How To Get Rid Of Procrastination
Are you one of those people who always starts projects but never finishes them? Do you find yourself getting distracted by small, meaningless tasks or conversations?
If so, then take a look at this post! We're going to explore what procrastination is and why it happens, as well as give some ideas on how to help you overcome it. You might be surprised at how easy it can be!
So if you have a goal that seems impossible because of your procrastination habits, read on—we have some great advice for success.
Procrastination Defined
Procrastination has been defined in different ways, but in general, it's putting off an action until later when it should be done immediately.
Psychologist Piers Steel defines procrastination as a "volitional delay of intended actions despite expecting to be worse off for the delay." That's a mouthful!
Essentially, procrastination is doing something you know you should do right now—but instead of doing it, you're distracting yourself with other things. In the long run, you might find that your procrastinating was a mistake. Your work might get worse or not done at all.
There are different types of procrastination, but the main types are:
Attentional Procrastination—when you put off an action out of distraction, like checking social media or watching TV. You're just putting it off until you get bored with what you're doing.
Intentional Procrastination—when you intentionally put something off so that later when it comes to doing it, you can feel better about yourself. This often relates to perfectionism and fear of failure. For example, if you know something will take a long time to do, and then at the end you don't feel like it was done well enough and want to avoid doing it at all costs because of that fear.
Blaming Procrastination—when you put off an action in order to avoid the blame of others. This isn't usually a bad thing and it's a form of "self-management" or being able to deal with something yourself rather than going to someone else with your problem or getting your work done by someone else.
Excessive Procrastination—when you procrastinate the same amount of time on every single task, which means you're putting it off so long that it becomes very difficult to complete. In extreme cases, this can mean months and years until something is done that should have happened sooner. The more of these "large" tasks you put off, the more problem you're going to be.
"I'm Not Putting It Off!"
At first, procrastination might not seem like a problem because it's not harming anyone. Maybe you're at work and you know that your boss won't find out if you get your work done early. If you've been putting off working on something for a while, maybe it's easier to justify that you're just waiting until a good time to get started.
But if these are the reasons why people procrastinate, then others might be able to help them out and make more time for important things without their having to change anything.
If you do it yourself, you're going to have to make those changes and take that initiative. Your actions are what determines whether or not you're able to get things done on time.
Also, your boss might find out that you've been doing more work than usual at a certain time of day, and then he or she might assign more of this type of work to that time slot because they know you're willing to do it. Then your boss will realize that the task is being put off for a reason, which means that you're either not motivated or don't have time for the work.
And finally, if you procrastinate the same amount of time on every single task…
You might have to reevaluate your goals and priorities in order to change the way you're doing things. You have to get rid of unimportant tasks and focus on your most important projects instead. If there are things that need to be done, then you either need more time or a different way of doing them.
What Type Of Procrastination Are You?
Psychologists have a thing they call "the procrastination scale." In this test, they ask people questions about their low, normal and high levels of procrastination. If you have high levels of procrastination, you'll be more likely to have problems with attentional and emotional (overwhelm) procrastination. These are the situations where your work gets done but isn't as good as it could be.
You might not feel like you do anything except watch TV or play video games, but because of this, you're doing a lot at the same time—but without getting whatever your motivation was in the first place.
If you have low levels of procrastination, you'll be more likely to have problems with intentional and excessive procrastination. You're not getting anything done and might even be putting things off to avoid the work because it's hard or the work isn't that important.
When someone has high levels of attentional procrastination, it can mean that they're distracted rather than productive (as opposed to excessive procrastinators who do nothing but put things off). They might watch TV or play video games all day but aren't actually doing anything else with their time. They might even avoid writing out their goals if they feel stuck.
On the other hand, high levels of intentional procrastination might mean that the person is actually putting off the work because they don't want to do it. Even if they're doing something fun instead, it's still taking time away from something that should be done. Or it could mean that their anxiety about not succeeding means they won't do anything at all until their feelings of self-worth increase.
High levels of blame procrastination are also different from low levels as well—at low levels, you can be dreading an event or task even if you're trying to avoid doing it. But if you have high levels of blame procrastination, you might think about your work as not being good enough and procrastinate because of that negative thought. In this case, you know that your work is okay and doesn't have to be perfect; it's just something you feel like should be done.
You might procrastinate for other reasons as well—if someone has low levels, they might prefer to avoid the work because they don't even want to attempt it. In other cases, you might delay doing something until the last minute because it's easier to do that instead of getting up and actually doing it while they're still in bed (and perhaps even thinking about getting back in bed).
Conclusion
Procrastination is a state of mind—it's when you think about doing something and then don't do it at all.
Some people avoid it because they don't want to be in a state of conflict or guilt, but this is only an excuse to avoid being productive. If you can't take the time to enjoy doing everything that you do, then what good are you anyway?
Also, if you procrastinate because you can't get motivated enough to start on the work and also have trouble getting satisfaction from the work afterward, this is still self-management. You might need someone else's help with motivation so that you can focus on getting things done instead of just putting them off for another day.