Do you ever feel like you want to achieve a certain goal but just can't get yourself to do it?
As a person in my 20’s I’ve always known that I wanted to be a software developer but it took a pandemic and me losing my job to start taking my programming courses more seriously. After I lost my job it got me wondering why did it take a global pandemic for me to pursue my passion as a software developer.
After a lot of self-reflection, the only reason I could come up with was procrastination. I had the time, the money, and the equipment so this got me wondering could there be other people facing the same problem as I did, of course, there are!
So this article is meant to encourage you to accomplish all your goals now and not wait for a pandemic of sorts to happen in your life.
So what is procrastination?
Procrastination is often confused with laziness, but they are very different.
Procrastination is the act of unnecessarily postponing decisions or actions. For example, if you need to write an essay, but end up wasting time on the internet even though you know you should be working, that means that you’re procrastinating.
Procrastination is often detrimental to people’s ability to successfully pursue their goals, which is evident, for example, in the fact that procrastination is associated with receiving worse grades at school and earning a lower salary at work. Furthermore, procrastination is also associated with a wide range of secondary issues, such as increased stress and worse physical and mental health.
How to Overcome Procrastination
1. Recognize That You’re Procrastinating.
2: Work Out WHY You’re Procrastinating.
3. Adopt Anti-Procrastination Strategies.
Recognize That You’re Procrastinating.
You might be putting off a task because you’ve had to re-prioritize your workload. If you’re briefly delaying an important task for a genuinely good reason, then you aren’t necessarily procrastinating. However, if you start to put things off indefinitely, or switch focus because you want to avoid doing something, then you probably are.
Work Out WHY You’re Procrastinating
Are you avoiding a particular task because you find it boring or unpleasant? If so, take steps to get it out of the way quickly, so that you can focus on the aspects of your job that you find more enjoyable.
One of the many causes of procrastination is poor organization. Poor organization can lead to procrastination. Organized people successfully overcome it because they use prioritized To-Do Lists and create effective schedules.
Indecisiveness could be another reason. People sometimes procrastinate because they are unable to make decisions promptly. This can be an issue in various ways, such as when a person can’t decide which course of action to engage in, or when a person needs to make a certain decision before they can move ahead with their general plan of action. In fact, this form of procrastination is generally referred to as decisional procrastination, since it involves a delay in making a decision. It is therefore contrasted with behavioral procrastination, which involves a delay in performing a task once you’ve decided on your preferred course of action.
Perfectionism can also lead to procrastination in several ways, such as by making someone so afraid of making a mistake that they end up not taking any action at all, or by making someone so worried about publishing something with any flaws that they end up reworking their project indefinitely instead of releasing it when it’s ready.
Adopt Anti-Procrastination Strategies.
In this article, you saw a list of reasons why people procrastinate.
This knowledge is valuable from a practical perspective because understanding why people procrastinate can help you understand why you yourself procrastinate
So, if you want to successfully overcome your procrastination, here are the main steps that you should follow:
- Start by establishing your goals. When doing this, make sure to define your goals as clearly as possible, and make sure that these goals are significant enough that they’ll allow you to make meaningful progress, while also being possible for you to accomplish in reality.
- Commit to the task. Focus on doing, not avoiding. Write down the tasks that you need to complete, and specify a time for doing them. This will help you to proactively tackle your work.
- Promise yourself a reward. If you complete a difficult task on time, reward yourself with a treat, such as a slice of cake or a coffee from your favorite coffee shop. And make sure you notice how good it feels to finish things!
- Other things you could do are Use task- and time-management apps and Tackle the hardest tasks at your peak times.
