What I Learned From Being A Serious Procrastinator For 4 Years?
Procrastination. One word that scares the shit out of people.
It’s not something I wanted to do, but still, I ended up doing four years straight.
Being a freelance writer, and keep in mind — writing is my only way of earning. But even when I was aware of how serious my job is for me, still that didn’t stop me from being lazy and letting myself watch my favorite shows instead of working on my articles.
So what have I learned from my experience? What finally helped me to get over that phase? Well, if you want to know or my situation sounds familiar to you, this blog might help you.
Being Self Aware Is Utmost Important
Procrastination is known as an active process, it’s something you choose to do instead of focusing on what you should be doing.
A Lot of time procrastination works in your favor, but what is important is that you are aware of it.
Even though it can help you in getting work done faster and sometimes you enjoy the rush. But when you are doing this on impulse and for a long time ( like me ), you can end up feeling demotivated and delusional.
It even affects your mental health, the rush can cause stress, not just you always have a high risk of crossing deadlines but you can even end up losing a client. ( In my case, both happened a lot)
So what does self-awareness mean here?
Instead of avoiding it, it’s important to be aware of your habits. Know when you are procrastinating, write down or even track when and how often you do it.
I suggest writing down the reasons too. So it can be helpful in knowing why you are doing it in the first place.
Procrastination Is Not A Bad Thing
Even though I had faced the downside of procrastination, like missing deadlines, losing clients, self-depreciation, and a whole phase when I was calling myself a loser.
But Yes, a big but!
The brighter side of the procrastinator I faced is, I can write a 14k word count in a day!
I don’t recommend anyone to do it frequently but sometimes it can help. ( i will share how I did that in my next blog)
This helped in gaining confidence and a feeling of being efficient. Again, I won’t say it’s healthy to write 14k words in a day, but for me it’s possible.
Procrastination also taught me how I can get my things done without letting anything distract me.
So sometimes, it helped me too.
Does Reward System Work To Cure Procrastination?
To be honest, I tried everything, from the Pomodoro technique to scheduling my favorite shows after getting a set of work done.
A Lot of times it worked, and sometimes it ended up messing up my schedule. It’s not easy to have self-control when you are watching your favorite series, and no one wants to go back to work when you are enjoying your time.
But building habits is important and it takes time.
Learning what is helping, and what is not even though it’s helpful for others, there are chances it won’t fit you. And it’s okay!
No path is perfect and the same goes for routine.
Every day I had to track things, what worked for me was staying true to what I wanted.
Some tips that I want to share, try and see if it helps you or not!
- Schedule things especially the entertainment side. In my case, I highly focus on getting my work done fast instead of watching my series. I have no control, and I can’t handle the wait. So it’s best to watch when I am done with my work.
- Some days you will miss it, even doing your best and still you screw it up. And it’s okay, the point here is to keep moving and changing.
- Find a way to arrange your thoughts, so it won’t disturb you when you are trying to focus on your work.
- Find people who can help you, it can be your family member, colleague, siblings, or anyone who can remind you what you should be doing.
- Give yourself a break from time to time. Pressuring yourself will not help, even though today was not the perfect day, but still, you learned something and that’s enough.
- Add things you like to do, for me painting helps a lot. Sometimes I switch to watching my kdrama or animated movies.
And there are a lot of things I want to share, but I think I will stop here.
But before I end, I wanted to share something personal.
Being a serious procrastinator for 4 years was tough. Even though I enjoyed a few moments, the result totally made me feel worse.
I almost lost my confidence, my ability to get work done.
Doing my work when the deadline is on my head started to take a toll on my mental, emotional and physical health.
So recovering from that pit was not easy, I am still not over yet.
But it’s important to let what you did go, forgive yourself and move on. Set your small goals and celebrate your wins, no matter how tiny it is.
And most important, it will take time, so start with baby steps!
