Dealing With Procrastination
procrastination
Dealing With Procrastination is an article with advice on how to deal with the often-enduring and debilitating feeling of having a hard time finding motivation to perform the task at hand. Although it can be tempting to find ways to avoid your healthy diet, read your favorite book, or catch up on sleep, it's highly recommended that you do not do so because they are all integral in reinvigorating your tired body and mind. Procrastination is caused by cognitive biases and some people may find success through learning how these tendencies work as well as using techniques such as meditation.
This article offers some general tips on how to deal with this destructive tendency and encourages you to learn more about the topic of procrastination. We begin with a brief overview of what procrastination is and how it affects people—we then move on to discussing some coping methods, as well as advice on how you can learn more and research ways to overcome this insistent habit. Lastly, we offer some additional reading material that can help you learn more about the topic.
What is procrastination?
Procrastination refers to the act of putting off certain tasks or activities until a later point in time when they are less urgent or important. Procrastination is the action of "postponing things" and thus, any form of procrastination can be considered a negative habit. The term was first used in the early 20th century, but it wasn't until the 1960s that studies started being done on the phenomenon and its effects on people's lives.
In his book titled "The Now Habit", Charles Duhigg describes procrastination as an especially harmful habit that affects well-being in a number of ways. Duhigg argues that procrastination can be attributed to two major factors: perfectionism and fear of failure. Perfectionism can lead people to feel frustrated by an incomplete task and fear of failure can cause people to avoid working on a task that they are afraid of succeeding at. Duhigg notes that inadequate sleep, anxiety, and more can all contribute to the development of procrastination habits.
How does procrastination affect people?
The impacts of procrastination have been studied extensively and it is often debated as to whether or not the consequences of this habit should be treated as something positive or negative. Some argue that the consequences caused by procrastination make it in itself a negative behavior, while others hold the opposite opinion and see elements such as delay gratification as positive traits.
In Duhigg's book, he explains that procrastination habits can have negative impacts on a person's life and time management. It can affect the performance of organizations and other teams by causing delays to assignments and projects, it may also negatively impact family life due to the fact that completing household responsibilities such as chores or finishing homework may be put off until later. Procrastination can also lead to stress and low self-esteem because a person may feel bad about their inability to complete a task or a project.
It has been said that procrastination is especially prevalent amongst students who find it hard to complete school work. Procrastination can also have an impact on the workplace where it causes a delay in projects and can affect the organization that the employee works for.
Coping With Procrastination
In his book, Duhigg notes that much of procrastination is caused by emotions and feelings which are often very difficult for people to manage. He offers some general tips on how to deal with these feelings and urges readers to learn more about their emotions so they can begin to notice when they are feeling anxious or worried about a task. Duhigg writes that it's important not to ignore these feelings as ignoring them usually leads to more anxiety which again, is associated with procrastination.
It is important to note that everyone procrastinates at some point in their lives and that it's not possible to have a perfect time management system. Duhigg notes this as well, saying that the key lies in being able to "fight the urge and keep going in spite of it". Here are some general tips on how you can do just that:
Take your time – The first step is to make sure you look at your task objectively and give yourself enough time to complete it. If you need help, try breaking down the task into smaller pieces so completing them will be easier.
– The first step is to make sure you look at your task objectively and give yourself enough time to complete it. If you need help, try breaking down the task into smaller pieces so completing them will be easier. Plan ahead and create a schedule – Make sure to use a planner or any app that helps you stay organized so you can plan for upcoming projects and tasks. Setting aside some time for these activities will help you prevent procrastination from occurring and allow you to focus on the task at hand.
– Make sure to use a planner or any app that helps you stay organized so you can plan for upcoming projects and tasks. Setting aside some time for these activities will help you prevent procrastination from occurring and allow you to focus on the task at hand. Plan to be productive – Another way to avoid procrastination is to schedule time when you will work on your project so you can do it while you're in a productive mood.
– Another way to avoid procrastination is to schedule time when you will work on your project so you can do it while you're in a productive mood. Concentrate – If a project or task requires concentration, make sure that your environment is not distracting before beginning the task. Close all unnecessary tabs and applications, put your phone away and concentrate solely on what needs doing.
– If a project or task requires concentration, make sure that your environment is not distracting before beginning the task. Close all unnecessary tabs and applications, put your phone away and concentrate solely on what needs doing. Reward yourself – You can even reward yourself for making good work progress by taking some time off or doing something you enjoy when you've finished a task. In this way, you can use positive reinforcement to avoid procrastination.
– You can even reward yourself for making good work progress by taking some time off or doing something you enjoy when you've finished a task. In this way, you can use positive reinforcement to avoid procrastination. Remind yourself that it's OK to procrastinate – Duhigg also suggests reminding yourself that procrastinating is not necessarily a bad thing and in fact, it is important to put things off until later so that they don't need to be done immediately. He says that we often become stressed by the thought of an incomplete project or task but if we choose to delay working on them, they're not as pressing in our minds as they would have been had we just started right away.
Conclusion
The ability to manage and complete projects is an important skill that individuals need to succeed at work and in their personal lives. Understanding the tendencies of procrastination can help our employers and ourselves when planning a project or task, allowing us to get it done so we can move on and complete other tasks. Taking the time to break down tasks will help you see them from a different perspective and look at them from a wider perspective that may improve your time management skills. If you need some help with this, we have extensive training programs for students and professionals alike in order to help improve your time management skills. We offer both online training sessions as well as classroom based training options, depending on your needs.