PROCRASTINATION, IT’S REASONS, EFFECTS AND HACKS TO GET RID OF IT.

BY DEORAO K.

Have you lately noticed that you are postponing the tasks or just passing time sleeping on the couch doing nothing? Are you missing the deadlines often? then you could be suffering from acute or chronic procrastination.

Procrastination is nothing but wasting time without any reason and not doing any work. You just keep postponing your work for no reason.

You know inside your mind that you have to work on important tasks, and If you did not do so, it may have not so good effects on your work still you keep avoiding.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY PROCRASTINATION?

It is intentional and habitual avoiding or postponing work or day-to-day tasks. Instead of knowing the consequences, a person keeps pushing the deadline of work deliberately until and unless it becomes urgent.

Procrastination is a habit and is not a mental disease but in rare cases, it may be associated with some mental conditions.

HOW PROCRASTINATION AFFECT YOUR LIFESTYLE? 

Procrastination could have a negative effect on your lifestyle.

You choose to take less important tasks over more important tasks to find distractions for avoiding hard and complex work when you have a few tasks to take care of.

Because of this, you may not be able to complete your project in time. This will make you sound unprofessional and irresponsible person. And further, it will have a bad effect on your appraisal or promotion.

If you are in business it will hamper the growth of your business because of decreased productivity.

Also, it will have a bad effect on your relationship with your spouse, children, and friends. or students will not be able to complete your assignment on time and end up getting scolded by the teacher.

Hence, procrastination makes us look unprofessional and immature person.

PROCRASTINATION AND PRODUCTIVITY.

Procrastination is the greatest killer of productivity and efficiency of the employees and all the people.

Loss of productivity can have severe effects on every part of life such as personal and professional life.

Loss of productivity can put you behind in the corporate hierarchy. You end up in an undesirable post with low pay.

You may lose respect in people’s eyes because of your unprofessional and low-performing behavior.

WHY PEOPLE PROCRASTINATE? 

There are number of reasons responsible for people to procrastinate. Here are the most common reasons,

 1) UNCERTAINTY OF FUTURE LEADS TO PROCRASTINATION.

 If you are not sure about your future, you procrastinate. You don’t know exactly in which direction your life is leading or you are uncertain about what to do and what to achieve in life.

This uncertainty demotivates the person to go to work. A person keeps working on unimportant work. Uncertainty of the future signals your brain to procrastinate.

Here person don’t believe on self instincts and spend time doing nothing.

 2) OVERCONFIDENCE LEADS TO PROCRASTINATION.

 In this situation, person becomes overconfident that he will accomplish the task before the deadline.

This overconfident behaviour motivate person to keep postponing work until never coming tomorrow unless it becomes urgent. But often end up exceeding the deadline.

3) NOT SETTING PRIORITY.

We often end up doing things first which is our priority. If it is not your priority you will most probably avoid doing it.

4) EMOTIONAL PERFECTIONISM.

In this condition, you have a fear of failure or fear of being mistaken in the future. You keep thinking to find out the perfect way to take down the task. Your fear of failure leads you to postpone the task in view to avoid criticism. In other word leads to procrastination.

You might also like to read,

1. 9 WAYS TO KEEP YOURSELF MOTIVATED IN TOUGH TIMES.
2. TOP 10 REASONS WHY INTROVERTS CAN MAKE GREAT ENTREPRENEURS.

5) CARELESSNESS LEADS TO PROCRASTINATION.

You are too careless to work, and hence you procrastinate. Careless people are not serious about work and avoid withiout any solid reason.

6) LOW IN ENERGY LEVEL.

Feeling low on energy could lead to procrastination. Could be because of health problems, lack of motivation and disinterest.

7) NOT HAVING DEADLINE LEADS TO PROCRASTINATION.

If you have ample time to take down the task, you end up postponing it because your unconcious mind know its not urgent to work at this moment. And you can do it anytime later.

8) STRESS AND ANXIETY.

Stress and anxiety is the most common reason for procrastination because stress and anxiety often demotivate you.

In this situation, you often overthink the outcome that leads you to postpone the task. Especially work which is complex and can be stressful to do.

People with stress and anxiety will procrastinate even in important and unavoidable situations.

9) NOT INTERESTED

If you are not interested in your work but you are doing it anyway by force or due to some unavoidable reasons. This will make you procrastinate.

People often procrastinate when they don’t like what they are doing.

10) PHYSICAL AND MENTAL REASONS

If you rule out all above mentioned causes, then check on physical and mental reasons. Physical and mental diseases can be responsible for procrastination. 

IS PROCRASTINATION A DISEASE?

Procrastination is not a disease but it is a sign in some mental and physical diseases.

Procrastination is often found associated with mental conditions such as chronic negative thinking, overthinking, anxiety, sadness, depressive illness, attention deficit.

Physical or physiological disorder such as hormonal imbalance like hypothyroidism, vitamin and mineral deficiency such as anemia, electrolyte imbalance, Vit-B deficiency, in the rarest possibility is brain lesions. If you suspect any of these, take professional help.

HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO TO GET RID OF PROCRASTINATION.

1) SET A GOAL IN LIFE AND GIVE YOURSELF DEADLINE.

Setting a goal will motivate you to work hard. And deadline will help you to keep focused to complete work in time.

It is a proven fact that if someone gives you different tasks you will end up doing first the one that has a deadline. It will surely help you to get rid of procrastination.

2) SELF DISCIPLINE.

Every morning after breakfast give yourself five minutes to make a schedule for current day. Write it down and follow it judiciously. It will help you to find out what is an important task to do first and you can arrange it accordingly.

Your conscious mind focuses more on important things and your unconscious mind won’t let you forget about them.

Also, dont forget to include morning and evening routine in the schedule.

3) PRIORITIZE YOUR TASKS.

If you set priority for your different tasks it will mark in your brain as important. And important means first. Setting priority will help you to increase productivity and get rid of procrastination.

4) BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.

Have trust in yourself. Believe in your gut instinct. Generally, gut instincts are true because it is the production of your subconscious mind, it never lies. Don’t listen to people. Stay away from naysayers.

5) SAY NO TO PERFECTIONISM.

Perfectionism is a lie. it doesn’t exist on planet earth. Don’t stress to do everything with perfection. Everyone makes mistakes. A mistake is a chance to improve.

6) CHOOSE THE PROFESSION OR WORK YOU LOVE TO DO.

If you love what you do you will not procrastinate.

7) DON’T BE OVERCONFIDENT.

Though you are good at what you do. But overconfidence will kill your creativity. People lost their dynasties in overconfidence.

8) SET REMINDER.

Set reminder or ask your friend or family to check on you. So that they will remind you when you are wasting time or procrastinating.

9) GET HELP.

If you suspect mental or physiological reasons get help from licensed health professionals.

10) KEEP YOURSELF MOTIVATED.

Find motivation in life. Motivation keeps you energetic and happy. Motivation will help you to focus on work.

These tips can help you to get rid of procrastination. Procrastination doesn’t make your life easy but it introduces more trouble in your life.