There are times when something needs to be done, and you are ready to do anything, but not what needs to be done.
Psychologist Olga Voitsehovskaya told how to deal with procrastination.
Instead of going for a walk or to the gym, you sit and watch TV and promise yourself that I’ll watch one more episode of the series and then I’ll definitely go.
But a series passes, and then another one, and in the end you never went to the gym or for a walk. And this happens with all things, even important ones.
This behavior, putting off even important things "for later", is called procrastination. This concept is often confused with laziness. It is important to understand that these concepts differ from each other.
If procrastination is putting things off until later, then laziness is the lack of desire to do anything in principle, and not just now.
Let's look into the reasons for procrastination: why do people constantly want to put things off "until later"?
- Perfectionism.
Perfectionism is the most common cause of procrastination. The thing is that perfectionists strive to do everything perfectly, always bringing each of their actions to perfection. As we know, it is not always possible to do something perfectly, and in this case, such people begin to postpone doing things or avoid them altogether.
- Fear of making mistakes
When a person is afraid of making a mistake in their actions or results, they begin to procrastinate. The fear of making a mistake is most often unfounded and is rooted in a person's past negative experience. Most often, this fear accompanies them from school days, when mistakes were not allowed.
Even in adulthood, this fear interferes with life. In this case, it is easier for a person to put things off until tomorrow or indefinitely than to make a mistake again.
- Inability to make decisions independently.
An unconventional reason that quite often leads to procrastination. When significant adults have made decisions for a person since childhood, in adulthood such a person cannot decide anything on his own.
Such people are not able to think through all the possible solutions, consequences of actions and results of their actions. They will look for someone nearby so that this someone will make a decision.
And if there is no person nearby who can make a decision, then procrastination will be right there. The thought process with tossing and turning about how best to act can drag on for years.
- Inability to manage time wisely.
It's better to eat an elephant in pieces. And divide a big task into small ones. And you need to allocate time for each task. But many forget about this, thinking that an insignificant task will not require much time.
The most uninteresting tasks are put off until the last minute. And the result is: deadlines are burning, the remaining tasks are not interesting, the person begins to feel stressed, and he puts off completing them until the last minute, sometimes even missing all deadlines.
- Lack of motivation
If a person has no desire to do something, then no matter what happens around him, he will not move from his place. He will put it off until better times, until he finally gets motivated to do it.
- Boring and monotonous work.
For some people, monotonous work in an office with the same tasks is not suitable. They want movement, new projects, creativity, but the employer cannot give them this. Seeing another monotonous task, such a person falls into boredom and despondency and begins to delay the completion of this task in every possible way.
Because it's not interesting.
We've figured out the reasons. But what to do with this procrastination?
Start with setting priorities. Make it a rule to distribute tasks by importance. There is a great exercise called the Eisenhower Matrix. The idea is that there are 4 types of tasks:
- Urgent and important (they must be done quickly and without fail).
- Not urgent and important (they are important to do, but not right away).
- Urgent and not important (such issues can be delegated).
- Not urgent and not important (can be delegated or not done at all).
This exercise helps my clients create a schedule for their tasks and stop procrastinating.
Set realistic goals and delegate what you don’t like to do. Thanks to this step, procrastination will disappear without a trace. You will see the light at the end of the tunnel in the form of your goal, and delegating boring tasks will give you motivation to achieve this goal.
Accept that a mistake is an experience. Without mistakes we would not be able to live in this world. Consider that Edison would not have created the light bulb if he had given up after the first mistake.
And he had more than 3 thousand mistakes before he succeeded. Mistakes help us try again and find new solutions to problems.
Treat yourself to something valuable for completing a task on time or ahead of schedule. A gift to yourself can be small and inexpensive. The fact of this gift is important. In this way, you will trick your brain and over time, you will begin to perceive even the most routine task as something good, which will help you get another gift.
Take breaks. Without rest, any task, even the simplest one, will feel like a burden. Take a rest and get back to work with renewed vigor. You will be surprised at the results of this approach.
Avoid distractions while doing important tasks. Turn off the sound on your phone, ask colleagues or loved ones not to distract you, do not go to social networks, clean up your workspace so that visual noise does not interfere with your concentration.
If you understand that procrastination is interfering with your life and none of the above methods help to cope with it, seek help from a psychologist. He will help you understand the reason for your procrastination and get out of this state.
Be happy and don't put your life off until tomorrow.
