Reasons of procrastination

What Causes Procrastination (and 7 Real Solutions) – SoulSalt

When you understand what causes procrastination, you can use these strategies to overcome it and reach your full potential.

Everyone puts things off from time to time, but procrastinators chronically avoid difficult tasks. They delay at home, at work, and in their relationships, which inevitably impacts the quality of their performance and overall well being.

Overcoming procrastination begins with realizing that you are doing it.

But instead of beating yourself up about this very common problem, look deeper at what’s causing it. When you understand the reasons behind your behavior, you can find the right strategy to manage and overcome it.

Just like everyone has different strengths, everyone has different reasons for putting things off. And even those living a successful life can struggle with tendencies to put off dealing with difficult problems.

Does procrastination get in the way of reaching your full potential? Stop making excuses and take control of your life with these strategies for overcoming procrastination.

What is procrastination?

Procrastination is the habit of avoiding urgent tasks despite negative consequences. When people procrastinate, they often delay priorities and instead focus on less important, more enjoyable, simpler tasks instead.

Contrary to popular belief, procrastination is more than just laziness or poor time management. When it comes to procrastination, telling someone to “just do it” doesn’t work. It would be like telling someone with clinical depression to “cheer up.”

So you can stop feeling bad about your tendency to put things off. It’s a deeper problem, but something you can definitely work on and overcome.

In a study of procrastination, Joseph R. Ferrari, PhD, the leading researcher, reveals how the behavior is more like a form of self-sabotage. Demotivating psychological factors, such as fear of failure or anxiety, outweigh self-control to get something done.

People would rather avoid a task altogether than risk the humiliation of getting it wrong or making mistakes.

When people procrastinate, they know they should work on a certain task but actively choose to do something else. It is different from laziness, which suggests apathy, inactivity, and an unwillingness to act.

Why do I procrastinate so much?

People procrastinate for different reasons. Sometimes it results from too much pressure from family, maybe while growing up in a rigid household. For example, expectations for high performance from parents can make people put off projects out of fear of failure or criticisms.

Others may avoid doing something as an act of rebellion. You fight back and reclaim your right to say, “No, you can’t make me do that right now!”

Although everyone can occasionally procrastinate, chronic procrastination is a different problem. And according to research, as many as 20% of Americans may be chronic procrastinators.

“The chronic procrastinator, the person who does this as a lifestyle, would rather have other people think that they lack effort than lacking ability. ”
Joseph R. Ferrari, PhD

Whenever we resist doing something, there is a good reason, even if it isn’t logical or beneficial.

Some of the most common reasons for what causes procrastination include:

Perfectionism
Fear of failure
Fear of criticism
Avoidance
Low self-esteem
A tendency to self-defeat
Depression
Trouble focusing
ADHD
Waiting until the last minute
Task aversion
Resisting challenges
Decision fatigue
Difficulty defining goals
A disconnect with the future self
Lack of energy

Procrastination prevents you from reaching your full potential—in your relationships, career, and beyond. It impedes teamwork, decreases self-esteem, and even leads to depression and job loss. On top of that, people avoid important wellness habits like going to the doctor or regular exercise.

So, it’s critical to proactively develop strategies to prevent it.

7 Causes of procrastination and solutions to stop putting things off

When you pinpoint the root causes, you can develop solutions and strategies to overcome procrastination. Let’s look at the most common issues at the heart of chronic procrastination, so you can start to create the life you want.

Procrastination Cause #1: Perfectionism

Perfectionism might seem like a desirable characteristic. Perfectionists strive for high standards and to be the best at everything.

But perfection is impossible to achieve, and aiming for it sets unrealistic expectations. As a result, they develop a fear of failure. They wind up putting things off because they feel they won’t do something well enough or do it right. They wait until the right moment, that perfect time when they cannot fail—that “right moment” that never arrives.

The Solution: The All or Something Approach

Perfectionists tend to develop an “all or nothing” approach and think in extremes like:

My performance is either great or terrible.
I’m either smart or stupid.
I’m either wrong or right.

This leaves you with no in between or gray area or middle ground. To move forward in overcoming perfectionism, you’ll need to replace the zero-sum “all or nothing” approach with “all or something.”

Making mistakes is far better than not doing something altogether. You might not get a 10/10, but by making an attempt, you still move past the point of doing nothing at all. Go for “enough” or what is “necessary” instead of the big, embellished vision.

When you approach a passion project, whether writing your book, taking a dance class, or starting your own business, expect to make mistakes. That process of trial and error will teach you important lessons. You’ll learn how to do things better over time. But you’ll never progress if you don’t start in the first place.

Learn how to set boundaries, so the first step will be less intimidating. Boundaries help you try new things and discover what you love to do, or outright don’t like at all!

Procrastination Cause #2: Avoidance

Find yourself wasting time — social media, email, video games, TV — even when you’re late on something important? (Statista reports that the average global internet user spends at least 2 hours on social media every day!)

Unpleasant or stressful tasks like finishing a large work project, preparing your taxes, or studying for a final exam cause unpleasant feelings like fear, stress, or inadequacy. Dragging your feet to do something and focusing on low-priority tasks is a form of unconscious avoidance.

Rather than working on an important task, you spend time “led astray by the ‘visceral’ rewards of the present,” George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, told The New Yorker.

Procrastinators tend to prefer pleasure over progress. They are task averse, putting off important tasks by doing something else that feels more productive, easier, and enjoyable. They have a disconnect with the future self and don’t seek rewards that seem far in the future.

For example, they might want to eat the cake right now because it tastes so good. They give up the long-term gain of getting our sugar levels into a regulated pattern and eating healthy foods that fuel the body.

When faced with difficult emotions, someone may engage in self-destructive patterns that feel good at the time, like drinking too much alcohol, instead of working through problems and feeling painful emotions which ultimately leads to healing.

So for many, procrastination results as a default defense mechanism in the form of avoidance. It acts as a coping mechanism, to protect yourself from unpleasant feelings like guilt or anxiety. You become demotivated and disillusioned, or in extreme cases, develop depression or anxiety.

The Solution: Recognizing patterns of procrastination

Like other types of defense mechanisms, procrastination happens in the unconscious mind, so you may not even realize that you do it. You must figure out what causes procrastination before you can start changing those habits.

For example, do you avoid a certain task because you find it boring or unpleasant? If so, focus and get it out of the way quickly. Then take a break or move on to tasks that you find more enjoyable.

You can also tackle the hardest tasks at your peak times. Identify when you’re most effective. Whether you’re at peak energy during the morning or the afternoon, do the tasks that you find most difficult at these times.

If you notice that you avoid tasks because you feel incompetent when you do them — get help, outsource, or find a workaround. Letting go of some hated tasks, you will not only stop feeling guilty, but the necessary work will get done. These are key leadership characteristics — collaboration and problem solving.

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Procrastination Cause #3: Low Self-Esteem

The research shows that people who procrastinate suffer from lower well being and higher levels of stress and anxiety, which can reduce self-esteem and lead to depression.

People who chronically delay tasks engage in self-deprecating thought patterns about themselves and others compared to non-procrastinators. They may think things like:

What if I have the problem all wrong?

What if I make a mistake?

What if I’m not good enough?

For people with low self-esteem, their minds constantly wrestle with these limited thinking patterns like a machine. What causes procrastination for them is believing their negative self-talk. Being too hard on yourself gets in the way of motivation and leads to patterns of procrastination.

The Solution: Building Confidence

Many of us have struggled with self-esteem at some point. Building confidence in yourself is a lifelong process that can be done with careful attention.

To overcome this dilemma, start by looking at the root causes. Do you have a past trauma that you need to heal from in order to regain your self-worth? If so, consider speaking with a therapist who can help understand underlying causes for distress and low self-esteem.

Non-procrastinators tend to have a strong sense of personal identity and higher levels of self-esteem. That means they are less concerned with what other people think of them.

Procrastinators, on the other hand, put a strong emphasis on external validation. In other words, they worry a lot about what other people will say. They find value in themselves from the approval of other people, and avoid doing something out of fear of criticism.

Surrounding yourself with positive people can also help you stay motivated and avoid that self-critical loop. Like a cheerleader on the sidelines, having a coach or a mentor can help develop a positive mindset to train your brain to push through barriers.

Procrastination Cause #4: Waiting Until the Last Minute

Procrastinators often make the claim that they put off tasks because they “perform better under pressure.” They make a habit of waiting until the last minute to get that rush of euphoria at completing a task on time against the odds.

But this rarely works out as planned. People who have the “I’ll get around it” mentality don’t give themselves enough time to do something well. Putting off work until the last minute leads to mishaps and unnecessary errors that compromise the quality of their work.

The procrastinator usually has a poor understanding of how long the task will take. They fool themselves to forget about the task, hoping it will go away, or they make up excuses that they will perform better under pressure and put off the task until the last minute.

The Solution: The Pomodoro Technique

You can actually trick your brain into doing things on time. Substituting smaller units of time—10 days instead of 1 month or 48 hours instead of 2 days—can reduce procrastination by making future events seem more immediate.

A study of 162 participants asked each person to imagine themselves preparing for an upcoming event, like a project for work or studying for an exam. Those who broke down the time into smaller units (in this case days) perceived the event as arriving an average of 30 days sooner when imagined as days rather than months.

Is underestimating how long a project will take part of what causes procrastination for you? Try thinking about in terms of how many 25-minute blocks of time it will realistically take.

In the 1980s, Francesco Cirillo developed The Pomodoro Technique, a method that uses this type of logic and breaks down tasks into smaller time intervals. The name comes from the word pomodoro, Italian for tomato.

As a university student, Cirillo would use a tomato-shaped timer and set it for about 25 minutes. He would then focus on a task until the timer when off. Here’s how you can apply the same technique to stop procrastination:

Choose the priority task according to your daily planning
Set the timer for 25-60 minutes
Concentrate on the task until the timer goes off
Once the timer goes off, write down a checkmark on a piece of paper
Take a short 5-minute break, then go back to repeat step 2
After 4 checkmarks, take a longer break (about 30 minutes)
Repeat until you complete your task

By following this technique, you develop the ability to focus during a shorter, more manageable chunks. Plus, you make a larger task feel less overwhelming. Over time, dedicating those smaller amounts of time to a task will lead to big results.

You also benefit from a type of biohacking. Each time you put down that checkmark and complete a task, your brain releases the dopamine neurotransmitter, also known as the feel good chemical. With each hit of dopamine, you actually train your brain to become more productive.

Procrastination Cause #5: Trouble Focusing

Psychologists have found a strong link between difficulty concentrating and procrastination. For example, people with attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often find it difficult to get a project started. Once they do, they have trouble knowing how to prioritize, plan, and stay on track.

If you are one of the estimated 4% of adults that meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, you may benefit from professional support. If you simply have trouble getting started on tedious and unpleasant tasks, or those that require a high degree of concentration, try these solutions.

The Solution: Managing Distractions

Fortunately, improving focus is a skill you can learn and practice. Consider these ideas:

Set “do not disturb” or “silence” on your phone to reduce distractions and notifications that interrupt your work.
Place anything distracting in a different room outside of your workspace.
Set up a quiet workspace, alone and free from distractions.
Take scheduled breaks to rest your brain.
Task management apps, like Trello or Toggle, can help you stay on top of tasks and complete them on time.

Procrastination Cause #6: Decision Fatigue

Have you ever stared into a closet of clothing and said, “I don’t have anything to wear!”

We have so much available to us, that it can actually get in the way of getting things done. Think of the amount of time it takes to make a simple decision like what to wear when you have too many choices.

People often say they want options. But it takes mental energy to make decisions. As the saying goes, “Less is More”… and in this case more time and energy to focus on your core values.

Procrastination can occur when we have too many options. It takes mental energy to make decisions. We can put things off if they depend on our capacity to make a decision.

When you can’t figure out what to do, you’ll likely avoid taking action in case you make the wrong choice.

The Solution: Simplify your decisions

When you limit the number of decisions you have to make each day, you’ll find it much easier to get things done.

Simplifying your day-to-day life can cut back on the energy spent on less important choices so you can refocus on the things that actually matter. You’d be surprised how much extra time you’ll find in the day just by simplifying a few areas of your life.

Consider the following ideas:

Remove the number of apps on your phone, or turn off app notifications, to reduce time wasted checking your device.
Declutter your wardrobe to make it easier to decide what to wear, saving time on getting ready each day.
Make a habit of daily planning, focusing on tasks one-by-one, by level of importance, so you don’t have to constantly think about what to do next.
Prioritize your commitments, putting the most meaningful at the top of your To-Do list.
Take inventory of the people in your life. Put time aside for the people who matter the most, and know when to walk away from toxic relationships.

Procrastination Cause #7: Resisting Challenges

Procrastination often happens when a challenge seems too difficult. A person avoids taking on a challenge out of fear that they won’t do a good enough job. They may not feel equal to the task and even carry anxiety or guilt, which makes them avoid the task even more.

To avoid doing something hard, people who procrastinate may say to themselves:

I don’t feel like it
I’ll get around to it
What if I fail?
I’ll do it when the time is right

Avoiding negative emotions might sound like a good idea. But real growth often feels unpleasant, sometimes downright painful. People stay trapped inside their comfort zones, like a prison. They stay paralyzed, not only procrastinating on pursuing their dreams but unable to face a challenge when they do.

As a result, you avoid seeking out challenges that help you grow, like building meaningful relationships or pursuing your passions, out of fear of failure or rejection.

The Solution: Daily Planning

If avoiding challenges is what causes procrastination for you, it helps to have preset plans. Start by identifying your most important long-term goals, and break them down into small steps.

Set aside a small portion of time each day or week toward working to work toward those heart dreams. As you complete each step, celebrate the small wins along the way.

Organized people successfully overcome procrastination because they manage tasks using To-Do lists and schedules. These tools help to prioritize your life and meet deadlines.

Sometimes I help my clients beat procrastination because we set up habits or routines. We have a path carved out. We’ve traveled it enough to lean into the pattern of things like going to the gym, practicing guitar, closing out email before turning off the lights at the office, and so forth.

Procrastination often occurs when you feel overwhelmed. So, how to stop feeling overwhelmed? When it comes to a big goal, many people get caught up in the how… and never actually get started on anything. The how is always a step later in the process of doing something.

Maybe you don’t know how to do something. Take your attention away from how you’ll do it, and dive into the question, “What is it I’m going for?”

THEN figure out the HOW with help.

Ask yourself:

Why is this goal important to me?
What would success look like?
What skills can you bring or experience can you lean into for this project?

Break through overwhelm by taking the first few steps mentioned above and then get help figuring out how to get there. Ask for advice. Get input from others experienced in the task you are facing. Meet with a coach to gain a fuller perspective on how to actualize challenging tasks.

Ready to Stop Procrastinating and Focus on Your Goals?

Once you’ve identified your procrastination pattern, get the resources you need to start overcoming it. You can stop feeling bad about what you’ve put off — and start getting it done.

If you’re ready to take charge of your life and manage your days effectively, we’ve put together a course just for you. It provides some incredible tools and resources to help you clear space in your mind and your calendar.

Then it walks you through a simple, yet super-effective process for planning your days to achieve your long term goals.

You can check it out here:

Be Focused: Manage your day, week and even your year!

Are You Ready to Learn the Art of Daily Planning?

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Why People Procrastinate: The Psychology and Causes of Procrastination | by Saqibjazz | The Startup

If you’re a procrastinator, then you’ve probably asked yourself at some point “why do I procrastinate so much?” or “why do I keep procrastinating even though I know that it’s bad for me?”. These are important questions, since understanding why you procrastinate is crucial if you want to figure out how to stop doing it.

The following article will give you the answers to those questions.

The main psychological mechanism behind our procrastination is as follows:

When we need to get something done, we rely primarily on our self-control in order to bring ourself to do it.
Our self-control often receives support from our motivation, which helps us get things done in a timely manner.
In some cases, we experience certain demotivating factors, such as anxiety or fear of failure, which have an opposite effect than our motivation.
In addition, we sometimes experience certain hindering factors, such as exhaustion or rewards that are far in the future, which interfere with our self-control and motivation.
When demotivating and hindering factors outweigh our self-control and motivation, we end up procrastinating, either indefinitely, or until we reach a point in time when the balance between them shifts in our favor.

When it comes to specific reasons why people procrastinate, in terms of demotivating and hindering factors, the following are among the most common:

Abstract goals.
Rewards that are far in the future.
A disconnect from our future self.
Feeling overwhelmed.
Anxiety.
Task aversion.
Perfectionism.
Fear of evaluation or negative feedback.
Fear of failure.
A perceived lack of control.
ADHD.
Depression.
Lack of motivation.
Lack of energy.
Sensation seeking.

To successfully deal with your procrastination, you need to figure out why you procrastinate and how your procrastination is preventing you from achieving your goals, so you can formulate a concrete plan of action, based on appropriate anti-procrastination techniques , that will help you deal with your reason for procrastination.

The rest of the article contains more relevant information about the psychology of procrastination, and explains in-depth each of the reasons why people procrastinate.

Procrastination is the act of unnecessarily postponing decisions or actions. For example, if you need to write an essay, but end up wasting time on the internet even though you know you should be working, that means that you’re procrastinating.

Procrastination is often detrimental to people’s ability to successfully pursue their goals, which is evident, for example, in the fact that procrastination is associated with receiving worse grades at school and earning a lower salary at work. Furthermore, procrastination is also associated with a wide range of secondary issues, such as increased stress and worse physical and mental health.

People often assume that procrastination is simply a matter of willpower, but in reality, the situation is far more complex than that.

When faced with a decision to make or a task to complete, we usually rely on our self-control in order to push ourself to get things done. Furthermore, our motivation, which is based on the expectation of receiving some reward for our efforts, can support our self-control, and make it more likely that we will get things done in a timely manner.

Overall, we procrastinate because our self-control and motivation, which might be hindered by factors such as exhaustion and rewards that are far in the future, are outweighed by negative factors, such as anxiety and fear of failure.

This causes us to fail to self-regulate our behavior, which means that we postpone things unnecessarily, even when we know we should be doing them, which is why procrastination often leads to a gap between how we intend to act and how we act in reality.

Abstract goals
People are more likely to procrastinate when their goals are vague or abstract, compared to when their goals are concrete and clearly defined.

For example, goals such as “get fit” or “start exercising” are relatively vague, and are therefore likely to lead to procrastination. Conversely, a goal such as “go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday right after work, and spend at least 30 minutes on the treadmill, running at high speed” is concrete, and is therefore much more likely to lead you to take action.

Rewards that are far in the future

People often procrastinate on tasks which are associated with rewards that they will only receive a while after completing the task, since people tend to discount the value of rewards that are far in the future, a phenomenon known as temporal discounting or delay discounting.

A disconnect from our future self

People sometimes procrastinate because they view their future self as being disconnected from their present-self, a phenomenon known as temporal self-discontinuity or temporal disjunction.

For example, someone might delay when it comes to eating healthy, even if their doctor told them that it’s important, because the harmful impact of their present diet will only start being a serious issue in a couple of years, which they view as someone else’s problem (i.e. as the problem of their future self).

A focus on future options

People sometimes avoid taking action in the present because they intend or hope to pursue a more attractive course of action in the future. This mindset can lead to long-term procrastination, and persist even in cases where the person who is procrastinating never ends up following through on their intended plan

Optimism about the future

People sometimes procrastinate on tasks because they are optimistic about their ability to complete those tasks in the future. This optimism can pertain to two main things, and namely to the amount of time which will be available for the completion of the task, or to the person’s inherent ability to complete the task

Indecisiveness

People sometimes procrastinate because they are unable to make decisions in a timely manner. This can be an issue in various ways, such as when a person can’t decide which course of action to engage in, or when a person needs to make a certain decision before they can move ahead with their general plan of action

Feeling overwhelmed

People sometimes procrastinate because they feel overwhelmed with regard to the tasks that they need to handle. A feeling of overwhelm can occur due to a variety of reasons, such as having a single task that feels huge in terms of scope, or having a large number of small tasks that add up. When this happens, a person might simply decide to avoid the tasks in question, or they might attempt to handle them, but then end up feeling paralyzed before those tasks are completed.

Anxiety
People sometimes procrastinate because they feel anxious about a task that they need to handle.

Task aversion
People often procrastinate because they are averse to the tasks that they need to perform.

Perfectionism
People sometimes procrastinate as a result of their perfectionism. Perfectionism can lead to procrastination in a number of ways, such as by making someone so afraid of making a mistake that they end up not taking any action at all, or by making someone so worried of publishing something with any flaws that they end up reworking their project indefinitely instead of releasing it when it’s ready.

Fear of evaluation or negative feedback
People sometimes procrastinate because they are afraid of being evaluated or because they are afraid of receiving negative feedback from others.

Fear of failure
People often procrastinate because they’re afraid of failing at the tasks that they need to complete.

Start by establishing your goals. When doing this, make sure to define your goals as clearly as possible, and make sure that these goals are significant enough that they’ll allow you to make meaningful progress, while also being possible for you to accomplish in reality.
Next, figure out the exact nature of your procrastination problem. You can do this by thinking about cases where you procrastinated, and then identifying when, how, and why you did so.
Then, create a plan of action. This plan should involve a combination of relevant anti-procrastination techniques, that will allow you to deal with situations where your procrastination problem is preventing you from achieving your goals.
Finally, implement your plan of action. As time goes by, make sure to monitor your progress and refine this plan, by modifying or dropping anti-procrastination techniques based on how well they work for you, and by adding new ones if you think they could help.

When it comes to anti-procrastination techniques, here are some examples of relevant ones that you can use:

Prioritize tasks based on how important they are.
Break large and overwhelming tasks into small and actionable pieces.
Get started on tasks by committing to only work on them for a few minutes.
Remove distractions from your work environment.
Identify when you’re most and least productive, and schedule your tasks accordingly.
Set intermediate deadlines for yourself on your way to your final goals.
Create a daily goal and mark streaks of days on which you’ve successfully achieved it.
Reward yourself when you successfully implement your plan of action.
Focus on your goals instead of on the tasks that you have to complete.
Visualize your future self experiencing the outcomes of your work.
Count to ten before you indulge the impulse to procrastinate.
Avoid a perfectionist mindset by accepting that your work will have some flaws.
Develop a belief in your ability to successfully overcome your procrastination.

We rely primarily on our self-control in order to get things done in a timely manner, though our motivation to be rewarded for our efforts can often provide our self-control with a helpful boost.
There are various demotivating factors that have an opposite effect than our motivation, meaning that they make us more likely to procrastinate; this includes, for example, anxiety, fear of failure, perfectionism, and task aversion.
Furthermore, there are also hindering factors that interfere directly with our self-control and motivation, meaning that they too make us more likely to procrastinate; this includes, for example, goals that are abstract, goals that are distant in time, and a disconnect between our present and future selves.
When demotivating and hindering factors outweigh our self-control and motivation, we end up procrastinating either indefinitely, or until some point in the future when the balance between them shifts in our favor.
In some cases, we might also be driven to procrastination by other factors, such as self-sabotage, sensation-seeking, or rebelliousness.

Seven Possible Causes of Procrastination, How to Beat It, and Why Procrastination Isn't Always a Bad Thing - Life on DTF

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We decided to figure out what kind of animal this procrastination is and how to deal with it. We went through a bunch of materials, talked with several people from IT - that's what came of it.

What is procrastination

There are several definitions of the term “procrastination” on the Internet and dictionaries. In our opinion, the following definition reflects the meaning as accurately as possible:

Procrastination is a syndrome in which a person constantly puts things off, replacing them with more pleasant activities (tea, coffee, games, etc.). As a result, life problems, stress and guilt appear, efficiency decreases, self-esteem falls.

Pay attention to the words "syndrome" and "permanently". If you put a few things off until tomorrow, and then again - this is not procrastination, you just postponed a few things.

Based on the definition, here is what is procrastination and what is not:

Sometimes procrastination is confused with rest: for example, if you play computer games, you definitely procrastinate. This is not so: rest helps to switch the tired brain from work tasks and gives us energy, while procrastination, on the contrary, takes it away. And the less energy remains, the more willingly a person postpones further.

Procrastination is not laziness. A lazy person does not feel guilty about things not done. A person suffering from procrastination blames himself, but cannot pull himself together and take action.

When procrastination appeared

Procrastination is mentioned in the poem "Works and Days" by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod (VIII-VII centuries BC):
Barns are empty for those who are lazy to work
And always loves to put things off: wealth is given by diligence.
Meshkotny struggles with troubles all his life continuously.

Probably, procrastination has always existed, it's just that the name for this syndrome was invented relatively recently. According to Google Trends, people in Russia have been talking about procrastination since 2009.year:

Procrastination appears in different people for different reasons. We have identified the following causes and ways to solve the problem:

Reason #1. Rest problems

Do not set the time for switching the brain. Fatigue often manifests itself in defocusing: when the brain is overloaded, it is difficult for it to concentrate on a task and it begins to look for a way to unload and relax. As a result, a person begins to get distracted too often: wrote code → went on a smoke break → worked → poured tea and so on.

A large number of "task → rest" or "task → task" switching aggravates fatigue. The fact is that the brain cannot switch instantly: it takes some time and energy. Therefore, when planning, allow time for the fact that you will not immediately be able to focus all your attention on the next task.

✅ What to do

Reduce the number of task → task and task → rest switches.

If you set yourself 10 tasks a day, then you strive to complete them with minimal switching to rest: just solve one after the other. If you are not pulling, reduce the number of tasks, for example, to five.

The same with rest: the less distractions you have during the day, the more productive you will be. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being distracted from work on personal matters or going out for a smoke break every hour and a half. But if within an hour you go to drink tea for the third time, this is an alarm signal.

Procrastination due to sleep inefficiency. The quality of sleep is also important: it is he who helps to restore strength and work more productively.

One of the peculiarities of the Russian mentality is the idea that in order to be successful you have to work hard to the point of exhaustion. We even have a popular expression: plow like a draft horse. Because of this a person may have an idea: if I sleep 6 hours instead of 8, then I will have more time , because I will be awake longer.

❌ The problem is that a sleepy person thinks worse and solves problems more slowly. When sleep is poor (shallow or insufficient in time), the brain does not have time to accumulate energy. The person becomes lethargic and irritable - although he may think that this is normal.

In addition, the less energy we have, the lower our ability to think sensibly, that is, to perceive reality as it is. You may have noticed that at some point the problems seem bigger than they are. But now you get enough sleep, go to the shower, refresh yourself with nutritious food - and life is not so bad anymore.

✅ What to do

Establish a healthy sleep schedule so that your brain has time to rest and save up energy. How to do it:

Go to bed and get up at the same time. Ideally, fall asleep before midnight. For the first few days, it will be difficult for you to sleep. This is normal: it is not easy for the body to give up the old habit. Then it will get easier.
Sleep in complete darkness. Turn off all luminous devices, the filter, even put the phone on charge face down. Close the doors if light from the street falls from the windows of the kitchen or other rooms.
Sleep cool. If not, ventilate the room before going to bed.
Sleep 8 hours. Some somnologists (sleep experts) say that during physical exertion, a person is enough to sleep for 7 hours.

For about a year, he went to bed at one or two in the morning, and then got up with a heavy head. The mood was stable no. I made it a rule to go to bed at 23:30 and get up at 7:30. As soon as I entered the regime, procrastination disappeared, and changes for the better began in life. New good habits have appeared as a bonus.

Sergey, editor

You also need to be able to rest

Reason #2. You started to burn out

When a person gets tired systematically, he can even hate the thing that was previously loved. Interest in work and the quality of its performance are falling, irritability appears. Strength and desire to work less and less.

Usually, burnout is associated with stress at work. This stress always has some reason - usually it is something that you do not want to face face to face. For example, constant spacing from the boss. Or a daily plan that is always overwhelmed by the fact that you have scored interesting tasks for yourself. In such a situation, burnout is a way for the psyche to protect itself from stress.

✅ What to do

Two things:

1. Go on vacation. If you don't want to get worse, drop everything and take a break for a couple of weeks. Brief your colleagues in advance and warn your boss that you will not answer him. Completely give up work correspondence: this is what a vacation is for, so that you can relax “in depth”, and not superficially. Reduce your time on social media by at least half: for example, go to Instagram only at the reception. Let your life for a while consist only of beautiful landscapes, delicious food and pleasant reading.

To enhance the effect, adjust your sleep pattern as recommended above.

2. Eliminate the source of stress. After returning, find the reason why your psyche began to defend itself. You remember that this is the cause you least want to deal with. If you're tired of your boss's nagging, it's probably time to talk it over with him. There is no guarantee that this will help, but you are guaranteed not to succeed unless you try.

It also happens that the cause cannot be eliminated - then it is worth thinking about a new job. A career can be built in any company. There are a lot of decent companies, even if it seems that there is no better place to be found.

If the cause of burnout is not addressed, it can develop into depression. However, the best way to deal with burnout is to prevent it.

I help to develop skills in Dota 2 and constantly receive requests for training. The method invented by the Kazakh businessman Margulan Seisembaev helps me not to bring myself to burnout.

The bottom line is that if you have spent 50% of your energy, then you do not set new tasks for yourself. When I realize that 50% of my energy is running out, then for a while I refuse new clients. So I get less money than I could, but I do not bring myself to exhaustion and do work for pleasure.

Edgar, eSportsman

Stress is not normal, sort it out

Reason #3. Procrastination due to perfectionism

A perfectionist tries to do everything perfectly. Because of this, the focus shifts from the main thing to the little things that take up an unacceptably long time. As a result, a person spends several times more time on a task that could be done in an hour, or even does not start it at all.

For a long time I could not start working on one project, because I wanted to make the product immediately and at a high level. I could not even start - I put it off for a month, then another and another. I started doing it only when I realized: it’s better to launch a working version and improve it later than not to do it at all.

Sergey, editor

✅ What to do

It is important to understand the main thing: you don't need to be perfect. The customer does not need an ideal architecture or code - he needs a workable project delivered on time. A beautiful code structure may be important to the developer himself, but this will not help the client in any way, especially if the deadlines are missed.

A working product is better in reality than an ideal one in your head

Reason #4. You feel like you are ineffective

In recent years, it has become fashionable to be a workaholic, solve a large number of tasks per unit of time and be productive. You look at the social network feed - and there half of the friends hold business meetings, the second launches their projects and still finds time to fly on vacation or ride horses, and the third is engaged in self-development.

When you see this all the time, you also want to achieve something really important, but that's not all. But to reach the goal, you need a big plan and high efficiency.

But at one fine moment you understand: twenty tasks a day cannot be pulled. It starts to feel like there's something wrong with you.

In fact, this is normal and there are two reasons for this.

Firstly, the picture of life in social networks does not correspond to reality. People post some fragmentary moments from their lives, but from the outside it seems that they always have this.

You scroll through other people's Instagram and think: damn, they are all productive, earning millions, and I'm like a poop in an ice hole.

Conversations with friends and parents helped me understand that this is all nonsense and you don't have to believe, you don't have to try to compare yourself with others. If you look at the pictures of a friend, everything is perfect and beautiful with her: flowers, cars, everything is just super luxury. But in fact, she has a lot of problems. It began to dawn on me that something was not right.

Olesya, analyst

Secondly, effective and successful people do exist - but all of them were once at the beginning of the journey and started small. If a person now finds time to live and work, then it is likely that he did not come to this right away.

✅ What to do

Start at a pace that is comfortable for you and gradually increase the speed. Let's say that now you are quietly doing 5-6 work tasks a day. Now set the bar to do 7-8. Do not rush, you may not succeed right away, besides, the time for one task may be different. As soon as you manage to work on an increased plan during the week, add one or two more tasks. And so on until you realize that you have reached the ceiling and it is not worth typing more tasks.

It's not scary if you failed to solve 15 tasks a day or even 10. It's better to praise yourself for what you've done than to scold you for not doing everything.

The more I watch smart uncles and aunties from YouTube, the better I understand: it's normal when you're not super productive or when something just doesn't work out. It happens to everyone.

Recently, I've been scolding myself a lot for taking too long to develop the project. And recently, after another video, I realized that the project is quite complicated and I scold myself in vain. As soon as I realized this, procrastination disappeared somewhere. The next day I even woke up much earlier than usual.

Vadim, developer

Everything big started small

Reason #5. You are not doing your job

Sometimes management sets a new task and you realize, “That's not exactly my job. But since it's been given, I'll do it."

For example, you are the art director of a design studio and have been assigned to write a text about your company's services. You sit down to the task and realize that you are experiencing internal resistance. You decide to return to the task later when you have more time. Sit down - and resistance interferes again. As a result, the task is delayed again and again.

I keep putting off one project that I don't like. Usually, formulated terms of reference fall to me from business. And then they tell me tasks over the phone, I have to fix everything myself and still keep in touch with the rest of the team. Although this is the work of a project manager, who is not in the project.

Maxim, developer

Such resistance is an alarm signal: perhaps they are trying to push someone else's task onto you, and you understand this.

✅ What to do

Discuss this task with the person from whom the task comes. Life is negotiations: as you agree, so be it. You can refuse, you have every right to do so. Or you can offer a fair reward and no longer feel like you're wasting your time.

When I worked as a personnel officer, I was assigned to organize a corporate party. This is not my job, I solved completely different issues. They were not going to pay me. At first I thought: okay, let it hang for now. I got frustrated and didn't sit down to the task until I started getting bombarded: why the hell should I be doing something that isn't my job?

Discussed the situation with her husband. Together we jotted down on a piece of paper a few specific suggestions on what to do with the task. I went with this leaflet to the owner of the company and eventually achieved my goal: the task was removed from me.

Olesya, analyst

In any case, it is better to give up the task than to do it by force and scold yourself for agreeing.

Self-respect has not been canceled

Reason #6. Don't want to think about what's really important

A person can have many aspirations. Someone dreams of becoming a pilot, someone - a doctor. But dreams remain dreams, and you need to live on something. As a result, we do not do what we want, but what we have to do.

Usually a person understands this very well and it is hard and painful for him from these thoughts. To drown out the pain, he distracts himself in every possible way. For example, watching the news and TV shows. Or procrastinate, replacing the forced activity with another, more pleasant one.

✅ What to do

Here, procrastination is a great reason to think: “Where am I going? Am I running away from my own goals and desires?

Try to gradually give up what you do not need. Unsubscribe from news, bloggers or friends who are talking nonsense. If you often stick on YouTube, think about how useful information you consume: maybe you should unsubscribe from half of the channels, and your life will not change in any way.

Start moving towards your goals. Have you ever wanted to learn how to play the guitar? Go to the first lesson and feel how it is. Dreaming of becoming an artist? Buy a canvas and some paints, watch a couple of free tutorials on YouTube and make your first sketches. Everything big starts small.

After the first few steps, you may not want to move on. But this is not bad - so you understand that this is most likely an imposed goal. At the same time, this way you will close the gestalt, and this will just help free your attention and deprive procrastination of food.

I have always loved the work of an editor and did not plan to do anything else - there was no time. Not to say that I procrastinated because of this, but I began to notice that I did not experience much joy in life.

Everything changed when I started my own project to help people with gambling problems get on with their lives. Now almost every morning I get up in anticipation of what I will do today - both for myself and for others.

Sergey, editor

A dream is a responsibility to oneself

Reason #7. Postpone what does not burn

For example, you bought a java-script course, but didn't take it because you can't find the time for it. Either there are too many projects, or you have not been involved in sports for a long time, or something else. In fact, when a person says, "I don't have time for this," what they mean is, "I don't think it's important enough."

A person will do important things without giving a damn about procrastination and everything else. Let's say you are a developer and have been trying to make a personal website for six months. And then you were invited to speak at a conference that will be full of entrepreneurs - your clients. Most likely, you will spit on procrastination and make a website in a couple of days.

If you're not doing something, you probably don't need it right now. And then this is not procrastination, but saving your main resource - time.

✅ What to do

Return to the task when it becomes important. When a person really needs something, he does so, spitting on procrastination and other obstacles.

Sometimes a postponed matter becomes important when you realize that the money has already been spent, it is pointless to postpone further.

I recently bought a drawing course. It ends soon, and I still haven't completed a single lesson. I just asked myself: why did I spend money on this? I sat down for a couple of days and everything went away.

Olesya, analyst

When you realize that you really need it, then you will do it

Procrastination always has a reason. If you can, find it yourself. If you're only getting worse, see a therapist. True procrastination is a disease that needs to be treated.

Once upon a time I had a serious pen - I was afraid to die. The psychologist explained that the fear of death is a shell of some kind of fear. I realized that I was afraid of not being realized professionally. As soon as I understood this, the fear of death disappeared.

When you realize you're procrastinating, you should think, “Yeah, I'm procrastinating. And because of what? It's not because you're bad or lazy or because everyone has this problem. Procrastination is a consequence that has a cause. Find the reason and procrastination will stop.

Nikita, web designer

In the twenty-first century, we are more concerned than ever with issues of performance and efficiency. Often we do what we have to do, and not what we want to do. Because of this, the problem of procrastination is so acute right now.

The Roman philosopher Seneca warned: "As long as we put off life, it passes." We hope this article will help you cope with procrastination and live life to the fullest.

Ever experienced procrastination? Did you manage to defeat her?

Procrastination. Reasons and 10 ways to cope with it

A banal situation: you need to make a report, and on a topic that is quite interesting to you, and you have a whole month for this. You are a student, you like to learn new things, study different disciplines and study successfully. The teacher told you that for a well-prepared report you will automatically receive a credit during the session, and this will motivate you very much.

At the same time, you know that there is still a month before the report is due, and this thought is like a balm for your soul, because you do not need to start working right now. This is how a week goes by, and it would be nice to get down to business, but there are still three weeks ahead, and this thought reassures you again - you will have time for everything . ..

an alarm starts to sound. However, side and "more important" things, along with the idea that there is still time, continue to maintain the illusion that everything is going according to plan, it's too early to rush.

Ultimately, there are two days left until X-day, and you, realizing that there is nowhere to delay, start frantically collecting material and making your report, getting nervous and reducing the time for sleep and rest to two hours a day. As a result, you successfully pass the report and the teacher evaluates it. In principle, everything is fine.

But, first of all, was it worth it to delay so much in order to work at the limit of possibilities? Secondly, was there a guarantee that you would be able to write a good paper in such a short time? And, thirdly, how many situations in life happen that are completely unrelated to study, when we always put off important things for later?

Good luck if these things are rare in your life, but there are those who become the real victims of their habit of procrastinating something important, and subsequently face serious problems - dismissal, loss of people's trust, vain hopes, unfulfilled goals, a waste of time and a life of no purpose.

It may seem that we are exaggerating, but such a phenomenon as procrastination has firmly entered people's lives today and has become a real scourge of our time. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod wrote about the original form of procrastination - procrastination - around 800 BC, saying that work cannot be put off until tomorrow, and poverty becomes the lot of the one who does it. The ancient Roman politician Cicero and the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, as well as many other people of antiquity, spoke about the same.

Naturally, modern man bears little resemblance to an ancient philosopher or orator, but the problem remains, and it will not be an exaggeration if we say that it has become even worse. Despite the fact that today no one restricts the freedom of people, and each of us is almost always free to calmly choose how and in what to invest our time, many really have no idea how to use these advantages.

At the same time, people do not realize why they do not have enough time for anything, why plans go down the drain, why long-awaited events never come to life. However, you will read more about this in our article “The Harm and Consequences of Procrastination”, and today we will try to understand the causes of this problem and study the opinions of some experts.

What is procrastination?

Procrastination has been known since ancient times, and its "adepts" at one time were such famous personalities as Pablo Picasso, Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and many others. What can I say - probably each of us is familiar with this unique phenomenon.

Procrastination is the habit or even tendency of a person to put off doing important things. This concept itself appeared in 1977, when a scientific article by two American researchers Albert Ellis and William Knaus “Overcoming procrastination” was published [Overcoming procrastination, 1977].

It said that during procrastination a person continues to be active, but this activity is directed to insignificant, extraneous and even meaningless activities. By the way, there is a similar concept in psychology - “activity trap”, meaning the appearance of activity in which a person is busy with everything and nothing at the same time.

Procrastination is often called a side effect of laziness, and in order to activate it, a person only needs to be distracted by some trifle for five minutes, and it becomes very difficult to return to work. Of course, small breaks for rest are needed, but you can’t be led by an insidious voice repeating something like: “Today you have done enough already, you can rest, and continue tomorrow.”

Procrastination and waste of time, when a person still cannot do what he has to do, psychologists call the virus of our time. There is even a publication, Procrastination: A Malady of Modern Time, by English psychologist Noah Milgram [Procrastination: A Malady of Modern Time, 1992].

In his work, Milgram identifies five types of procrastination:

Daily procrastination. A person puts off household chores that need to be done constantly.
Academic procrastination. A person puts off doing homework, puts off preparing for exams, and so on.
Neurotic procrastination. A person puts off making vital decisions, for example, a wedding, the birth of a child, choosing a profession, etc.
Procrastination in decision making. A person puts off making all, even the smallest decisions.
Compulsive procrastination. It combines procrastination in decision making and behavioral procrastination (daily, neurotic).

As you can see, postponing things is a very cunning enemy that can wait for any person at every step. However, it is quite possible to overcome it, but the first thing that is required for this is to determine the reasons why procrastination can occur. Knowing about them, it will become much easier to overcome procrastination.

Causes of procrastination

We wrote about the main causes of procrastination in the articles "Causes of laziness and ways to deal with them" and "Why we are constantly distracted and how to deal with it", so we will not repeat ourselves. Instead, consider procrastination theories proposed by Canadian psychologist and Associate Professor of Human Resources and Organizational Dynamics at the University of Calgary Piers Steele, published in The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure, Psychological Bulletin, 2007].

For 30 years, Steele researched theories about the causes of procrastination, and eventually identified the four most accurate (by the way, the scientist’s conclusions were based on the main ideas from the book “The Magic Number Seven Plus or Minus Two” by George Miller). Consider Steele's theories briefly:

Anxiety and fear of failure. People who are unable to control themselves in stressful situations suffer from procrastination most often. They choose the path of doing nothing, because afraid to do bad things and worry about it. Here we note that, according to the American psychologist and cognitive therapist Albert Ellis, a person who is afraid of a negative result and procrastinates will never be able to fulfill his desires and become happy, and will postpone all his affairs “for tomorrow” arbitrarily.
Excessive perfectionism. Very often people try to find some external reasons not to do what they think they cannot do one hundred percent. Perfectionism serves as a safety valve, and people willingly use it to protect themselves from self-flagellation and shame. Clary Ley, Ph.D., of York University in Toronto, says in this regard that people tend to purposefully delay work in order to protect their self-esteem.
Disagreement with everyone and everything. This theory concerns hostile, negative thinking and aggressive people, the so-called "rebels". They deliberately delay the work, being sure that they will do it the way they see fit. But in the end, they never get to work, and if they do, they do it at the last moment, and even in the way it was originally required.
Lack of motivation. If a person has no motivation, he will not do anything - everything is as simple as two and two. For most people, it is important that they can benefit from what they do, and the greater this benefit, the sooner a person will get down to business. The result of actions should be pleasant, some kind of reward is needed, and this reward should be in the foreseeable future.

One does not need to have superpowers to see the meaning in the theories listed. By and large, they alone are already quite enough to understand what is worth working on in order to stop procrastinating endlessly. You need to start working through your fears, get rid of the desire to do everything perfectly, cultivate positive thinking in yourself and look for motivation for yourself in everything you do.

But, of course, this is not all that can and should be done by those for whom procrastination has become a faithful companion in life. Let's find out what the experts think about this. (We also recommend reading the article "Interesting facts about procrastination", which will also help you clarify some important points about this interesting phenomenon.)

How to beat procrastination?

In addition to the above, to overcome procrastination, you must have the will. We all face in our lives what we don’t want to do, but this does not mean at all that on our “I don’t want” the light converges like a wedge. Each of us needs to become a truly strong person.

And the first thing to do in order to stop postponing is simply to stop postponing. By the way, this is also a skill, and the development of any skill is a serious work and work on oneself, which is accompanied by tension and discomfort. However, each step towards such a good goal is a small victory over weaknesses, which will certainly bear fruit in the future.

Piers Steele, already mentioned by us, says that if a person begins to devote a minimum of time to completing tasks, his efficiency will become much higher. But here it should be remembered that each task must have some significant reward, and the faster a person completes the task, the faster he will receive this reward.

In 2011, John Perry, professor of philosophy at Stanford University, conducted an in-depth study on procrastination. The study was called “Structured Procrastination” [Structured Procrastination, 2011], and one of Perry’s main findings was that he proposes to combat procrastination in doing important things by doing unimportant things.

At first glance, it looks strange, but the answer lies on the surface. In his 2012 book The Art of Procrastination, Perry suggests that you start fooling yourself by replacing difficult tasks with easier ones. To do this, you need to make a to-do list, where the most important tasks alternate with the less important ones. It is likely that by doing so, we will still put off the most difficult, but we will be able to complete the simple, which means that the day will no longer be wasted.

But the American writer and journalist Nicholas Carr, in his sensational book The Shallows [The Shallows, 2011] (for which, by the way, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize), writes that the main cause of prokarstination and laziness is the ubiquitous Internet. People are distracted by various posts, Instagram photos, YouTube videos, social networks and a huge number of other factors.

Another US specialist, psychoanalyst and psychologist Karen Horney developed her own theory of neurosis in the first half of the 20th century, one of the central concepts in which was the “tyranny of duty” [A Constructive Theory of Neurosis, 1945]. It was about the fact that a person is not able to recognize what he wants and what he really needs. His desire for self-realization is blocked by unattainable, in his opinion, goals, and as a result, this is compensated by the performance of insignificant and pleasant things.

From the above, we can also draw very specific conclusions: to overcome procrastination, you need to develop willpower and form the habit of stopping procrastinating, setting yourself deadlines in order to complete the work by the scheduled date, and this period should be as short as possible.

In addition, you need to develop skills in planning and prioritizing tasks in order to better understand what needs to be done first and when and what can really be postponed, to be more objective in spending time on the Internet and, of course, to understand yourself and your true desires, aspirations and tasks.

If you want more specifics, first of all, read our articles “3 steps to overcome procrastination”, “Overcoming procrastination with thoughts” and “How to say goodbye to procrastination. And secondly, start applying the recommendations of Travis Bradberry. About who he is and what he advises to do, read below.

10 Ways to Deal with Procrastination

Travis Bradberry is known as one of the founders of the TalentSmart consulting company (note that many Fortune 500 companies are its clients). In 2016, he wrote an amazing article for Entrepreneur magazine [11 Ways To Beat Procrastination], where he suggested 11 ways to deal with procrastination.

We present you a slightly revised presentation of Bradbury's ideas (you will find a link to the English original at the end of the article). So, in order to start overcoming procrastination, you need to become the master of your mood, and you can do this by using the appropriate strategy. About it and will be discussed further.

Find out the reasons

Procrastination sometimes overcomes even the most successful and productive people. The first thing they do to overcome it is find out its causes. And only after that they begin to apply some method of eliminating this "ailment", which will not allow it to take root and subjugate consciousness.

The reason can be either what we have already talked about above, or something else, for example, disorganization, laziness, bad mood, great responsibility, even banal hunger or thirst. Give the non-work mood just one chance, and it will certainly take advantage of it, throwing you a bunch of more interesting and entertaining activities.

The most productive step towards solving a problem is identifying its cause. If you feel like you're tempted to "pull the rubber", stop for a minute, sit down and think about why this is happening, be honest with yourself. Once you figure out what's wrong, you'll be able to come up with a plan to eliminate the factors affecting you.

Eliminate Obstacles

Before you even get started, you should think about possible obstacles and make a rough plan to eliminate them. Let's say you've been emailed a project assignment, but every time you're about to watch it, you're constantly distracted by other emails, mailing lists, or interesting ads.

In this case, you just need to copy the letter to a text document or move the file to a separate folder on your desktop. Approximately so it is necessary to arrive and with any other hindrances. The most important thing is to understand exactly what can start to distract you. It is best to even make a list of obstacles.

Planning ahead like this will keep you focused on the important things. Remember that it is much easier to maintain focus on a particular job than to constantly get distracted and then focus again. This approach will also make you feel much less tired.

Get started right away

Even if you're doing what you love, getting started can be very difficult. If you do not quite understand where to start, or see some difficulties, you can just sit and do nothing. But it is important not to think about actions, but to act - this is what distinguishes a productive person from an unproductive one.

The hardest step is to take the first step - make one call, write a few lines, draw a table for a report, etc. Once you start, you will cross the threshold of procrastination, which will give you the energy to continue. If you continue to focus on the difficulties, you will lose all desire to act.

Divide the work into parts

In many cases, people procrastinate when they see a huge amount of work ahead of them. If this scares you too, know that you can "eat an elephant" by dividing it into small pieces, i.e. breaking down the work into small parts. Find small segments in a large project that do not require a serious investment of time and effort, and start working little by little.

For example, it may take you 40 hours to write a report, but if you start to act in stages, you will spend only 2-3 hours on the same introduction. With these small steps in two weeks, you can quietly write your report, doing it for only a few hours every day. Huge projects will immediately cease to scare you if you work in this way.

Create the Right Environment

A big obstacle to productive work can be the wrong environment. All sorts of distractions can easily make you procrastinate. These include different gadgets, game consoles, TV, loud music, as well as friends or family flickering nearby.

Try to create an environment for work where no one and nothing will distract you. Remove everything from your field of vision that your attention clings to, ask your family or colleagues not to distract you during the time you need. The less interference there is, the easier it will be for you to concentrate and start working.

Record any progress

No need to chase the end result, because it can take a very long time. But small successes are quite tangible, and if you celebrate them, your motivation will always be warmed up. At the beginning of each day or the night before, make a to-do list and cross it off as you complete it.

By the way, by celebrating your small victories, you will contribute to the formation of new androgen receptors in the areas of the brain responsible for motivation and reward. As a result, the body produces testosterone, which gives self-confidence and inspires new victories.

Set realistic goals

Setting unrealistic goals in the beginning will quickly take away your motivation to work and plunge you into a state of decline, which is a serious cause of procrastination. To stay positive and upbeat, your goals and objectives must be achievable.

On this topic, by the way, we advise you to read several of our articles: "3 steps: how to set a goal and achieve it", "10 steps to achieve goals" and "Why goals are not achieved". This information will teach you the right goal setting and how to quickly achieve high results - both during the day and in the long term.

Watch your thoughts

An interesting fact: if you tell yourself that you will not procrastinate, you will begin to program yourself to procrastinate. This is about the same as if you told yourself not to think about grief - all your thoughts will begin to strive for it, and you will begin to gravitate towards the “forbidden fruit”.

The trick is this: you have to learn to switch your attention to something detached and positive. Don't think about procrastination. Replace it with thoughts of a positive outcome, small victories, successful completion of work, and so on. The focus is on what you want, not what you want to run away from.

Concentrate on finishing the job

When you are faced with a difficult task, start to think logically. Do not focus on the fact that you do not want to start work, because habitual thinking will constantly tell you that it is difficult, that it is worth waiting and starting later. Do not indulge this insidious voice in your head.

Instead, start thinking about how good you will feel when you finish what you started, how proud you will be of yourself, what a pleasant feeling of satisfaction you will experience. At the same time, think about what the delay will lead to, what problems it is fraught with, how you will reproach yourself when there is almost no time left for work.

Don't blame yourself

There is no point in self-flagellation and guilt, if suddenly you still “stumbled” and succumbed to procrastination. This attitude will not be right, and it is foolish to expect that in the future it will help you overcome procrastination. Ultimately, it will lead to the same thing, and nothing will change.

If you realize that you are putting things off, there is nothing wrong with that. Accept this fact, relax, do not worry. Just fix it and get to work, taking into account everything that has already been said above. We are all human, and we all have our weaknesses, but the task is not to blame ourselves, but to work on ourselves.

These are the tips offered by Travis Bradberry. We think that taking into account the successes that he has achieved and continues to achieve, it makes sense to listen to his words. A professional will not advise bad. But at the same time, we want to add something else from ourselves, and this applies specifically to psychological factors.

Consider psychology

Here we just want to say that in the fight against procrastination it is important to take into account some psychological features related to productivity and motivation. And first of all, it is, of course, Parkinson's laws. We wrote about them in detail in the article "Parkinson's Law", so let's just recall the First Law - the most important for us.

According to him, work fills all the time allotted for it. Those. if you have two weeks to write a report, you will most likely write it all two weeks. And if there is free time in the process, it will be filled with a variety of things, but not with work. But it would be better to finish the work earlier and then move on to other things.

The following is the Yerkes-Dodson law, which you can learn about in detail in the article of the same name. He says that a person achieves the best results when his motivation is at an average level, i.e. when it is neither too small nor too high. With low motivation, you simply will not do anything, and with excessive motivation, the results will become worse.

The level of activity and tension becomes so high that discord occurs in work and efficiency drops. If we evaluate motivation on a scale from 1 to 10, then for complex tasks a motivation of 2-3 points is suitable, for medium tasks a motivation of 5 points, and for simple tasks a motivation of 7-8 points or even higher.

And just about motivation, it is useful to take into account the information-need theory of PV Simonov (we wrote about it here). There is a formula: E \u003d P * (Pu-Ru), where E is an emotion, P is a need, Pu is a predicted effort and Ru is a real effort. Everything is deciphered very simply.

Often procrastination is the result of apathy caused by severe stress or constant experience of negative emotions received in the process of work. Negative emotions can arise if the real efforts are higher than the predicted ones, and the emotions themselves are stronger than the need, i.e. stronger motivation.

It follows that if the motivation is very high, and the view of the process of achieving the result is overly optimistic, then the emotions will be negative. This leads to apathy, stress and procrastination. Therefore, you need to try to objectively evaluate your work and maintain an optimal level of motivation so that emotions are positive. And on this, in fact, we can sum up today's article.

Don't be afraid of failures, don't be afraid to make mistakes or do something imperfect, don't be afraid of large amounts of work and difficult tasks, because this does not allow you to work properly, set high goals and achieve them, expanding your boundaries and climbing to new heights . You are capable of many things, and boundaries are only the result of your thinking.

Learn to accept yourself as you are, with all the minuses and shortcomings, with the level of development at which you are at the moment. Once you accept yourself, no difficulties, mistakes and critical assessments can stop you and jeopardize the success of any of your endeavors.

Remember that, even if very tiny, but daily victories over yourself and your weaknesses will slowly but surely move you forward. It is not a miracle that will help you truly enjoy the fruits of your labors, but the understanding that you need to act not sometime later, but today and now.

And, of course, to supplement knowledge about procrastination, its features and ways to overcome it, you can use the books and articles listed below (we also provide links to sources from which we used information when compiling this material):

Overcoming procrastination by Ellis, A., & Knaus, W. J., 1977 (in English)
Procrastination: A Malady of Modern Time by Milgram, N.
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