Me and My Procrastination
I’m a student majoring in IT and I also work in Bina Nusantara IT Division. Today I want to share with you the stories about my procrastination that interferes with productivity in my study and work.
Lately, I’ve been procrastinating in my study even at tasks given at work. Even while I was writing this story, I procrastinate. I miss a lot of time because of this bad habit. I didn’t do great in my exam. Even though I finished it, I think I could do it better if I didn’t procrastinate. In tasks given at work, I’m also sluggish. So I wonder why exactly I can’t focus and finish my to-do list? If I can focus, any of these tasks can be done faster. It’s just this thing in my head that keeps thinking “How about tomorrow?”, “I will do it tomorrow”, and also “This is quite easy, so yeah I’ll do it tomorrow”.
The Reason I’m Procrastinating
The truth is, I didn’t even realize I like to procrastinate till now. I don’t know when I start this bad habit that always keeps productivity away from me. But lately, I’ve been realizing that there are so many reasons I like to postpone things. For example, during exams, I see that it has a one-week deadline. The first thought that comes to my mind is, “ This is easy, maybe I will do another thing first”. Then what happened next is I got lost in social media and YouTube
The next reason is I didn’t feel like having responsibility for what I must do tomorrow. I chose to watch TikTok or some YouTube video over preparing myself for what to do the next day. So when the next day came I did things badly.
Then my other mistake was when I couldn’t resist the temptation coming to me. I like to play music on YouTube while working or studying, but when YouTube recommended a video with purple lamb thumbnail(video with a catchy thumbnail). I quickly get lost in it. These things can cause me a lot of hours since it won’t stop with just one video.
The last one is quite tricky, I had a pride problem even when I’m writing this article. I want to create a great article. but rather than just typing it I’m fleeting away till there comes a motivation or great idea.
The Cause of My Procrastination
As a result of not realizing I was procrastinating and choosing pleasure first over and over. I always do things near the deadline. Sometimes the thing to do was badly worked or just done the way it is. Stress while doing my thing is the most impactful emotion that got me. I’m sure all of you ever feel stressed when doing things near the deadline, but mine is more stressful because realizing I had been given an amount of time to finish it but I choose not.
How I Dealt with It
The very first thing I did was implement the Pomodoro technique. The Pomodoro technique is a time management technique that encourages us to break work into intervals. I have heard about it because it is well known or just popped out in my YouTube recommendation. Maybe YouTube knows me procrastinating at that time haha. Back to the Pomodoro technique, it wasn’t effective for me. Taking some break while working doesn’t suit me because during the break time I open social media, and I get stuck on social media. But what I learned from the Pomodoro technique is to start doing things. It’s really impactful to start my task.
So I develop my own Pomodoro technique. I’m not dividing my work time into intervals, but instead I prime myself to focus by making the time I spent on work more noticeable. I use the help of stopwatch When I start the stopwatch on my mobile phone then poof; I’m in my working flow. I don’t stop until it’s really finished or stuck because it needs to be done by third parties. So instead of work and fun separated like in Pomodoro, I’m already having fun by just being productive and doing my to-do list. Like dory in finding Nemo, she said “just keep swimming”.
Lastly, be aware of the benefit of delayed gratification. To think about doing things peacefully is about the free time after work will make the work that was done before the deadline a kind of blessing. This way I get more motivation and energy to hold on.
How I see my procrastination now
Whenever I'm realizing that I have been procrastinating, I do these things:
- Clarify my own self about what I really want. Then I will get the purpose to do my things.
- Always choose delayed gratification.
- Just do my to-do list one at a time rather than make a plan about how to do it. Because by the time you think more about it. The more likely you will procrastinate.
Final thought
Procrastinating is a habit that everybody can have, but the reasons and ways to deal with it are different from person to person. Explore and find out what method works to improve your productivity. I hope by reading this article you can clear yourself about the thing that has been making you a procrastinator. And find a clearance to solve your own procrastination. Thank you for reading.
