Procrastination :- 3 main Reasons and Remedies

" You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again." :- Benjamin Franklin

    Procrastination. Yes, today I am going to talk about procrastination. Yeah, look who is talking... :) I wasted 5-6 days before writing this blog. I've discovered over the last few days that I tend to procrastinate a lot. Some work is delayed by me so much that is a lot of rush at the last minute. In prehistoric times we had very few things to focus on but now we have a lot to conquer. We cannot achieve everything in one life but we can achieve what is important.  

    Etymologically, " procrastination" is derived from the Latin verb procrastinate- to put off until tomorrow. But it's more than just voluntarily delaying. "It's a self-harm," said Dr. Piers Steel, a professor of motivational psychology at the University of Calgary and the author of "The Procrastination Equation: How to stop putting things off and start getting stuff done."

Procrastination is an active process. One chooses to do something else instead of the task that you know you should be doing. In contrast, laziness suggests apathy, inactivity, and an unwillingness to act. But, of course, this only compounds the negative associations we have with the task, and those feelings will still be there whenever we come back to it, along with increased stress and anxiety, feelings of low self-esteem, and self-blame.

Why do we procrastinate ?

“Vision without action is a daydream, action without vision is a nightmare.” : Japanese Proverb 

    According to researchers, there are 12 main reasons why people procrastinate. In this blog, we will discuss 3 important points. They are as follows:-

1. Perfectionism

2. Depression & anxiety

3. Comfort zone is everything

1. Perfectionism :

“The worst thing about being a perfectionist. Everything you do might look amazing in someone else eyes but in your heart never truly satisfied.” ― Emmie Lee Dean

   Procrastination is a self-defeating behavior pattern, but it can be seen as serving a psychological purpose, especially for people with perfectionist tendencies, by protecting the individual against the fear of failure, judgment by others, and self -condemnation. 

    Perfectionism is a myth. Some people think a lot when they make a decision or they often wonder if it will work out for them or not, what people will say? I'm doing it in the right way or not, and many more.  

2. Depression & Anxiety :

    Avoidance is a well-known form of coping with anxiety. Procrastinators may postpone getting started because of a fear of failure. Evidence indicates that procrastination is associated with high levels of stress. When a person is feeling very depressed or low self-esteem, he starts procrastinating almost everything. For him/her, completing any task is a very arduous task. One must seek help from close people or see a doctor before the situation gets out of hand. 

3. Comfort zone is everything :

“You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

― Roy T. Bennett

   The comfort zone - where you feel most comfortable, doing your things. You must be happy right now but the sad reality is it's killing you slowly. Just like a ship was not designed for the confines of the safe harbor, neither are human beings. We are designed to sail the wide-open oceans, to push the boundaries of what we can achieve, to unlock the latent potential lying dormant, and to discover we do have the potential from within to reach places we did not even know we were capable of getting to. 

   People may also procrastinate when they are confused by the complexity of a task (such as filing one’s taxes) or when they’re overly distracted or fatigued. Getting out of the comfort zone takes a lot of effort, mentally & physically.

How one can overcome procrastination ?

    So how do you get out of this? It's very simple, you can easily get out of it, but there is one issue. People don't want to do simple things. There are several different things you can do to fight procrastination and start getting things done on time. One of them is, 

1. Divide & Conquer:- Make a to-do list and spilled a task into smaller chunks and start doing one thing at a time. Ex. If you want to write a blog, then the 1st step would be finding your niche or any topic you like most. Start writing at least 500 words per day. Once you are done writing find a source where you want to publish your blog. Like this divide all your tasks into smaller chunks and focus to complete them.

2. Find an accountability partner :- A good accountability partner will help you to complete your goals within a surprisingly short amount of period. Once you choose your accountability partner, then select the preferable time of the day and focus on goals completion. 

3. Remove Distractions:- 

    In terms of achieving your goals, one must be laser focus. Avoiding distractions is the main part of success. Does this possible, to be that much focused when you are continuously looking for WhatsApp chats, Insta, and FB feed? Do you know what happen when you are scrolling half a dozen YouTube videos and FB news feed? Let me tell you, your business is not growing or your project isn't getting complete. Use the internet for your personnel growth. Don't let it use you. 

   If you are a natural procrastinator then reward yourself after completion of each task. It will motivate you to complete all your tasks.  

There are two types of people on the internet: Consumers and creators

   The creator is the one who creates content and shows his/her talent in front of people and consumer only consumes the information. It is up to you to decide whether you want to be a consumer or a creator. 

That's all for today. Let me how you feel about my blog in the comment section. 

Lot's of Love + respect. 

Thank you.