Procrastinators Guide to Not Procrastinate
A simple and practical cure to procrastination
Procrastination is a global challenge of epic proportions and the world is filled with people who procrastinate A.K.A Procrastinators!
I for one, am part of this joyful bunch of procrastinators and an exceptionally talented one at that. I am so skilled as a procrastinator that I could probably crown myself as the undisputed champion of procrastination.
There are so many of us Procrastinators out there, that we could take over the world if we want to and they only reason we haven’t done that yet is — “well, we will do it tomorrow.”
Procrastination and Procrastinators
So, what is procrastination? And who are these Procrastinators?
Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing a task or an activity till the last minute where we are eventually forced to complete it in a very short span of time. Think of it as the “Dark Side” which corrupts a young Jedi’s mind, making us focus on things which are relatively less important.
And Procrastinators? We are people who do everything else under the sun and wait till the last minute to frantically complete what we intended to do
Why do people procrastinate?
What goes in the mind of a procrastinator? Why do we procrastinate? We are seemingly intelligent folks, yet why do we do it? Is laziness the key? Definitely not! Procrastinators are not lazy; we are just focussed on activities that are more trivial and less important.
Procrastinators more often than not end up procrastinating because we are anxious about, fear or dread an activity or task. Our mind is overwhelmed by this negative feeling, and to remove it, focusses on some other activity which is seemingly insignificant but enjoyable such as scrolling through social media feeds, streaming a video, etc. which makes us feel better, albeit temporarily.
Whilst this diversion and distraction makes us feel better momentarily, as time approaches the deadline, we end up being overwhelmed and finish the task in the nick of time, when It could have been done sooner and better. Then again, there are also times when we are not as successful and unfortunately do not complete what we planned to do.
How to stop procrastinating?
The first and foremost, is a kick on the backside! If that doesn’t help, nothing can!
But on a serious note, the following are ways to stop procrastinating from personal experience.
1. Self-realisation — Realise you are procrastinating, acknowledge that and make a personal note to fix it.
2. Plan and prioritise — Chalk out a plan and decide what you want to accomplish, by when you need to do it and how soon you should start.
3. Break down the activity — Break a big activity into small achievable tasks which can be completed in a shorted timeframe. For example, if you are planning to write an article and have been pushing it, break it down into a just one section or a page at a time and complete it.
4. Set shorter focus duration — Limit your activity to short timeframes and devote yourself to that small time window. 20 mins is usually considered a duration to focus on a task without distractions.
5. Avoid distractions — Keep everything that distracts you at an arm’s length during this duration. This includes keeping mobile phones in silent, sitting in a place where there are minimal distractions, etc.
6. Reward yourself — Reward yourself for each and every task that you successfully complete towards your goal.
7. Accountability — Hold yourself accountable or have someone monitor you for the successful completion of an activity.
The seven steps listed above are not all encompassing, and there are surely other ways to tackle procrastination as well. None of these steps or any other step for that matter will work for you unless you take the first step and start. So, “Start already!”
