Defeating the Procrastination Paradox: Strategies for Success

Procrastination

Samoon mohd
ILLUMINATION
3 min readMar 19, 2024

--

Procrastination is a major obstacle in the way of attaining success. Maybe you are suffering from it now, or maybe you have experienced it in the past.

Simply put, procrastination is the art of delaying tasks and convincing ourselves to do so in the future.

According to some reports, 20% of US adults are suffering from chronic procrastination. The condition of all other countries is not so good. Maybe you also contributed to this data.

Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash

Causes of Procrastination

There are many factors that contribute to procrastination. Some of the main effects are here.

1.Motivation — the main reason to do something is motivation. If we are motivated to do some work, we can’t procrastinate that work, and when you are not motivated about something, you always procrastinate that work. You also feel that many times, but you ignore it. It happens mainly when we start a new college semester. We are motivated, but with time, we also reduce our motivation, and we feel bored at the end of the semester.

2.Academics — we procrastinate most in academics. Around 80%–95% of college students procrastinate their work. They procrastinate in submitting their assignments and course work.

3.Present bias — Present bias is also a major factor in procrastination. Some of us are always biased toward the present and don’t worry about the future. These types of people always say that what happens in the future remains to be seen.

4.Depression — in depression, we don’t want to do something and procrastinate. If we are doing something we are not doing with our full efforts, we feel helplessness and lack of energy in this condition, and these things are enough to procrastinate.

Sometimes we want to do work but can’t focus on it. We want to, but we can’t give attention to that work; our activity is reduced to that work. This is called ADHD, which means attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Why do we Procrastinate?

There are numerous reasons to procrastinate. Some physical and some mental. But the main reason to procrastinate is-

1.Not knowing what to do — yes, sometimes we don’t know what is done. We want something to do, but we don’t know what to do.

2.How to do something — many times we know what to do and what we desire. But we don’t know the path to do that work, and we procrastinate that work.

3.Mood — the most important thing to do in this generation is mood. If teenagers don’t feel better, then procrastinate their work.

4.Poor health — Poor health also increases the chance of procrastination. Sometimes we delay things in favor of working on another project. We forget to do our work.

Impacts of Procrastination on yourself?

Stress — the main effect of procrastination is stress. We procrastinate our work, but in the end, we get stressed due to our heavy workload. Procrastinating damages our mental health in some way.

Burden: we procrastinate our work, but it becomes a burden at the end. Due to our heavy workload, we get stressed and mentally unstable.

How to overcome procrastination?

To overcome procrastination, we need to take some simple steps. If we follow these steps, we will break the habit of procrastination. Here are some simple steps to overcome procrastination:

1.To-do list: make a to-do list in the morning and arrange your time. Set a time goal for every task; it will increase productivity and increase your focus. In the evening, analyze your to-do list — what you do and don’t do. Learn from it and apply it the next day.

2.Baby Step: Take baby steps for every task. If you think you’re not able to do that work, break it into small, small parts and start doing it. start any work without worrying about results.

3.eliminate distractions — most of the time we procrastinate our work because of distractions. If we eliminate these things from our lives, we can be more concentrated on our work.

Procrastination is something that, if you don’t think about it, will ruin you if you don’t realize it. There are numerous factors contributing to procrastination, but everyone has a solid solution. If you become habitually procrastinating, leave it and become productive and active. doing your work on time for yourself.

Thank you for reading. If you like it, please clap it.

--

--