Procrastination – the Killer of Dreams
Procrastination is an insidious villain.
Like ice spreading its chilly fingers over still water, procrastination creeps stealthily into our life and disrupts any sense of control we may have.
Do you have a tendency to procrastinate at times?
Well, if you do you are not alone. The fact is that many people do procrastinate to some degree – but some are so chronically affected by procrastination that it stops them from achieving the things they want to do and it disrupts their life.
Procrastination is a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision. It leads us to put off decisions or things we should be doing and instead we just do something more enjoyable or comforting.
If you are a procrastinator, you may work as hard as other people but you just mismanage your time and invest it in the unimportant tasks.
The reasons for procrastination are mainly related to:
- Finding the task unpleasant, routine or lacking stimulation
- Finding the task overwhelming.
Being caught in a life that seems routine, meaningless and lacking in stimulation may drain your energy and will at times even lead to feelings of depression. This sense of apathy could make you feel overwhelmed when you have a challenging task and you may stop in your tracks, not knowing where to start from. Sometimes this sense of overwhelm and anxiety can even lead to panic attacks. Because of this, you might postpone such a task and wait for the “right” mood or the “right” time to tackle it. Of course, the right time never arrives and you just keep delaying for ever.
Having overly high expectations is another culprit. Your To Do list may be too big and if you are a perfectionist you may expect too much from yourself. At the end of the day you may find that you did a lot of urgent and unimportant tasks but sidelined the important ones.
When you get caught up in this behaviour you may seek comfort in doing the things you are comfortable and capable of doing. Sometimes you may feel so overwhelmed that you just give up and spend time doing nothing and feeling out of control. This can have very negative consequences because you probably want to do things perfectly and deep down you yearn to be in control of the situation. This perfectionism may give you a feeling that you can never do the job in the right way so you just keep postponing it.
As the situation continues, any Dream you may have in life just fades away and dies in its embryonic phase.
Procrastination needs to be managed if you are to be in control. Anything less than that will disempower your actions and your effectiveness in managing your life.
The Key to Controlling Procrastination
The key to controlling and combating this destructive habit is to recognize when it happens and why it happens. Some tips you can use to control procrastination include:
- Ask why this is happening: Is there a particular reason why you are avoiding the task? Is it because it is repetitive and boring? Are you afraid you will not cope?
- Challenge self-limiting beliefs: If you have any beliefs that you are not able to cope with the situation challenge these beliefs. Remember activities that you did effectively and use them to prop up your certainty that you CAN do the activity that needs to be done.
- Managing your expectations: Do not plan long endless lists because you are planning to fail. Chunk down your activities into manageable and reasonable chores.
- Start small: If you have several small items to do which are directly related to the work you need to carry out, do these first. When you are more in control do the things you want to get over with first.
- Focus only on your immediate goal. Do not jump from one activity to another. Finish what you started, take a small break and then move on to something else.
- Just do it! Next time you catch yourself saying, “I can do this later”, think Nike. Just do it!
- Pump it up! Choosing a particular music track to do a challenging activity can be a booster. The track should ideally be suited to do activity you are doing
- Mark it off. When you have accomplished a task, mark it out on your list with a pen. It gives you visual confirmation that you are progressing and this gives you a psychological boost.
- Reward yourself when you manage to keep to schedule.
Don’t get caught up in a vicious circle that erodes your Dreams – just say NO to procrastination!
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