Procrastination as a disease: How to cure it.
Every day in our life, we wish to carry out a task but procrastination has always kept us at bay, making us to prolong commencement date.
You stumble on an opportunity, you study it and it seems viable, then you make up your mind to go for it but taking action is the problem. I will start tomorrow, then tomorrow you prolong it to another tomorrow, when then will it be executed?
You see, our inaction towards an opportunity is the reason why we are where we are today. The difference between you and your age mates is the action taken towards opportunities you stumbled on.
Most individuals frustrate their future by their today inactions.
What exactly is Procrastination?
According to Wikipedia, Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a later time.
Webmaster defines procrastination as; to be slow or late about doing something that should be done or to delay doing something until a later time because you do not want to do it, because you are lazy, etc.
Origin of the word Procrastinate
Procrastinate is an English word borrowed from the latin word procrastinatus in the 16th century. It evolved from the prefix pro-, meaning “forward” and crastinus, meaning “of tomorrow.” Like its synonyms delay, lag, loiter, dawdle, and dally, procrastinate means to move or act slowly so as to fall behind. It typically implies blameworthy delay especially through laziness or apathy.
Why do we procrastinate?
According to clinical psychology, there is a connection with issues of anxiety, low sense of self-worth and a self-defeating mentality.
Low self esteem and fear of the unknown are other factors that cause procrastination.
Procrastination is strongly connected with lack of self-confidence or disliking of the set task.
Some other factors that lead to procrastination include; waiting for a perfect time to start or second guessing.
How to cure the disease (procrastination)
Procrastination is a disease that affects every human being at one point. We should therefore put up measures that can help us avoid procrastinating.
Underlisted are my 7 suggestions for anyone seeking to avoid or limit procrastinating.
1. Make a to-do-list with a time frame: Always list out what you wish to do or achieve and give yourself deadline or period of completion. A goal without a deadline can be easily put off.
2. Have a breakdown of your task: When tasks are broken down, they can be easily accomplished in bits. Accumulated tasks can be somewhat tiring.
3. Start with the hard tasks: Try as much as you can to start off with the most difficult tasks or tasks that you have less interest in, this way, before you become weary, you are left with the less stressful tasks.
4. Focus: When you are aware of an impending success that may degenerate from your action, focusing to achieve such success could be a motivating factor. Always visualize the bright future you desire and what/how you will feel on completion. This will keep your spirit high.
5. Involving other people: Have you noticed that anytime you wish to complete a task alone, it seems boring or somewhat tiring but when other people join you, it looks as if you are motivated/ or competing? Most times, such tasks are accomplished even faster and better especially when you are working with a motivated individual or a no nonsense companion.
6. Reward: Keeping the reward you will receive direct or indirect in your mind is another factor that could keep us from procrastinating. Every labourer is worth his wage.
7. Be Bold: Most importantly, if one is to fight procrastination, one must be bold enough to overcome it. There is need for self-motivation and determination. Say to yourself, I can do it and move ahead to start without thinking of any impending failure.
Conclusion
Personally, I noticed that digital distractions such as Facebooking and watching YouTube videos are major causes of procrastination to me and I strongly believe this is so for many in the 21st century. So I advocate turning off any form of digital distractions anytime you have a task so you can completely focus.
Also note that putting things off easily for whatsoever reason especially less important stuffs could be dangerous and have great implication to your success story in life.
To your success.
Image: ProJectYourself.com
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©NwokikeFrancis
