The Curse of Procrastination
Who doesn’t love to stay chilled in life? Yet a sudden wave of tedious tasks ushering into our life can be pretty intimidating. No matter how much of extra time we have to handle the workload in due time, we being Einstein geniuses, choose “chilling” over “working”!? In turn, we get screwed up for putting up that work for too long. Piles of work get stacked over our head whose weighs feels like a gigantic mountain.
Each individual, to some extent, falls into the trap of procrastination. If I talk about myself, when I intended to start learning guitar I used to bubble up excuses to myself to postpone on getting started with it. One day my Brother in law told me, “You can never get on with it if you keep putting it off. You have to start at least somewhere. Just do it!”
So yes, postponing today’s work tomorrow leads to nowhere. It’s no less than a nightmare where procrastinating ghost haunts us over and over again.
Why do people Procrastinate?
Laziness is typically held responsible for procrastination. But according to psychologists and researchers, the habit of procrastination arises with one’s inability to cope up with stress. To avoid the hassle and stress of unappealing tasks, people postpone it. This series of procrastination leads to detrimental effects like- insomnia, anxiety, incapability to meet deadlines and lack of confidence.
Although it seems easier said than done, here are a list of following measure that we all can use to shield ourselves from procrastination.
Imagine your future self
The very moment you tell yourself, “I’ll do it Later”, instantly start visualizing yourself on the other side in drowned in the miserable consequence; stumbling upon meeting deadlines of the burdensome project in a limited residual time or regretting over missing better opportunities for not doing the work in time. Such self-visionary would intrigue you to start your project right away.
Find out your distractions
Each people have their own kind of distractions that diverts their focus from work. Distractions can come in forms as — social media bell notifications, alluring android games, music, or text messages. So, determine the hindrances that obstruct your focus from crucial work.
Get rid of your distraction
So you have found out what distracts you? Great! Now keep yourself aloof from all of them, atleast for the while you concentrate on your project. This would render you a focused outcome of your centralized mind.
A deadline before the actual deadline
This one personally works for me like magic. Suppose your paper submission deadline is on June 10. If you mentally set a “pre-deadline” on June 8 in mind for yourself, you will complete the work in time anyway. Your mind will push you to meet the self-set deadline.
Break your work
Our mind works how we envision and perceive things. The bigger and monotonous the task seems, the more heightens the level of procrastination. So, break your task into several sections. This would make the project simple organized and smooth to handle.
Reward yourself
Everybody loves being appreciated for doing a worthwhile job. So, when you get done with a section of your project, reward yourself with something you love. It can be - chocolates, music, books or an episode your favorite show.
Note: The reward cannot be your distracting element (such as- cell phone or social media) or else, you will end up procrastinating again.
Procrastination is the outcome of excuses which is subconsciously rooted in our anxiety. Remember that everything in this world is possible once you master yourself to control your mind. It’s sort of like a rubber. You can bend it, twist and shape it your way. So let’s hustle up with our pending work today. Bid goodbye to an “I’ll do it tomorrow” to rid your future from mental misery.
