Procrastination is part of our everyday life. Don't give me the bombastic side-eye. You do it. I do it. Let's own up.
Fun fact: I finished designing the image above before finishing this write-up.Not-so-fun-fact: I started writing this last month and you are getting it today. Do the math. I'm too lazy to calculate.
Procrastination is a part of our lives. You keep moving that task until the deadline is close, your Boss is trying to blow your phone up with calls, your clients are cursing out, or the interview is tomorrow.
You start the task and boom you are done in 10 minutes or less time than you imagined. So, you sit to ask yourself, “Why the heck have I been stalling?”
You can be busy and still be procrastinating. This happens because of how we feel about a particular task. We abandon it to do less important ones.
Do you know what makes procrastination wild? Awareness. We know that we are avoiding our work. But it does not stop us from continuing. So here, continue to self-sabotage.
Contrary to what most people think, procrastination is more of an emotional issue than a time management or laziness thing (according to Dr Tim Pychyl, professor of psychology and member of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa).
Yes. Perhaps it's why all your time management tricks aren’t effective__ the stopwatches, alarms, breaking down of tasks, and a host of other practices we do to tackle mischievous procrastination.
I didn't prepare for an interview I had recently because I was scared, anxious and did not think I qualified for the role, all these are emotions.
Also, I have tons of abandoned writings saved on my Google Docs because I felt I was not good enough to complete them. “Who the hell am I to write this bold thing?” So I bow to fear and shrink into my emotions.
When you are in one of those negative moods, fear, boredom, anxiety, pain, sadness, resentment, self-doubt, and frustration, you procrastinate more. You lack the motivation to do anything. That task that would usually take 5 minutes will take forever.
You will miss deadlines, lose contracts, or at most, do a poorly delivered task. And when you are in a positive mood, your energy is high. You will edit that video, draft that poem, write that story, prepare that CV, and tick all the endless tasks on your to-do.
Generally, we are less productive when we are not in a good mood. So you see, procrastination is a way your mind copes with bad the negative emotions. It's like a protest against you. “I’m in a bad mood so I don’t feel like doing anything, can we move it to tomorrow?”
So next time you procrastinate, try to work out what the root problem is. What mood are you in? How are you feeling at the moment? What is the cause? When you improve your mood, your productivity level spikes too, and procrastination will find itself outside the door.
What is worse than procrastination?
Chronic procrastination. This is when procrastination becomes more than an occasional thing. It becomes your best pal and your life is spiralling backwards. You consistently postpone tasks and responsibilities, increasing your stress, poor work quality, and negative financial outcomes. (Explaining this may take some time so I will be sharing a detailed post on chronic procrastination next week.)
Finally, while it is good to apply all the tricks to overcoming procrastination, it is crucial to understand and tackle our mood first. Now you are done reading this, go wrap up that task on your desk. Don’t make it the next item on your procrastination list.
What are your thoughts on procrastination? How did you overcome procrastination? I will be waiting for you in the comment section.
Cheers to your continued growth and a fulfilled life.
Chinonyelum.
PS: Did this post help or inspire you? Please don't hoard it. Take the following actions;
It's funny how saw this post, opened it in ny browser and postponed reading it since, for almost 2 days... Only to open it and the first sentence feels like it's me gan gan you are talking to.
😭😅
Now let me really get back to work and stop procrastinating the work at hand any further
😉
Thanks and keep up the good work.
🙌🏾