What Is Procrastination? Part 1

Do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today.

It sounds familiar to you, doesn’t it?

If you are one of the people who do the opposite of that phrase, with this blog I am going to help you overcome procrastination.

- Do you postpone those New Year’s resolutions?

- Do you leave for next Monday to start exercising?

- Do you spend a lot of hours trying to concentrate on your study but you can’t keep your eyes far away from social media?

These are just some typical examples to explain the meaning of this word that only brings stress and frustration over time.

But let’s fix it together. I’m going to explain everything you need to know so that you stop postponing goals and tasks, no matter how difficult you think they might be.

The consequences, the causes, a very funny video about how the procrastinating human mind works, and an infallible strategy for you to start fighting against it now.

are you coming with me?

What Is Procrastination?

Procrastination . Great word and it seems that it is becoming more and more fashionable. Officially, the definition of procrastination is quite brief but direct: Defer, postpone.

Extending the above a bit, I would be talking about the habit of leaving the responsibilities of the moment for later.

It is a practice that is based on decision-making that becomes irrational and that in the long run generates more stress than you need to continue with your life.

The dynamic that procrastination usually carries with it is as follows:

- You know you have to do something, but you don’t feel like it or you feel uncomfortable. You start to notice a little anxiety.
- To counteract and feel like you’re productive, you look for some other task out there to do, but that you know has a much lower priority than the one you just put off.
- That first task that you have avoided is conceived by your mind as a bad task that causes stress. Therefore, when you think about working on it, you look for distractions in order not to do it.

Finally, you end up carrying a feeling of guilt that could have been avoided. It is still the cycle of procrastination that you are going to experience.

Consequences Of Procrastinating

The consequences of procrastinating are diverse, but what is most striking is the feeling of chaos from thinking that you cannot achieve everything. It is a false reality that we create to excuse ourselves from it.

We can name a few more:

- Dissatisfaction. As we have seen in the previous point, you know that you are leaving something important to do something more trivial and of less impact.

- Demotivation or loss of ambition. Your life is based on crossing out small tasks of little importance because you do not finish achieving big goals.

- Loss of trust and respect from others. From each to co-workers or friends with whom you commit to something and then do not comply.

This insecurity and feeling of inferiority make you make excuses like “I don’t have time” when in reality you don’t have it because you keep saying you don’t have it.

In addition, many consequences (perhaps the worst) are those that have to do with the personal sphere of well-being. When we introduce people close to us into the equation of procrastination or playing with our health, it is when we really regret not having made decisions at the right time.

The Habit Of Procrastination. Why Is It So Common?

Procrastination is not just a bad habit that many people want to get rid of (yes, probably many don’t mind procrastinating). There are studies that speak of the genetic relationship between procrastination, impulsivity, and the ability to manage goals.

From my point of view, the following division can be made into the causes that give rise to procrastination.

Short-Term Reward

The beloved immediate benefit. The human being loves the sensation of pleasure of the short-term effect of the results.

The negative consequences of putting off what you could do now are not life-and-death, but they are just the beginning. Over time, the snowball will grow and it will be more difficult to stop it.

Examples:

• You leave next Monday to start exercising in the mornings.
• You still don’t put orders in the photos of your trips that are comfortably stored on your mobile.
• You prefer to spend unnecessary time on your email inbox even if you don’t have a workload on it.

Does any of the above ring a bell?

Internal Conflicts With Other Habits

Productivity is still a set of habits and routines that facilitate the course of the day.

The problem with procrastination is that we do not associate an activity with a habit, so it is difficult to get into that routine.

For this reason, you will always see how I emphasize the introduction of all the necessary habits that you would like to adopt in your day-to-day life. In this way, live a fuller life with fewer complications.

Search For The Right Moment

It’s never the perfect time for anything.

You will always make excuses of some kind to leave something for later. That is applicable to all aspects of life. It will never be easy to find time to paint a room, tidy up the paper drawer or prepare for a big trip.

You may also think that in the future you will be better able to carry out a task.

For example, when you get into training for several months but you don’t put anything into practice until you finish. Imagine that you are in an English academy, but you do not use it until you finish the year of the course. Why not start from the beginning?

Or when you don’t start doing a minimum of exercise because you don’t have the right material. It is not necessary to go to the latest, whatever you have in the closet is enough to start.

Fear Of Failure and Lack Of Perfection

The typical thought that what you are going to do is not perfect, or the false limiting belief that you are not good enough.

Especially if you do not mark the details of that perfection. Everything can always be improved, if you don’t set a limit, you will never finish doing something.

High Expectations Over Time

On many occasions, you may think that a task is very simple and therefore you do not pay the attention that you think is necessary.

However, the time has come to get down to it. That is when problems begin to arise or obstacles appear that you had not taken into account. After that blow, your desire to continue is slowed down and that is when you start to postpone.

This usually happens when that task is not well-defined. The creation of detailed objectives is always a fundamental pillar to avoiding unforeseen events of this type.

How To Know If You Are A Procrastinator?

Found it out in Part 2 of this blog!