sacrifice an hour of TV time to go and kill yourself on the treadmill or gym.

• Wanting one thing and then doing the opposite seems stupid and completely irrational. But that is why procrastination can be such an odd behavior to deal with effectively. 

• At a basic level, our brain is designed to gain pleasure and avoid pain. So, when you procrastinate you let your brain choose your beliefs about what is painful and what is a pleasure at the current moment. 

• Since your beliefs reside mostly in your subconscious level of thinking, you don’t move even if you say and know that you want the opposite.

So what should you do now? 

• Should you let your procrastination run the show and live a guaranteed life of frustration and striving. 
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• Or should you overcome procrastination, take action and make any significant progress in your life?
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Since you are here…I safely assume you want to overcome it!

So let’s start by having a new definition and meaning of procrastination. Use it to empower you and force you to take consistent actions rather than sabotaging your success.

Are you ready?

Change how you define that ‘P’ word

• Start taking procrastination as a CALL TO ACTION! 

• Make procrastination a signal that NOW you must act on the very things that you do not want to act on. And DO the exact thing that is holding you back. 

• Use procrastination and ‘not feel like doing it as necessary friction to act and grow. 

• Breakthrough the short-term ‘pain’ and come out on the other side with an increased sense of self-esteem. 

Once you do that, you will start seeing yourself and your abilities from a different perspective altogether. If you constantly want something but procrastinating about it, then know that this thing is so valuable for you that you actually should be uncomfortable about not taking action.

The power comes with taking action. 

The things that hold you back are that which will free you most – once you take action. 

Your freedom lies in taking action… not because of the absence of procrastination, but despite the procrastination.

The Hidden Costs Of Procrastination

Be honest – are you one of those people who put things off? We all do it. That is human nature. Why do something today when you can do it tomorrow? Isn’t it? But beware, postponing can cost you more than you can imagine.

So, why do we procrastinate? 

• We procrastinate because the task we are putting off is unpleasant in some way. 
• We might not like doing it (like calling a bank)
• There is some physical discomfort (like going to the dentist) associated. 
• The task may even be boring and monotonous, or just plain difficult.
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But the effects of procrastinating can run deeper than just not doing the task. Other problems it may cause are:

Getting branded as a lazy person

When people notice that you haven’t completed particular tasks, they might brand you as a lazy person. It affect your job or personal life (promotions and the like). At a times the tasks you really want to also get offered to someone else because they are considered more reliable!

Creates clutter

Many unfinished tasks can leave lots of clutter around – books, papers, or other items needed to perform the job.

And not even talk about the mental clutter when lots of unfinished things take up every cell of your brainpower and willpower. It leaves you practically unable to do anything sensibly.

Low self-esteem and morale

What can be worst than knowing that you need to get a job done, and at the end of the day it is still not done? It can make you feel down, doubt your capabilities, and even preoccupy your mind while you are trying to concentrate on other things.

You have no leeway

When you put something off, jobs accumulate. It means if an urgent task suddenly comes in, you have no leeway to drop everything and work on it – there are too many other outstanding things that need doing.

It gets more and more ugly

The job itself may not change by putting it off, but the feeling in our mind of how unpleasant we think the job will grow. We think about how we have to explain not doing the job to other people, and the whole situation feeds on itself and becomes ugly.

Now to be fair, sometimes procrastinating isn’t a conscious action. Particular jobs just never seem to get done; even though you never consciously decided not to do them. But other times, you consciously decide not to do the job at the moment and just put it off.

The good news is, you can save yourself a lot of mental clutter, and perhaps even more discomfort later on if you just adopt a “DO IT NOW” policy. 

Decide that you’re just going to get the job out of the way when it comes to it, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. By doing the job straight away, often you will realize that the discomfort you associated with the task was simply your mind feeding on itself as you were putting it off. And the sense of relief you get from finishing the task is well worth it.

So, now you know about procrastination you have to ask yourself the question – “what am I going to do about it?” Hopefully, you will decide to banish procrastination from your life, and reap the rewards of that decision!

58 Strategies to end your Procrastination

The root cause for procrastination.

Ever wondered why do we human beings often behave in ways that we don’t want to? Its because our subconscious mind determine our behavior. Especially behaviors that are hard to explain from an intellectual point of view. 

Procrastination is knowing what to do, having the ability and desire to do it, but still, you don’t do it. 

Although there are many apparent causes for it, the root cause for this illogical behavior resides in your subconscious mind.

• You may try overcome delay habits by using willpower, but it will usually be a short-term change. Because mostly the procrastinating is not your conscious actions, but your subconscious associations with it. 

• Your nervous system is meant to protect you when fear presents itself. Procrastination actually reveals a lot about your subconscious and your self-imposed limitations and (in)abilities. The major cause for procrastination is fear, and more specifically your fear that taking action will lead to pain or a painful experience of some kind. At some level, your unconscious mind combines and searches its “files” to come up with a “link” that associates the action to a painful experience. This can range from something which is mildly uncomfortable to something physically painful.
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• Although you consciously want to do something, your subconscious will prevent you as it associates pain to the action. As human beings, we automatically reach for comfort and do whatever feels comfortable in the moment. That’s the reason why you often procrastinate on tasks that do not feel good at the moment, though they might bring much more pleasure in the future.
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Being aware of your associations to pain and pleasure is critical in dealing with the root cause of procrastination. You can be, do or have whatsoever your heart desires providing that you can overcome your self-imposed fears and take action. Although the real cause for procrastination resides in your subconscious mind, you are ultimately in control of your conscious actions.

7 Questions to Ask when you are procrastinating

What fear has to do with Procrastination?

Although there are many reasons on the surface as to why you procrastinate, the underlying cause always boils down to one factor: FEAR. 

Fear is what shuts you down and prevents you from taking action. By design, fear is there to HELP you. Fear compels you to avoid an encounter with whatever you fear.

We know that every action has a reaction, but do you know that every in-action also has a re-action. 

It is not just what you do that makes the difference in your life, but also what you fail to do. Procrastination is that strange (lack of) behavior where you want to do something, but still, you don’t. Here are the three most common reasons for procrastination and the fears that we subconsciously attach to them:

Fear #1: The Fear Of Failure

When you fear failure, you avoid participating in the first place. The common association is that “If I don’t do it, then I can’t fail, and no one can judge me.” 

It is very prominent amongst procrastinators, and they often hide behind the perfectionism frame. They will wait for things to be perfect until they take action, ultimately keep postponing tasks waiting for the ‘right time’ before they take action. 

Out of the fear of failing and looking bad, they would often spend vast amounts of time on a project without making any real progress because at a subconscious level they don’t want to finish. A finished project will make them vulnerable to criticism and consequently a failure. The result is that they always find ‘good reasons’ to postpone or even avoid the tasks altogether.

The fear of failure is a major cause of procrastination. As human beings, we don’t want to fail. We meant to consistently progress and improve. This fear then keeps you locked up in procrastination as a way of keeping you from failing. The result then is quite obvious: failure to utilize opportunities. 

Fear #2: The Fear Of Unpleasant Or Painful Experiences

If you believe that some action will lead you to a painful or unpleasant experience then you do everything to avoid it. Your nervous system is designed to avoid painful experiences. 

The ironic thing is that we get to decide what we believe, and what will be ‘painful’ experiences. 

Unfortunately for most of us, our beliefs were ‘installed’ by default and we learned by association. If you believe that some action will lead to a painful or unpleasant experience, you will avoid it, regardless of whether your association is accurate or not. 

What you believe is what’s real for you and this is what you will act upon.

Fear #3: The Fear Of Missing Out

Every day we get bombarded with numerous opportunities which we don’t want to miss on. FOMO (Fear of missing out ) is a real thing. No one wants to be left behind. But unfortunately because of FOMO we end up taking on way too much, to the point where we get overwhelmed. 

When you feel overwhelmed, then the natural reaction is to shut down and the result is usually procrastination. 

When you overload yourself with too many things that you ‘have to do’ you simply cannot deal with all of it and procrastination comes to your ‘aid’. Like a breaker switch in an electric current, procrastination will kick in when the load becomes too heavy.

>> Read more : 14 Ways for overcoming procrastination

Make Procrastination Work for You

Everyone, to some degree, procrastinates. We all put off things that we don’t want to do. That doesn’t mean we do nothing. Au contraire! Most procrastinators get plenty done; it just isn’t what is most important or urgent. 

• Procrastination is the art of doing something else when there are more important things to do. There is a way to make procrastination work for you. Since we have this skill to varying degrees of proficiency, we might as well put it to use. While you procrastinate on a particular task, get other less important things done, which you were procrastinating on some other time.
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• The act of delaying is the true gift of procrastination. Until now, you might not have thought of it as a gift, but it is. People get overbooked and overload their schedules with activities and commitments they don’t want to do. It happens because they said yes before they really thought about it. Delaying is a great way to prevent over-scheduling and saying yes to things you should decline. When someone asks you to do something, respond that you need to check your schedule. Ask for a day or two to think about it and tell them you will get back to them with your answer. Use procrastination as a tool to prevent yourself from getting overbooked.

• Procrastination will also assist with getting a lot done. I know it sounds strange, but it works exceptionally well. The trick is to have a major project that needs completion, but that you don’t want to do it. The key is to leverage the advantage of procrastination. Let it move you to complete all the other jobs you want to get done. You will still have time to complete the big job you have been avoiding.