Procrastination, why do we do it?
Procrastination, I am the worst procrastinator ever, and it is possibly one of my worst flaws. It is a bad habit that I need to shake off.
It doesn’t matter what I need to do; I will procrastinate my arse off each and every time until the last minute, driving myself crazy and creating unnecessary stress every time without fail. I can get so upset that I do this and say I will never do it again, that is, until another task comes up and I procrastinate all over again.
Procrastination is an avoidance archetype, and apparently that there are four types of procrastination. They are; I work well under pressure, I am so lazy right now, I am so busy, and lastly, I just had the best idea ever. I am all four of these procrastinations; with me, any excuse is a good excuse when it comes to procrastinating.
Professionals have often studied procrastination; to determine why procrastination is necessary for everyday tasks. Several studies have pointed out that procrastination is a mood stabilizer that people use as a coping mechanism – “ the primacy of short-term mood repair … over the longer-term pursuit of intended actions”. Basically, you reward yourself every time you procrastinate by creating momentary relief, which creates an endless procrastination cycle.
Procrastination is often associated with people that are “too lazy” or underachievers; in my opinion, this is a fair analysis from someone else’s perspective; however, I don’t feel it is true. I don’t consider myself lazy or to be an underachiever. Speaking from a procrastinator’s perspective, I always set out to do the task immediately; however, I tend to get caught up in the process.
When I procrastinate, what started off as a simple task explodes into a situation that requires so much more work and effort. I entirely over-complicate everything; it wastes a lot of time and energy only for me to scrap everything and start afresh the way I should have done it initially.
I can overthink everything when it is not necessary most of the time. I am trying to stop overanalyzing everything, and I give myself a set amount of time to do my tasks, as I am the only one that can hold myself accountable.
I break my day down into time slots; I am basically creating a routine where I only have a set amount of time to do things. It seems to have helped me so far; it is still early days, and there will still be many different aspects that I will need to understand and deal with, however knowing that I don’t have all day to do this task anymore has helped create a time constraint. It initially made it difficult as I still waited until the last minute to do it, yet I seem to manage my time and deadlines more efficiently.
Are you a procrastinator? If so how do you deal with it?
Procrastination is an avoidance archetype, and apparently that there are four types of procrastination. They are; I work well under pressure, I am so lazy right now, I am so busy, and lastly, I just had the best idea ever. I am all four of these procrastinations; with me, any excuse is a good excuse when it comes to procrastinating.