“To be always intending to make a new and better life but never find time to set about it is as... to put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day to the next until you’re dead.”
- Og Mandino
Procrastination is the easiest thing in the world to perfect- and one of the hardest habits to break. There will always be a good reason to put off whatever you want to accomplish, whether it’s vacuuming the lounge room carpet or finally taking that Tropical Holiday you’ve been planning for years.
When you realize you’re putting something off, one of the best things you can do is to ask yourself why you don’t want to do it. The reasons for procrastination are as varied as the people who practice it: the task is boring or repetitive; you are afraid you won’t be able to handle it; the project is difficult or time-consuming; it is going to be an unpleasant experience; you dread the possible consequences of seeing the task through to completion. Once you know what is stopping you from moving ahead, you can determine your strategy for accomplishing your goal and get un-stuck.
How do you crush procrastination in its tracks? The remedies for moving past procrastination include:
• Just do it. Whatever the task you’re facing, simply pick a point and get started. Often things are not as bad as they seem, and once you start doing something it’s easier to build up momentum that will carry you through to the end. Tell yourself that when you finish the unpleasant task, you won’t have it hanging over your head and you can move on to better things.
• Break it up, people. Take a few minutes to break up larger tasks into small, manageable goals. For example, if you are attempting to organize your desk at work, you might pick one drawer and get that done, and then take a break and do something else before returning for the next drawer. Meeting a series of small goals is more motivating and encouraging than trying to tackle a huge project all at once.
• Cut through the fluff. Prepare yourself to work through distractions when you’re taking on a task. If possible, ignore the phone- and definitely resist the temptation to play Solitaire or check your e-mail a dozen times. Make sure your mind is made up to do whatever it is you’re doing and nothing else until it’s finished. You will feel better knowing it’s done, and you’ll waste less time on sideline projects.
• Stick to the program. Ensure you have enough time to finish the task you’re starting. If you know you’re going to be interrupted or run out of time before you’re through, choose one part of the task to complete instead of trying to rush through the whole thing. Rushing to meet a deadline you know you can’t make causes more stress, and can actually make things happen slower because you’re worried that you won’t be able to accomplish what you’ve set out to do. Give yourself a break, and your stress level will thank you.
• Expect the unexpected. Despite our best positive thinking efforts, things do occasionally take a turn for the unexpected. Delays are a given in many situations. When you’re planning a task or goal, it is important to factor in time in case things go wrong. Delays are a major facilitator of procrastination: it’s easy to convince yourself to put things off when you already have to wait. Make sure you have a backup plan in place so you can avoid putting things off and still meet your completion goals comfortably.
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Procrastination is the behaviour that is characterized by the postponement of action or a task to a later time. Knowing what is the cause is the very first step to overcome the problem. There are various reasons why people are procrastinating. Some are often caused by the environment that they lived in and their upbringing. There are some philosophy and study that states that those people who received a lot of criticism in their early life are the ones who become procrastinators.
What triggers procrastination?
- Stress. Everybody knows that stress can really trigger responses in our system and that it causes reaction to something negatively. When a person feels anxious and worried, they tend to be less productive and restless. Procrastination is applied in this type of situation as your way to cope up in the stress and as a mechanism to relieve from the stress. In this kind of situation your mind will tell you that you have to do the job needed and you should not feel the stress involved to it.
- Overwhelmed. If you are having many things and schedules to take in a day, this also triggers procrastination. It is like your brain will not cooperate with the schedule which is unreasonable to achieve. The only ironic part of this that is crucial is time. You have to perform at your best to complete the tasks that were given to you.
- Laziness. The feeling of emotional and physical restlessness can also trigger procrastination. If you think that the work given to you will take too much energy to complete. You will think to put off the task and you are procrastinated to conserve the energy. As you continue to put off the task for the reason that you lack the energy to do the job, you will surely find your procrastination habit to be out of control.
- Lack of skill. This is one of the things that people are afraid to admit to their self. For instance, you are given a task but you do not know you can complete it but then you have to continue to complete the task because it is needed; yet you procrastinate. This trigger is based on you avoiding the pain. You are not sure to complete the task so you avoid the pain of being failed. The pattern of avoiding the pain that you feel through procrastination is like a crippling habit.
- Perfectionism. This is very usual thinking that may lead to procrastination. Some people believe that they should perform a job perfectly and these bring stress to them.
The above mentioned are the causes that triggers procrastination to people. As what we said earlier, sometimes procrastination is caused also by the environment that you live in. And, when a person receives criticism from the people around him, he tends to develop a defense mechanism. A person then tends to avoid doing task just to avoid being criticized. And when this comes, they become lazy and unmotivated.
Regardless of the roots of being less motivated, there are various steps to which you can avoid and overcome procrastination. The very first thing that a man can do to overcome this situation is to discover his purpose. You have to be motivated also to be able to discover your purpose.
The Basic Kind of Motivation
There are two types of motivation and those are fear and greed. Though everyone trades off on these two kinds, you have to gravitate one to the other. In NLP (Neuro Linguistic Program), human motivational orientation is used and described as moving toward and to move away from behaviors. When you are to work on procrastination, this becomes very vital for you to understand your motivational direction and use the details for your benefits.
If you know and learn to move on in the direction of rewards than away from the negative consequences, then you can consciously set for yourself to take advantage in that learning. For instance, you associate with the people who dependably act out of fear of being failed, this might be more appropriate for you to keep away from this kind of person and seek company to someone with the same orientation on your own. It’s just like a little adjustment to your surroundings that influence your behavior in a more positive manner. This will lead you to an essential motivation.
To stop procrastination, you have to make a change and try to use a personal change program such as the NLP or the Neuro Linguistic Program. This technique helps you to assist with the personal changes that you have to do in yourself in order to stop the condition. Many people suffer from procrastination without knowing that they are already procrastinated. NLP is one of your options to overcome procrastination and just a piece of advice, don’t procrastinate when you will act for this program for your betterment.
Regards
Mark J Holland
