SELF-IMPROVEMENT | PRODUCTIVITY | MENTAL HEALTH
How To Avoid the Trap of Procrastination
Changing Your Perspective.
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
When I read this quote, I immediately thought of Medium! And of this small but significant difference:
🖋️ How many of my stories were published today?
🖋️ How many of my stories have I written today?
Especially those who often submit their articles to publications are familiar with the fact that it is not uncommon for articles to be published on the following day. And thus, said articles only bring in views and money one day later.
A logical and very simplified example of the given life lesson.
Sowing and Reaping as a Life Lesson
In fact, the truth of Robert’s words applies in quite a few areas. It reminds me of when I lost 66 pounds last year.
Unless you regularly check on the scale and record the values as numbers, it is difficult to recognize progress at first. However, if you have actually followed a healthy diet and have not exceeded the “allowed” number of calories, you are definitely getting closer to your goal.
Every day is a victory!
Women in particular should remember this when the scale is not in their favor due to the biological cycle. Because women store water when they get their period and also during ovulation.
- Just as a little bonus info! 👩🏫
Where else can we observe this principle?
Well, surely most of us have once done some spring cleaning at home. This involves basic cleaning of many areas of the apartment or house.
Cleaning windows, for example, is also part of it! And unless you have toddlers joyfully pressing their cute sticky hands against the glass, you can usually expect the windows to stay clean for a while, too.
You’ll benefit for weeks, if not months, from clean windows (= harvest), but the foundation for that was cleaning on the day spring cleaning was due (= seed).
How Does This Knowledge Help Me?
Far too often we are confronted with work that we don’t like and would prefer to put off. The prospect of a positive result can motivate us, but we also run the risk of manipulating ourselves. ← Yes, that’s possible!
By accepting that we will wait for a later time to enjoy the positive effect that the task involves, we settle for compromises. And these compromises can look like this, for example:
💭 “Then I’ll write one more story tomorrow.”
💭 “I can also clean my windows later, that does not bother me right now (or I clean them tomorrow or the day after tomorrow or the week after, …).”
💭 “I’ll do the tax return another day, there’s still time!”
What do these “compromises” have in common?
They assume that we will be rewarded to the same extent (= harvest), only slightly delayed.
What such trade-offs don’t take into account is the fact that we expose ourselves to additional stress. After all, as long as the tax return is due, the task remains in the back of our minds and we can never really detach ourselves from it.
Moreover, in the case of writing as an author, we accept the fact that we expand our visibility more slowly, and thus our income increases more slowly as well.
Here, however, I would definitely like to add that it is sometimes okay and important to take a break. But we should then also consciously make use of this break in order to benefit maximally from the recovery effect.
Ideally, we don’t allow our precious time to dissolve into procrastination!
And if we are learning a new language, for example, an interruption can even cause us to ultimately fail.
Recap
Our commitment is the foundation to
💕 Health
💕 Well-being
💕 Relationships
💕 Success
💕 etc.
In addition, a completed task avoids stress → which in turn contributes to our mental and physical health. → This keeps us more efficient.
As you can see, what we are dealing with is a cycle.
The whole of life is based on cycles and a decision always results in a consequence.
So let’s act
👍 against procrastination,
👍 and for maintaining the circulatory system,
👍 or active recovery.
💬 What helps you against procrastinating?
Share it in the comments!
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