You can’t talk about a bad habit enough until it reaps you off your rights, and gives you huge losses. Procrastination is a bad habit!.
- When you find yourself shifting a task/tasks that you can do at the moment, you are procrastinating.
- When you are not able to keep up with your priorities, then you are procrastinating.
- You were given a task at work on Wednesday to submit at noon on Monday, and you started working on it on Sunday, Monday morning, or a few hours to that Monday noon, then you are procrastinating.
REASONS WHY PEOPLE PROCRASTINATE
Many people procrastinate, simply because of;
1. Laziness: They think they don’t know how to start, whereas they don’t have the strength to work.
2. Fear: Most people lack the courage to perform an activity; they think they are incapable or will always make mistakes.
3. Capability: When you think you are capable of completing a task or activity on the deadline because you can do it anytime, any day, you leave it till that appointed date; leading to procrastination. But, this gives you a half-baked achievement or even worse.
4. Weak time management: When one can’t prioritize or schedule time for various tasks they have; they backslide and lose time that should be used efficiently.
5. No discipline: Lack of self-discipline causes people to develop this bad habit of continuously postponing work they can complete at any time they decide to stick to it.
It’s clear to know that this parasite-procrastination when stuck to you, sucks you dry and it’s only a matter of time before you start feeling its consequences.
5 Outrageous Consequences of Procrastination
1. Time loss: You can never gain back the time you lost while procrastinating, you only get regrets, like Edward Young says, “Procrastination is the thief of time.”
2. Inefficiency: When you are in a rush to meet up with deadlines, you leave the work you do, poor, inefficient, and full of errors.
3. Loss of courage: “Procrastination is the lazy cousin of fear. When we feel anxiety around an activity, we postpone it.” – Noelle Hancock. You always find yourself in the pit of fear, especially when you see the take as a big one, while it’s indeed small.
4. Stagnation: You do not grow when you constantly procrastinate. The only growth you have is the stunted one. You get stuck in the world of deciding whether to do it today or tomorrow.
For example, if you have taken a decision to read a book or learn a skill; but procrastination sets in, then you cannot grow in the knowledge of that book or skill. Simply because you didn’t get to read or neither did you learn the skill.
5. Loss of good habits: You lose all the good habits that could have made you more productive in any area you are in. Instead, you feel unproductive when you can’t achieve the goals you set.
When you find yourself procrastinating, how do you retrace your steps?
How can you turn back and let go of procrastination?
Tips To Overcome Procrastination
1. Develop better time management: by thief of time.” – My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.” – Charles Dickens.
This is apt! Do not postpone any work at all. Rather than set timetables, allocate time to different things you have to do. Break down your tasks into smaller, and achievable ones you can do.
Don’t take more work than you can do. If you have three assignments that are due in five days, why not do each one daily, and use the remaining two days to revise them, instead of waiting two days before the deadline for submission?
2. Learn how to prioritize: Knowing and arranging your priorities helps you know what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
3. Make self-discipline a habit: Discipline yourself to focus on the goals you set. Do not stop until you achieve them, don’t let procrastination be a stumbling block or a limit for you.
4. Have an accountability partner: This is a person who you can be accountable to. This individual pushes you to do well to complete your task on time.
5. Read books that encourage you to avoid procrastination: Books like Atomic Habits by James Clear and The End of Procrastination by Petr Ludwick and Adela Schicker motivate you to stop procrastinating.
Final Dose:
It all boils down to your single step, action, and decision to walk away from procrastination. It has never had any benefits, and it never will.
What has procrastination cost you, and how are you planning to let it go?