Procrastination

I must accept that I have been a habitual procrastinator. Everyone procrastinates, some more and some less. We postpone doing something or taking a decision, unnecessarily. And then we justify it with some excuse to suit ourselves. It can be about important things in life or the mundane day to day things.

For me, it takes me at least 4-5 days to restart my jogging if I have given a break. A few days go by to finally decide that it is time to start jogging again. After that I start putting the alarm in the night only to switch it off in the morning, thinking that I am feeling sleepy and will start from tomorrow. Then if it is Wednesday or Thursday then I think that I will start from Monday. This way I keep on postponing it till I am finally able to switch off the alarm, get out of the bed, get ready and go out.

For you it may be a different case but the cycle is almost similar. Until the sword is precariously near our head ready to strike, we postpone taking action. I don’t know about the alpha male type, up and going personalities, for the common ones it happens at regular interval.

Why we procrastinate

We generally bank on our motivation a self control to complete a task. The motivation may be external like a time bound target in office that is to be completed and presented to the boss. It can be related to self control as in my example, to push myself to get up and going. When the motivation or self control is combined with a future reward on accomplishing the task it becomes easier for us to do a thing timely.

There are factors which can de motivate us from taking a timely action like anxiety, and fear of failure. When there is a big task at hand then it can cause anxiety and we may find reason to postpone them. Also the fear of failure to complete a task may have the same effect. If a particular task is to take a lot of time and effort and is complicated in nature then it will cause both anxiety, fear of failure.  When the task is not of immediate importance and is required after a time gap then most likely we will put it off.

Reason for procrastination

1.    If the target is not defined properly then we can start putting it off. For example if I say I will start jogging in the morning – in this case I have not defined the target clearly. But if I say that in 30 days I will jog 5 miles in 1 hour. In this case then I will break it up into weekly target to achieve the overall target. Achieving that weekly target will motivate me for the next week. In this case it is necessary that we keep a realistic target or it can de motivate us also. Targets should be SMART.

S= specific – running 5 miles in 1 hour after 30 days

M= measurable – the distance, time and days are specified and not open to interpretation

A= achievable – something which you feel you can achieve

R= relevant to you- you want to do it

T= testable- at the end of 30days you can test yourself in those parameters.

It is important that we have a clear tasking and broken down to smaller sub tasks so that we find it manageable. Though it is only a psychological trick to make our mind feel comfortable but it can get the work done.

2.    When to task is far away. It means that the task is not in near future and therefore preparing for the completion of task can be put off for some time. This can be found in students when they have an exam. If the exam is far away then they tend to think that they can start the preparation for the exam after some days. Also the reward for the hard work that is the result is still further away. In such cases the attention shifts to things which require immediate action rather than those which are not nearby.

3.    When there is no immediate threat or discomfort. An example of it would be lifestyle changes. With growing ages and fast paced lifestyle we develop habits like binge eating, excessive smoking and drinking. The body can sustain these things for quite a few years before giving signal of a requirement of change. In this period even if the doctor advices to make lifestyle changes we tend to ignore it as at present we are not feeling any discomfort or suffering from any disorder.

4.    Overconfidence about a task. When a person is so confident about himself that he can easily complete the task then he will tend to postpone it. For example, if an employee gets monthly sales target, and he feels confident that he can achieve it easily then he will start postponing the task. He will feel that every month he is doing it so he can do it this month also. This over optimism can sometimes lead to overestimating ones capability and backfire.

5.    When a person is not able to take a decision or when there are too many tasks at hand and is overwhelmed then a person will keep on postponing taking action until he has decided on a course of action. When a person is dealing with multi tasking then he is prone to this.

6.    Anxiety and uncomfortable tasks. When a person has committed some mistake in his work then he will feel anxiety in telling about it to the boss and will try to postpone it as long as it is possible. He will also feel that he will get a scolding for it in the next meeting where others will also be present. Therefore he will feel uncomfortable also. Though it would be better to accept the mistake by meeting the boss one to one, separately but he is most likely to avoid it as much as possible. If he considers himself as a perfectionist and an expert in that field then it is more likely that he will procrastinate.

7.    Fear of failure and negative evaluation. This is also a common reason. When we have doubt that we may not be successful in that task and the resultant evaluation or image others will make of my ability can be a big dampener. In the beginning only when a person has self doubt then he automatically feels handicapped to deal with it and will most likely look for ways to delay it.

8.    Likewise lack of motivation, laziness, self control, perseverance and impulsive behavior can also lead to procrastination.

How to stop it

First of all one needs to accept that he is procrastinating, because if one doesn’t not accept it the he will always try to fool himself and never accept the reality, so there will be no corrective action on his part. Once he has accepted it then he has to have the determination to overcome it. Once he has completed these two steps, then he will have to set his goals, break them into smaller targets, make an action plan and stick to it. For this he needs to prioritize his work, avoid distractions, keep the focus and reward himself for a successful completion of a task.

Procrastination is bound to happen in all of us; it is just a matter of creating a habit to avoid it as far as possible.