Why do we procrastinate? - 4 simple reasons!
There are many reasons why people procrastinate. Here, we will try
to explain them to you. The idea is that once you understand the
reasons behind procrastination, you will be able to identify it the
next time you start to procrastinate!If you are able to identify it, you should easily be able to overcome it!
First, the 4 simple reasons
When something is difficult:
When you believe that a particular task is difficult to do, you to
try to convince your self not to do it. You try to do another more
easier task instead. This is one of the most common reasons why people
procrastinate. Look out for this! Next time you come across some
difficult task look at how your mind tries to convince you that you
should do something else.
Do not fall for these mind games. Get the difficult task over there and then! When it is over, take pride in completing the difficult task. Stop for a few seconds and think about how well you have done that difficult task without procrastinating. This is called “positive re-enforcement”. It will help you form the habit of doing things without procrastinating!
When something is time consuming:
When you feel that a particular task is time consuming or will take
up a huge block of time, you will try to procrastinate this kind of
task. You will avoid ever starting! You will convince your self that
you must do something else.
Recognize when you do this. To overcome this, one trick is to tell your
mind that you will work on the task for only 10 mins and not more. The
idea is to break down the task into small parts and do one at a time.
However, the effect is quite different. You see, once you actually get
yourself to begin working on the task, you will probably continue even
after 10 mins are over! Try it out!
When you feel that you lack the knowledge or skills required:
When there is particular task and you feel that you do not have the
required knowledge or skills to complete the task, you procrastinate
it. This could be because you do not want to make mistakes. So, you
convince your-self that you must learn before beginning the task.
Well, the best way to get your-self to do this kind of task is to
tell your self that, “This task is easy! I can do it! How hard
can it be?”, something on those lines.
When you are afraid:
Generally, when you are afraid of failure in a particular task and
you do not want everyone to know that you failed or blame you for
failing. So, to avoid all this, you procrastinate that task. You
somehow or the other keep postponing the task. Recognize when you are
doing this.
To get your self on the task, you will again have to convince your self
that, “The task is easy! You can do it!” Etc.
In the above paragraphs, we keep saying that “you will have to
convince yourself” to get over your procrastination. You might be
wondering, “Will I have to lie to my self to overcome my
procrastination?” The answer: YES!
After all, when ever you procrastinate, what you are really doing is
lying to your self, right? For example: If you face a difficult
problem, you “convince yourself” that you
“must” do something else. So, you end up postponing the
difficult task. So, to overcome the procrastination, you have to lie to
your self once again! So the asnwer is: YES! Lie to your self.
Now, the WORST thing about procrastination is that it is
self-rewarding and so it is very hard to get out of the habit. For
example: If you postpone something till the last minute and then
you get it done last minute in hurry and you somehow still manage to
get it done properly, you start to feel good about your self. You start
to convince your self that you can work only under pressure when time
is short.
Next time, when some task is to be completed, you will tell your self,
“Let the last minute come, when there is pressure, I will sit
down and get myself to do it! Anyways, I work much better under
pressure, don’t I?..” This way, you habit of
procrastination keeps building up and you start to procrastinate more
and more. Sooner or later you will start to procrastinate everything!
What we have explained above are just some of the simple reasons why
people procrastinate. There are more complicated reasons and we shall
explain those to you in the next section. But, the reasons do not
matter! What is MOST important is that you know when you are
procrastinating. You must be able to understand that you are
procrastinating.
Remember, that if you are a procrastinator, it is likely that you
procrastinate in each and every thing that you do. You probably
procrastinate in big things and small things. Observe how your mind
plays games on you and convinces you postpone things. Once you are
aware of this, you will be able to solve your problems….
What we have explained on this page are just the “simple
reasons” behind procrastination. There are more
“complicated reasons” because of which some people
procrastinate. You might be procrastinating because of one of these and
not even knowing it. It would be good for you to understand these
reasons to…
Next - Why do we procrastinate? - Part 2 >>
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