As today is Fight Procrastination Day, it seemed apt to seize the opportunity to explore this subject and look at what can help overcome this.
We all experience times of procrastination, even people who generally don’t, will experience occasions where it feels like such a struggle to actually put pen to paper, their hands on the tools, or to initiate that conversation. The causes can be many, but the common factor is that it prevents you moving forward and often causes more stress in the procrastination, than actually performing the task would cause, but we still do it.
According to the Cambridge dictionary procrastination is defined as ‘to keep delaying something that must be done’ So why do we do it, when logically, if it must be done than surely one would want to get it done to get it out of the way? Unfortunately, it is not that simple though. There are many pesky thought processes that can thwart our plans to get something done, even if we have the best intentions.
So, what causes that sometimes paralysing feeling of inertia when it comes to some tasks over others? There are many psychological factors that can come into play, such as a fear of failure. This fear can lead one to put off a task to avoid the potential outcome – if you don’t do it, then the quality of your work can’t be judged, or if you leave it until the last minute and it turns out less than perfect that can be explained away because you didn’t have enough time, rather than it being a reflection on you. General anxiety and lack of self-confidence can also be huge blockers, or a lack of motivation or other distractions that seem far more desirable than the task at hand. Or, and this is a big one for me, feeling overwhelmed – when there is a lot to do and you don’t know what to start with, it can cause a traffic jam in the mind, so nothing can move anywhere.
Fortunately for the many causes of procrastination, there are even more ways to manage and deal with it in constructive ways if you have a genuine desire to work on it and follow through, if you can avoid procrastinating on tackling the quest for solutions of course.
Firstly, it is a good idea to take some time out to really explore what the root causes are for your personal procrastination behaviours, because they are different for everyone and for every circumstance. Meditation can help with this process. Quieting the mind and letting thoughts, feelings and insights flow without judgement can give you the insight you need, or just the simple act of clearing the mind and soothing away the anxiety, can be enough to give your mind the space to refocus on whatever it is you need to and take those first steps.
After clearing your mind, you can then start working on strategies to help, and there are a plethora of those depending on what you are procrastinating over, for example if it’s a conversation you are putting off rehearsing what you want to say, or even writing a list of the main points you want to cover, can bring a feeling of empowerment and confidence to help you open up the dialogue. Or if it is a report or essay, breaking the task into small achievable chunks is useful, by just focussing on one aspect at a time, helps control the feeling of being overwhelmed and enables focus on each step as you get it done. I often use crystals in this process too as I find they help me stay in the zone. Some of my favourites for this are Tourmalated Quartz, Labradorite, Amethyst and Clear Quartz, but you can use whichever crystals resonate the most for you, so let your intuition guide you.
Here's to a productive, procrastination free weekend for one and all!
Curio x