How is the Procrastination going?
Procrastination can cause untold problems, where you may feel like you are unproductive, time wasting and guilt. Procrastination in itself is the action of delaying and putting off tasks and/or either never getting things done, or you are panicking about completing the task in the last hour. This can be immensely stressful and can lead to problematic results.
No matter how well intentioned and organised you are, it is likely that you have felt as if you had wasted time through spending it on things such as: being on your phone; playing a computer game; watching TV. This will be happening at a time when perhaps you needed to spend that time doing something else like working, studying, house work or just following up on your plans on some form of self-improvement.
We live in a life, where we are often seeking some form of instant gratification or rewards. This is why social media platforms take up so much time and are very addictive, as they are designed to give you the hit you need, to send out feel good emotions, which is why procrastination, often feels nice and comfortable. However, this can then lead to feelings or guilt, shame and/or lack of self-worth.
Procrastination can also be a symptom of depression, anxiety and/or neurodivergent conditions, particularly when you are working towards achieving something positive or tackling a project, you may feel insecurity about your abilities and are overwhelmed about the tasks which lie ahead.
Therefore, we recognise the issues… how do we work towards overcoming these issues?
Consider what you are stuck with and work out how you find the solutions or answers to becoming unstuck. Use resources such as a search engine to get support or to seek knowledge about how you get from where you are to where you want to be. Watch Youtube or Tiktok videos of other people who have experience in what you wish to achieve, this can help you get motivated. Feed off their ideas and develop your own.
Recognise the challenges and the resistance you have and make a decision, about whether you develop the discipline to get things completed; or acknowledge that you don’t want to do it, it is OK to make peace with that and move on and learn from this. However, if you work up the motivation, just keep going…
Explore the fear you have about what is ahead. Ask yourself, what is this trying to protect you from? Consider whether this fear is helpful or productive. Can you reframe the fear? Or do you need more support to work with this?
Make a To-Do List – this can be a positive step to planning what you need to be doing and a To-Do list can help you stay on track, it is particularly satisfying when you can start to cross items off from your list!
Take Baby Steps – why not break down the tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks, this can help with managing your time and emotions, particularly if you are feeling things are too overwhelming.
Get to know your warning signs – be mindful to the feelings and thoughts of procrastination and try and resist the pull. If you feel the urge to procrastinate, crack on with committing some minutes and focussing on performing the task and see where that takes you, as the likelihood is when you start you will want to continue with the task.
Eradicate distractions – recognise what is distracting you and be ruthless, you could do this by turning off your notifications on your phone; removing the apps on your phone, deactivate social media; switch off Netflix or the TV, switch off the distractions.
Give yourself a Reward System – once you start crossing off the items on your to do list. Or you make a big or small achievement, give yourself congratulations for completing a task and indulge in something you like doing.
You Have Got This - Best of Luck.