Procrastination is the habit of postponing pending tasks, with disregard to the timeline(s). While some people seem to believe that procrastination helps, others feel this habit destroys personal development. For instance, Adam Grant, a professor from the University of Pennsylvania believes that procrastination does not cause creativity, while others still maintain their views that it does. Often mistaken to connote Lethargy or laziness, procrastination is a nice way of saying laziness. Especially if laziness is the main reason behind the habit in question. Certainly, if this is the reason, then admitting the problem and embracing change is perhaps the best approach to take.
In this article we will discuss more about the different perspectives regarding procrastination as a habit.
Positive vs. Negative views of procrastination
We will now investigate the integrity of each view starting with the positive ones. Here are some positive views raised by procrastinators.
- Procrastination as a teaching habit: Procrastination teaches one about themselves. You get ample time to decide on your life goals. This in turn allows you to maximize your potential.
- Procrastination nurtures tolerance and compassion; it also impedes the development of certain negative habits: Procrastination teaches one to be tolerant to others. For example, people who have had negative experiences in their past can be influenced to feel compassion towards those who are undergoing the same experiences. They become less harsh to their colleagues, friends, or spouse. When you are under pressure to complete a task, you normally seek a stimulus to help you to focus and fight the pressure. Most of the time people turn to psychoactive stimulants to help them complete tasks. Postponing a task will help ease that ‘urge’ to use stimulants. This reduces your dependency on stimulants to finish a task.
On the other hand, there are those individuals who believe that procrastination has repercussions. Here are some of the negative views raised by procrastinators’
- Procrastination is not necessarily a useful skill: Feelings of procrastination distort reality. People tend to avoid dealing with personal conflicts because it is too stressful and overwhelming. This negativity limits your potential. At the same time, you fail to achieve your goals on time. Hence, you stunt your own personal growth.
- Procrastination affirms fear: If a task appears to be difficult or time consuming, the task is deemed unpleasant. If you allow the feeling of incompetence to control your actions, then you are scared of failing and making a mistake.
- Procrastination kills success: Since procrastination is a psychological behavior, it affects every person. Most of the people who get extremely inconvenienced are those who get anxious and stressed out. In extreme cases one cannot complete a task, thus reducing their own success rates.
Handling Procrastination Stress
- Maintaining Constant Awareness: Given that procrastination is a choice, one is able to evaluate personal choices that need to be changed. Eventually, you will begin to develop a more positive attitude and attract positive outcomes.
- Embracing the feeling that comes with Achievement: Knowing that you’ve completed your goals on time reduces a one’s stress levels; stress that would have otherwise have been brought by procrastination.
- Enjoying the benefits of Timeliness: Timeliness is a beneficial habit. You will have peace of mind knowing that you have completed a task on time. This self-assurance boosts confidence and mental strength. The decision NOT to procrastinate is empowering, giving you the power to take be in control of your decisions and actions.
How To Deal With Procrastination Internally
- Rewarding yourself for timeliness
A good way of encouraging a habit is by using rewards. Start by rewarding yourself whenever you complete a task on time. this will encourage you to be approach all your goals with the objective of timeliness. When you reward yourself more often it will become harder to put off tasks. You will miss out on the dopamine produced by rewards and you will feel bad.
- Preparing a to-do-list every day
You need to rite down the tasks that you intend to accomplish on a daily basis. This will make it much harder to ignore them. you can also tell a person about your plans so that you have someone to remind you if you forget. Inform them to remind you form time to time.
- Embracing Orderliness
You need to arrange your tasks in a manner that will facilitate easy handling. Make sure that you always motivate yourself to be orderly. You will be more conscious about time and if you complete your tasks ahead of time you will have the opportunity to enjoy the free time you get after completion.
- Evaluate your personality
This means that you have to perform a self appraisal. This will allow you to identify the reasons you tend to make and the considerations that you usually take when you decide to procrastinate tasks. This will enable you to persuade your conscious to deal with small tasks that are normally unpleasant to do. At the end of the day those responsibilities won’t get any better if they are put off. You just have to get on and accomplish them.
- Focusing on the end goal
It will feel good when you a task. Finishing a task on time will be worthwhile in the end. Always focus on the end goal and not on the task itself. Think about how relieved you will feel once you meet your deadline.
- Divide your tasks
When you are arranging your daily schedule, you need to put into consideration the difficulty of each task you intend to accomplish. If you are the kind of person who dreads dealing with huge or difficult tasks, you can decide to split it into smaller bits. For instance, if you have an article to complete, divide the task, into smaller feasible tasks, Start by performing a quick web search to find suitable sources for content. Then, verify your content and figure outhow long it’s going to take you to complete your article. After you work out the time you’ll need, plan when you will have a suitable time to do the task. Make sure that you note it down into your diary, to ensure that you’re committed to it. Splitting a big task like this will make it to appear a bit smaller and more manageable.
- Consider the inconveniency of untimeliness
Fear and loss can also be used as source of motivation, just like using rewards. Before you decide to put off a task you need to reflect on the pain of losing out if you procrastinate. When you continually harbor this feeling and reflect on its outcome you will understand the importance of the relief that you’ll feel when you complete any immediate task. The assumeddiscomfort of losing out by not accomplishing a task can be more inspiring than the reward of having done it.
The Power of Customs
We usually squander time in between subtle moments that we tend to overlook. From the point when our morning alarm wakes us up to the moment when we finally decide to get up; these are the ‘wasted’ moments. From the point when we sit down at work up to the moment when we actually start to do something productive. From the point when we begin to consider a choice up to the moment when we decide to make a move. Gradually, our productiveness is whittled because of all those subtle moments that remained unused.
The answer to recovering lost moments is through creating your own customs. Societies utilize customs to exchange data and encode practices that are considered critical. Individually crafted customs can assist you to develop a superior technique for handling tasks, from how you wake up to how you perform your duties.
By building individual customs, you’ll get the opportunity to encode timely practices that are essential in your life and you willalso be able to reduce squandered moments in your life.
Using your own personalized Customs
Discussed below are some tips on how you could actualize your own customs:
When waking up
Design your own waking up customs for each morning. All that will matter for the rest of the day is the tasks that you intend to achieve by the end of the day. You can incorporate a simple morning exercise like pushups to deal with the sluggishness you experience after waking up. Reading is another good way to maintain a fresh conscious in the morning.
Web Usage
The internet usually takes too much of our time. This is time that can be used efficiently or to do something that is beneficial to our health. Check how frequently you respond to your emails, or the time you spend on social sites like Facebook or Pinterest. If you notice that you are spending most of your time on the internet, then make an effective custom of designating a particular period of the day to browse the internet and check your mails. This will be more convenient in the end.
Working
You need to maintain your concentration while performing a task. This will ensure that you stay focused on the task and there will be no room for thoughts of procrastination. This custom of continuous progressions will enable you to quickly begin any task at hand and even train you on how you can continue with your work after interference.
Exercise
This is a tip that needs to be considered highly. Incorporate customs inside of your workouts and daily exercises. Structure your workout customs to occur in a specific time. Workouts shouldn’t stop you from accomplishing your duties or responsibilities
Sleeping
Sound sleep is very important for all human beings. Sound sleep can help alleviate stress in your life. Develop a soothing custom for moments before you go to sleep i.e. the last 30 min to-an hour before sleep. You’ll notice that you’ll always wake up with lots of energy to perform your tasks. This is also a good way to deal with sleeping disorders.