You tend to postpone house work, administrative constraints, until the following day, to postpone the date that document is supposed to be returned to the office … In short, you are one of the proponents of procrastination. Do not panic, if postponing everything to the next day is not necessarily a good thing in personal life as in professional life, this behavior is not inevitable! Discover the practical advice to get to take action.
What are the causes of procrastination?
We are all a little procrastinator … But not all for the same reasons! It is therefore normal to feel guilty, as everyone procrastinates more or less in their own way.
Procrastination is a complex phenomenon because it happens unconsciously. If this is an apparently conscious phenomenon (we know that we procrastinate), it nevertheless relies on the unconscious.
This habit of putting everything off until tomorrow can be linked to various factors. Like a time management problem, concentration problems, a rejection of constraints (especially in the elderly), the rejection of very specific tasks, and even a vicious circle in which we were able to lock ourselves. When there is a lot of guilt, we talk about “culpable delay”, the more we procrastinate, the more we feel guilty about procrastinating and the more we get stuck in this negative pattern.
Procrastinating can also, in some cases, be linked to an excess of perfectionism, a lack of self-esteem, or even a fear of failure. The objective will precisely be to identify these causes, to progress. Because depending on the causes of procrastination, we will not apply the same strategies.
How not to procrastinate?
Procrastination is not inevitable! We can quite get back to the path of action, little by little.
First step: identify the tasks that we tend to postpone
To take the path of action, you must first be aware of what is happening, by asking the following question: why do I tend to postpone things overnight, what is holding me back?
So start by identifying what you tend to report, take stock, and pinpoint the causes of this procrastination. Are these household chores that you reject? A particular file at the office? Administrative tasks? A phone call to a specific person? A conversation you should have with a loved one? The task that you had to do for a long time? Making a medical appointment? Registration for a competition, exam, sport event?
Second step: look for the causes of this procrastination
There are many different forms and causes:
- A rejection of constraints.
- There is a lack of clarity in the task to be performed.
- There is a lack of meaning in what to do.
- You do not know where to start (if you do not have the steps in mind, you will have trouble taking action).
- There is a lack of interest, you will tend to go towards tasks that make you want to accomplish them, that do not put you off.
- The unconscious fear of failing (you prefer not to take action, to avoid failure).
- An excess of perfectionism (it’s never good enough to be considered finished).
- A lack of self-esteem (you do not think you are capable, and it is a real obstacle to take action).
- Fear of success (one can unconsciously put oneself in a situation of failure in order not to have to succeed, because the possibilities of evolution after success scare, or would imply significant constraints or changes).
Third step: bring awareness to this behavior
To succeed in moving forward, you really have to want to work on this procrastination. So be aware of the price of this tendency to procrastinate (some people isolate themselves socially and this can be a symptom of depression, or you do not develop professionally and suffer from it in the background).
Dare, face your fears and ask yourself what they are based on, how you can counter them, and what this change may or may not bring you.
Fourth step: Facilitate the First Step and Take Action
After the analysis, we take action! By small touches … What can I put in place to facilitate the action? For the example of the dishes, we can either divide this task in two, or delegate a part (wash the dishes the day before and keep the storage of the crockery bin clean for the next day, or delegate the part of the storage of the crockery bin clean if there are several in the kitchen).
If you have a perfectionist streak, you will be able to work more on the threshold. Your boss who asks you for a deliverable, does not necessarily ask for a 100% deliverable for the first rendering, offer to provide him with the outline of the file, and to work with him on these points, which you will detail next. Suggest intermediate steps, to avoid delaying the rendering on the pretext that you want to make something perfect.
In the case of concentration problems, it will be necessary to work on mental dispersion. By setting up conditions that promote attention, for shorter times for example. Get started for only 5 minutes, 10 minutes or 15 minutes, each time with a specific and very accessible goal, without putting yourself under pressure. This allows you to stay focused on what you have to do, the brain will be focused on this small objective, this directive will help you to put aside distractions.
For better concentration, and less procrastination, it would be more efficient if you put yourself in the right conditions: for example by deactivating notifications from your smartphone for a given time, putting it in airplane mode for an hour, cutting your emails…
What will count to overcome procrastination is the first step, it is the most difficult to get into action. You can also decide to get to work for 20 minutes, then take a 5-minute break, then work again 20 minutes…
Reference: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm
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