Procrastination has become a prevalent concept in all of our lives, but not many people realize when, why and how they procrastinate doing something. I have been a ‘victim’ of procrastination myself and have put a lot of thought into it, realizing that there are a few things behind it. Sometimes fear, as well as other things can lead us to procrastination. Let’s see how!
What Is Procrastination Even?
Mindtools.com tells us that “Procrastination is the habit of unnecessarily delaying an important task, usually by focusing on less urgent, more enjoyable, and easier activities instead.”
Now, I say it really depends on the task we are procrastinating. If the task we need to do is rather complicated, there is a higher chance that we will hesitate doing it. Remember this – complexity is the enemy of execution. The more complex, big or hard a task looks, the more we will tend to procrastinate doing it.
Small tasks tend to be left for another time as well. Because they are too little, too trivial and we tend to think that we can take care of them later. But they add up and create a backlog of little chores or small, loose ends that end up overwhelming us in the end.
You might think to yourself ‘Well, maybe I am just lazy!’ But procrastination is different than laziness. Procrastination implies that we have and want to do something, but we just postpone doing it, in favour of other things. Laziness, on the other hand, implies not actually wanting to do that thing. So yes, you are hearing it right. You are not lazy! You just don’t know the little secret that will enhance your productivity.
Why We Procrastinate (in a bit more detail)
Complexity is the enemy of execution. This is really important when we talk about procrastination. In my view, procrastination is very often based on fear. And people tend to resent and even fear complex situations. It’s simple if you think about it. Let’s say you want to start a big project, but it’s not yet clear what you will need to do. You might even bounce this idea off of some friends. They will wake you up pretty quickly to how many things you’ll have to take into account. The first thing you’ll feel is probably overwhelm. And it’s not unnatural! It’s quite normal. But the secret here is to break things down.
When something is too complex, break it down into smaller chunks.
If you tend to procrastinate starting a new book, set a simple goal. Read one page. Or maybe just one line. Of course, it sounds simple and maybe even stupid. But the simplest of things will help us achieve the most complex goals. Always. Of course, you probably won’t just stop after one line or one page. But simplifying something big, breaking it down into small chunks or micro-tasks will get you started.
What about those simple tasks that you put off just because they are trivial? I will give you a personal example here. Every morning, after making my coffee, I used to leave the water container almost empty. And every single morning, I had to wake up, go make my coffee and get frustrated that the water would run out just after the first few drops. I had to take the container out, fill it up, put it back in, wait for the water to warm up, put another capsule in and then, finally, get my coffee. One evening, before going to bed, I saw the water container and thought to myself “I better feel that up, otherwise I’ll get frustrated with myself in the morning…” Next morning, I thought to myself “Wow, I am so thankful to myself for doing that.”
So what can you take away from this? Well, if there is a trivial task that you should do, do it now! Let your present self make a gift to your future self. You’ll end up thanking yourself for having done that. Plus, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment after the simplest tasks, even in the context of more complicated projects.
Steps To Break Through Procrastination
First off, figure out what you want to do. Is it a big project? Something that overwhelms you? Or is it something small that you tend to punish your future self with?
If there is something complex, take action:
- Figure out what you’d need to do: grab a piece of paper (or better yet, a journal) and write down what you want to achieve and what steps you’d need to take.
- If the steps you need to take are still rather complex, take them one by one.
- Once you have each one, turn them into categories. Break them down into the smallest increments of steps.
- Never leave the sight of a goal without taking immediate action: you have figured out the smallest steps you can take towards your success. Start with the first one. Finish it and then, decide if you want to move onto the next one.
- Decide to be disciplined! You now have a plan, you know what to do and you have everything broken down. Complexity is out of the way, so the discipline to keep going will play an important part.
Now, if that thing you need to do is easy, it’s simple: just make a gift! What?? We feel great when we make gifts to other people. Why not make a gift to ourselves as well? Decide to care for yourself and take action to do that little trivial thing now! Make a gift to your future self and when you come to it, feel grateful to yourself for having done it before!
See how easy it is? The power is within you. Just clear the track, as if you were making way for a train to go forward full force. Once you have clarity over what you need to do, you will become unstoppable!
Daniel C Coaching 