Procrastination

Table of Contents
What is Procrastination? Why do you do it? How Can You Change? Conclusion 4 6 11 3

What is Procrastination?
Everyone does it, including you. You have things to do, important things or mundane things, and you put off doing them until the last minute. If Procrastination were an Olympic event you might be in the running for a gold medal, you re that good at it. You ma!e "o!es about being a world class procrastinator with your friends, telling them that sure, you could finish that pro"ect right now if you wanted to but #yawn$ you re "ust going to do it tomorrow. Procrastination is putting something off until later, either due to carelessness or habitual la%iness. It s putting off till tomorrow what you "ust as easily could have finished up today. & procrastinator postpones or needlessly delays accomplishing something '"ust because. (tudents are notorious for engaging in this behavior. Papers need to be researched and written, tests must be studied for but none of this is done or even started until the very last minute. (tudents who procrastinate generally spend a great deal of time pulling all 'nighters in order to catch up to where they need to be or to cram for the big test in the morning. & person who is habitually late to everything, from weddings to dates, is someone who procrastinates getting ready to leave. )aybe they don t start getting ready until it s nearly time to leave or they move so slowly that by the time they should leave for the event, they re still way behind schedule.

+hy do we let things slide until we re in a time crunch and the deadline is looming and we re not even ,-O(E to being finished. +hy do we procrastinate.

Why Do You Do t?
/he behavior of procrastination affects almost everyone at one time or another in their life. 0or some it is a continuous habit, part of who they are, a not1so1endearing character trait2 for others it may be a situational thing and doesn t affect too many events in their life. 0or whatever reason, people put off things they don t want to do. !ecause You "re "fraid# 3o one li!es to admit that they fear something, but fear might "ust be the reason you put off doing what you !now you should do. +hether it s fear of failure or fear of success, it s still fear. 0ear is a paraly%ing emotion. It has the ability to stop us in our trac!s1literally. (ome writers fear failure so they never write that epic novel they have churning around inside of them2 some fear success and the result is the same. If you procrastinate compulsively, and who doesn t en"oy doing that, then you may fear that once you re successful at something you ll suffer the compulsion to continually be successful. /his will re4uire you to wor! and finish what you ve started and that will cut into your compulsion to procrastinate. It s a never ending cycle. 0ear can cause us to procrastinate. !ecause You Don$t Thin% it$s &'ortant (nough# You don t place a high enough priority on the tas! at hand, it s not vital and so it s not worthy of you beginning it.

You !now the tas! needs to be done and you may already have decided that you re the one who must do it. 6owever, there is always something else more important on your to1do list that !eeps bumping that particular "ob bac! to the bottom. -et s say you !now that that the dishwasher needs to be unloaded. You ll get to it later, after you go grocery shopping. 7rocery shopping is more important because if you don t have food you ll starve to death. 8esides, no one can see that the dishwasher is full of clean dishes. &fter grocery shopping you need to eat, because you re hungry. 8esides, you can "ust ta!e a plate out of the dishwasher and use that. /hat s sort of unloading it, isn t it. 9nloading the dishwasher isn t a priority and that s why you procrastinate doing it. You Don$t )now (nough to do the Tas%# You may procrastinate beginning a pro"ect because you simply don t !now everything you need to !now in order to complete the tas!. You may not have consciously admitted this to yourself, but deep down you !now it and it s coming out as an aversion to starting the pro"ect. You need to determine whether or not this is because you haven t collected all the data on what you have to do, or simply because you want to stall for more time. !ecause You$re Too !usy# -ife is busy. +e have "obs and commitments and sometimes, "ust sometimes, we can t get to a particular tas! because we ve run out of time in our busy day to complete one more thing. !ecause t Wor%s# 9nfortunately, procrastination can reinforce itself. If we avoid something we don t want to do #li!e cleaning out the rain gutters$ by engaging in behavior that we want to engage in #li!e hanging out with friends$ then getting to it later, we can say that putting it off wasn t that bad after all. &nd besides, we had fun while we procrastinated. You Ha*en$t Co&&itted To the +ob# You may thin! the "ob should belong to someone else, it s not really your "ob to do and the "ob is a waste of time. If this is how you re loo!ing at this particular tas!, then you need to as! yourself what will happen to you if you don t complete the "ob. You +ust Don$t Want To Do t# Everyone is faced with "obs in life that they simply don t want to do. /hey re either disgusting, li!e having to clean toilets, or they re
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dangerous, li!e climbing up on the roof and cleaning the leaves out from the rain gutters. +e put off doing the tas! at hand because we simply do not want to do it. Period. /here is no underlying psychological reason for putting it off. It s that recalcitrant two1year old in us coming out to say ;I don t wanna and I m not gonna<. You Could +ust !e ,a-y# Yes, that s what I said. I !now it s not an easy thing to hear about yourself, but sometimes facing the truth about ourselves can help us overcome bad habits and succeed where we otherwise may have failed. You need to find a way to motivate yourself out of your habit of being la%y in order to stop procrastinating.

How Can You Change Your !eha*ior?

3ow that you ve read a little bit about "ust why you procrastinate=wait, you >I> read that chapter right. You didn t put it off until later, did you. +hat do you mean you didn t thin! it was important. 6ow are you going to stop procrastinating of you don t understand +6Y you do it in the first place. /a!ing a good hard loo! at why you don t start your term paper until the night before it s due, or why you put off cleaning those rain gutters is the first step in learning how to change that behavior. 8elow are a few strategies to help you stop procrastinating. 3ot every tip will wor! for every person, so ta!e what you can from this list and see what wor!s for you. Ta%e an n*entory# >o you hear a little nagging voice in your head telling you that you need to do something. ,an you see a visual in your head about the tas! you re
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avoiding and are you feeling the physical and emotional conse4uences of what will happen if you dont complete this tas!. -oo! at the clues that tell you "ust when and how you re procrastinating and you ll be able to see that you are indeed putting something off. (ometimes it s difficult to tell when you re procrastinating because you re attempting to avoid thin!ing about it but if you piece together the clues you ll be able to pinpoint your behavior in order to get a handle on it. ,earn How You Procrastinate# >o you thin! if you ignore the "ob at hand it will eventually go away and not bother you. I tried that once with a speeding tic!et and nearly lost my license due to procrastination. /rust me when I say that ignoring the problem@"ob won t cause it to disappear in a puff of smo!e. >o you over1estimate or under1estimate the degree of difficulty in completing the tas!. >o you scoff at the impact not finishing the tas! will have on your future. Perhaps you substitute something important for something AE&--Y important, li!e putting the dishes away instead of wor!ing on that term paper that s due in two hours. )aybe you ta!e a short brea!, but let that B short brea! turn into an all night event, and therefore put off getting to that tas! you need to finish. You might focus on one part of the "ob to the eCclusion of the remaining tas! and thereby never finish the entire thing. Once you recogni%e how you procrastinate, you ll better be able to put a stop to it. Often we don t even reali%e that we are procrastinating until it s too late and we ve missed a deadline. .a%e Yourself a Producti*e (n*iron&ent# 0or eCample, if you wor! from home, create a home office where there s no /D to distract you from your wor!. (ure, that baseball game is playing but you don t have time to watch it because you have a deadline with a client. If the /D is there, you ll be tempted to turn it on and then full1 blown procrastination occurs. If you are addicted to the Internet, but need to use your laptop or computer to do your wor!, then try to go somewhere where you won t be able

to receive a signal and get online. Aemoving temptation to do something other than what you 3EE> to do will help you put a stop to procrastination. Throw /ut Those Procrastination .yths# I work best under pressure /hat s the myth that nearly !ept me from graduating from college. Once you believe that you can only wor! under pressure, you re giving yourself permission to procrastinate. /his can snowball and create serious problems for you if you have several deadlines looming I cant do this unless I have five uninterrupted hours /his is simply another stalling techni4ue that master procrastinators use for telling themselves it s o! to not start the pro"ect because they won t have time to finish it. 6ello. If you don t start the tas! you ll never finish it. It s o! to start something and then stop so you can finish it later. (ometimes the simple act of beginning a tas! will brea! the cycle of procrastination and allow you to finish your "ob. I cant do this unless its perfect. /he problem that most procrastinators have is that we are too hard on ourselves, demanding perfection where perfection is impossible. If you thin! you can t start your term paper until you have /6E perfect opening sentence, then you have once again given yourself permission to put it off. !rea% Down the +ob# You have a "ob to do and it loo!s enormous. You could never, ever complete a "ob that big, so why even start. If that s your mindset, then you probably won t finish the "ob. In order to combat this !ind of thin!ing, brea! the "ob or tas! down into small, manageable chun!s. Your !itchen is a disaster, it s too much for you to handle. (tart on one end and clean off one counter. DoilaF You ve started. /a!e baby steps and soon you ll see that the entire tas! has been completed. Change Your "ttitude# Often times we don t begin something we have to do because we tell ourselves how difficult it s going to be, or how disgusting the "ob is and how much we re going to hate doing it. 8y giving ourselves reverse1pep tal!s we give ourselves permission to avoid beginning the tas! at hand. +hen you hear yourself doing this, change your attitude. 8e li!e the -ittle Engine that ,ould and tell yourself that you ,&3 do this, it s not that difficult or disgusting. If you tell yourself that you don t
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!now how to do a particular tas!, change that around to tell yourself that you can learn as you go. It s all a matter of mind over matter. If you thin! you can, you can. "s% 0o&eone for Hel'# It s true that you may not be able to do everything on your own. You re not (uperman, though you do thin! you d loo! pretty cool in those red tights. It s not a sign of wea!ness to as! for help when you !now that you can t do it on your own. If you don t understand a pro"ect at wor!, rather than putting it on the bac! burner #procrastinating$, as! someone to clarify it for you. Once you understand it better, the fear of tac!ling it will be gone and you can proceed. If you have a big "ob to do, then as! a friend or a cowor!er to help you be accountable for wor!ing on it. -et them chec! up on you every so often to see that you re ma!ing progress and soon you ll find that the "ob is completed. /he 8uddy (ystem isn t "ust for deep sea divers anymoreF )ee' What 1eeds to be "cco&'lished in Plain 0ight# If you put away the pro"ect specs where you can t see them, it s much easier to not thin! about what needs to be done. -eave your wor! where you can see it, as a visual reminder of what you have to do. If it s hidden, it s forgotten.

,earn How to Tell Ti&e# Yeah, yeah, yeah, you already !now how to tell time and you can even do it on a cloc! without a digital readout. 8ut did you !now that world class procrastinators have unrealistic views of the time it ta!es to accomplish something. It s true. You ll tell yourself that a certain tas! will only ta!e three hours to complete, so you really don t have to start it right this minute. You can wait till later and then you ll finish it up in three hours. +hat you fail to reali%e is that other things can happen along the way

to distract you and stretch that three hours into siC and pretty soon you ve missed that deadline. (tarting now is a good best option. )ee' Yourself on a 0chedule# /a!e a calendar and write down all the things that you have to do, the bloc!s of time that are ta!en up with things already scheduled. /he blan! spaces in between those times are the times when you can wor! on your tas!. )a!e sure you don t over1schedule your time and under1estimate the time you ll need finish a pro"ect. 0et a Ti&e ,i&it# )aybe the tas! at hand is something you really don t want to do. /hat happens to all of us and there s no shame in admitting that you would simply rather not do it. 6owever, if it s a "ob that you must do, here s a good tip on how to not procrastinate. /ell yourself that you re going to wor! on it for one hour. >evote that one hour to the pro"ect or tas! and then stop. (et another time limit the following day, depending upon when the "ob needs to be accomplished. Inowing that you don t have to do something unpleasant &-- right now will go a long way towards helping you avoid not doing it at all. .a%e a ,ist# If your mom was anything li!e mine, then she had a list for everything. (he had a list for the things she was going to accomplish each day, a grocery list for what needed to be purchased and a list of what she d eaten that day in order to trac! her caloric inta!e. )a!ing a list can also be a useful tool in helping you avoid procrastinating. +rite down a list of what you need to accomplish. Put it in order of importance, highest to lowest. 3eCt, start with number one and wor! your way down the list, chec!ing off items as you go. 3ot only will this help you be organi%ed, but putting those little chec! mar!s neCt to items you ve finished will give you a mental boost and help you feel successful. &nd who doesn t li!e to feel successful.

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Conclusion
8asic human nature will always play a role in procrastination. Pleasurable activities are infinitely more enticing than painful or dull ones. +e see! out what ma!es us feel good and attempt to avoid the things that annoy or bother us. (ome people procrastinate more than others, "ust as some people are more chipper in the morning #don t you hate those people.$ than others. You re either a night person, or a morning person. You re either a procrastinator or you re not. ,onsciously determining why you procrastinate will go a long way in helping you change your behavior. >on t eCpect to transform your habits over night, but do ta!e small steps in the right direction and you ll eventually get there. If you reward yourself for your little successes in this area, you "ust might ma!e non1procrastination more pleasurable than full1blown1avoidance1procrastination.

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