Procrastination is something that at some point at in our lives we have done it, no matter how disciplined we might look like in front of the others, or how many things we have done so far. It is something that we still do it here and there because of different factors. Being able to identify the reason of its occurrence is one of the most important steps that might help you to combat it.
We are used to hear things like, “You should find your passion” and as soon as find it, we are supposed to be very productive and hyper focused on doing only the things that are directly involved with our passion. The truth is, we might still be lazy and get away from doing our tasks, because there are easier and more compelling things to do out there. It is easier to watch the whole season of a TV show instead of going to gym and workout. It is easier to stay in bed all day long instead of reading the text book and doing your homework. However, it might be that these are not always the pivotal culprit of our laziness and procrastination. There might be other factors as well.
Being able to identify these reasons and validating their stability with the filters of some good questions is the way to go ahead with procrastination. Whenever you find yourself that it is been a long time since you have been putting off to do something in your to-do list that is very important try to answer to these questions:
- Why am I postponing my engagement in it?
- Why am I procrastinating?
- What is the piece of puzzle that is missing from the whole puzzle which if it was present would be sufficient for me to complete it?
You might be afraid of looking bad in front of the others. You might be waiting for a better time to come, because you think that you are not ready yet. Perfectionism might also prevent you to take any action, because you think that you are not going to be able to do this task as good as it should be.
After you find a few answers to the above questions, try to implement the solutions and workarounds that you might have regarding them. Even if you answer the above questions for a particular task, try to find at least to answer to this simple question:
Why?
Do not move on to something less until you have understood the real reason behind your procrastination for that task.
These questions and small tips might be helpful to look inside yourself and try to find the reason behind your sabotage from the plan and the resolve that you had when you chose to do that task. Even thought it might take some time to be finished, it might be literally something that would might be able to help in a lot of endeavors.
