I don’t think it’s because we’re lazy even though sometimes we are. We’re procrastinating only when we see something negative in the things we do. Doing those things would lower our current state of mind and we want to keep it “high” as long as we can.
The interesting part is that we’re not keeping our state that high because only the thought that we have to do something that we don’t like lowers our current state so instead of a big drop, it’s a small steady lowering and we start doing those things, the big drop comes. And that’s normal. We’re all procrastinating from time to time.
In my opinion, procrastination doesn’t help at all. We’re only being worrying about what we have to do which has a negative impact on us. So if we’re have to feel something negative, we might as well go do that sh*t.
“Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” – Benjamin Franklin
I propose two strategies to lower the procrastination rate:
- Try to find something positive in the sh*t you need to do.
- If you can’t apply the first strategy, try to find something positive to do after you do the sh*t and you’ll be motivated by that.
There is another strategy that Mel Robbins proposes in her book The 5 Second Rule as a way to bypass the brain’s stressful response to that particular situation and it’s as simple as it sounds. The idea is that whenever you have trouble taking an action, start counting from 5 to 1 and then just start doing it. This strategy will activate the fast acting part of the brain and it will also influence the slow acting part of the brain and this way you’ll do sh*t faster.
Whatever your strategy is to stop procrastinating, just remember that the action you want to postpone will keep manifest it’s influence over you even if you’re not doing it. The more you postpone, the harder it will be to start, but you know you can’t dodge it. So instead of procrastinating and partially ruining your time before the action itself, I suggest you go and get sh*t done!
What do you do to stop procrastinating?
I 100% agree! I used to procrastinate and it just built up my anxiety even more. It then builds up negative feelings about ourselves and how we can’t do anything right (even if we haven’t even done whatever it is we’re putting off yet). Thanks for sharing!
We procrastinate maybe because we aren’t aware of the importance of time.Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I couldn’t agree more with you. The more I procrastinate, it’ll not only be harder to start, but it’s threatened to never start doing anything. And when the time has passed, the chance has gone, then I got the regret. Thanks for sharing.
I need rewards to keep motivated.
Simply put comfort. People do everything to try avoid reality and suffocate themselves with joy , lies and such…for what reality is , it’s a soul killing glacier that unavoidably can Pierce your heart.
Whatever doesn’t give us immediate gratification is hard to do so we put it off. Basically, we procrastinate because its easier.
I find if I can approximate how long a task will take and it isn’t long, I just go ahead and do it. Typically I find that I spent more time avoiding it than it actually took to complete.
I have to push through and do it – whatever it is. Making that annoying phone call, doing the dishes, or what have you. Procrastination takes a lot of time, and time is not a renewable resource. If I can’t do something – physically or what have you, then I have to ask for help. That’s taken some time to adapt to.
I like the idea of rewarding yourself once the task is completed. I do that a lot to motivate myself to clean when I’m not in the mood.
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Important question for us.
I go do the easy stuff first then the hard part looks less intimidating. I also do things at my own pace. Will try and remember the 5 to 1 sh@t thing and implement it.
I had a professor in college who told me all the time to “get it done.” I was a professional procrastinator. His words echo in my mind when I am faced with completing a task. I also recently wrote a blog post on the subject of getting the hard things out of the way first. It was based on Mark Twain’s idea of eating a frog. Do the hard part first. Get it out of the way and the rest is easy. Here is the link if you are interested. https://thephilosophicalfighter.com/2019/07/06/pull-the-trigger-and-eat-the-frog/