Procrastination and Dealing with it.

How often do you find yourself procrastinating? Why do you do it? Perhaps by the end of this article you will discover why and work out ways in which to change this!

Long before we had the Internet, people have been procrastinating and for the majority of people this isn’t a problem. However, if you keep putting things off and find yourself making excuses, or leaving important things until the last minute frequently, this can lead to stress and anxiety, causing problems at work, school, with your health, and in your relationship.

We end up feeling guilty because we know we are not doing something that we really should or want to do.

Although our actions in these instances may seem to be irrational to us, they usually have some sort of short term pay-off to them.

Procrastination has been around for centuries.  Consider some 535 years ago when the Friars of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception asked Leonardo da Vinci to create a painting of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child for the altar of their chapel.  The artist agreed to have it finished in seven months, but instead, it took him 25 years to complete the project.  Although Leonardo da Vinci is considered a Renaissance man, and a genius of art and design, he was, without a doubt, one of the best early procrastinators on record.

Why do we Procrastinate?W

Dr Shahram Heshmat Ph.D. researched this question and discovered that when a person procrastinates, they pass the buck to their future self. Although some procrastinators claim that they work best under pressure, it is likely that they need the rush of a last-minute deadline to get started in the first place.

However, this can lead to low-quality work, performance and reduced well-being (Tice and Baumeister, 1997). For example, students who routinely procrastinate consistently get lower grades (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002). Procrastinators also tend to postpone getting appropriate medical treatments and diagnostic tests (Sirois and Pychyl, 2013).

In the workplace, it is common to procrastinate if we have an unpleasant task. It is easy to put the complicated project, or case to the bottom of the pile and keep doing that, but ultimately if you keep doing that all the complicated jobs will be there to do and this will become incredibly stressful. Think about how you will feel then and what could you do to resolve this?

Perhaps a strategy could be to start with your goals. Be brave and take on the task that you’re worried about and spend a specific amount of time on that task for that day. Perhaps limit yourself to 30 minutes at a time on that task. This works particularly well if you have a deadline in sight and you know you can give a project a certain amount of time every day. By breaking it down in smaller chunks it may not seem too bad.

Another reason why people procrastinate is because of anxiety. Many procrastinators postpone starting something, because of fear of failure. I used to be guilty of this for a long time. I had the word ‘failure’ drummed into my mind for so long by so many different people, that you start to believe it, and that it must be ‘me’, so I would be scared to start something, especially in relation to tasks at work. I would convince myself that it wouldn’t be right and I would be criticised again. I would get myself so worked up that I’d end up having a panic attack, or as I suffer from fibromyalgia, it would bring on one of my attacks.

Finding ways to reduce these feelings can really help. Mindfulness meditation helped me and I now run courses on this and provide mindfulness workshops in the workplace, which is hugely beneficial. Even just going for a walk and practicing habit releasers, such as making shapes out of the clouds and just telling yourself ‘I CAN’.

Low self-confidence is another reason why one may procrastinate. A student with low self-confidence for math may avoid enrolling on the higher math course for fear of not being good enough, or an employee at work may avoid going for a promotion because they don’t think they’ll get the job.

This deprives people of valuable skills and experience. A way around this is to set obtainable and timely goals and keep telling yourself ‘I CAN’. When the goal has been met, the feeling of self-confidence will raise and the person may be motivated to set more challenging goals.

How to Stop ProcrastinatingH

While it may seem like an impossible task, it is possible to overcome the challenges of procrastination—and actually get things done that you have been putting off.  Here are a few tips to help you tame the procrastination beast:

  • Take a deep breath and get started. No matter what you need to accomplish, there’s nothing like taking a deep breath and moving forward towards your goal! I have given you a few suggestions above. We are taught as Coaches to use SMART goals. However, I use my own SMART goals. Since having a serious life-changing accident a couple of years ago my nickname is known as ‘Bionic’, because I probably have almost as much metal holding me together as bone. I base my SMART goals around the word BIONIC.
  • B – Brave (you need to be brave to make the decision to do something different)
  • I – Identify (you need to identify the goal you want to achieve)
  • O – Obtainable/Timely (Is the goal you have set likely to be obtainable and have you set a realistic timeframe for it?)
  • N – Necessary – (Is the goal necessary?)
  • I
  • C – Can – (I Can are two powerful and positive words and if you keep telling yourself this, you will achieve it and stop procrastinating)
  • Break it down into smaller tasks. No matter what is on your “to-do” list, break it down into more manageable tasks and they won’t feel so bad. For example, if your end goal is in 6 months time, this may seem like so long away, so set yourself something to achieve each week, such as losing weight. If you want to lose 3 stone in 6 months, set yourself a goal to lose 2 lb each week and reward yourself each time you reach that smaller goal.
  • Put aside the interruptions. If you are tempted by the Internet, log off of your wi-fi for a while. If you are constantly sending and receiving texts, put your phone into another room.  Take away the interruptions and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Think about the following questions to help you identify the actions that you are putting off and reflect honestly what the short term pay-offs for each action are.

Then think about possible things you can say to yourself in this situation to help you carry out the action despite the short term pay-off from not doing so.

Once you have considered these please let me have your comments.

  1. What is the action you are putting off?
  • Describe the situation when you are tempted to put off the action?
  • What are the pay-offs of putting off the action?
  • What can you say to yourself in this situation to help you to complete the action?
Don’t put it off!