Each of us has faced procrastination at least once in their life. You have probably instantly thought about laziness? But procrastination is not laziness. It is postponement of important tasks until later.

According to research, about 95% of people are prone to procrastination, and the remaining 5% claiming that everything is always done on time, most likely they lie though…)))

Here are the main causes of procrastination highlighted by Chris Bailey:

  1. Boring tasks. We don’t enjoy the execution process.
  2. Feeling of barrenness (uselessness of the task). We do not fully understand why it is important to carry out a specific task and what results it may bring in the future.
  3. Challenging tasks. We find the work so complicated that it seems we will not be able to cope with it.
  4. Unstructured work. We don’t have a clear understanding of where to start and how to do the job.
  5. The project has no personal value for the executor. That is, it isn’t clear to us what benefits we will receive from the completion of the task.
  6. Work does not give instant results (reward).

Don’t be discouraged if you realize that you often come across one or more of the points listed. There are many ways to fight procrastination. 

We list the most common:

  1. Criticize yourself more consciously. We need to sincerely admit to ourselves how much time we can devote to this or that matter, but be honest, don’t go: “I’ll have time to do not only this work tomorrow, but also much more things”. Tomorrow will only get worse, because all the unwillingness to complete the task will be aggravated by remorse. 
  2. If the task is boring or unpleasant – why not sweeten it with something nice. For example, make your favorite tea or turn on your favorite music.
  3. Routine work can be supplemented with enjoyable activities. For example, 1 hour of work, then watching a 20 minute series of your favorite serial. But the main thing here is not to get carried away).
  4. If the task is complex and incomprehensible, break it into smaller subtasks. First of all, select the most difficult part and try to figure out what scares you or puts you off. Once you succeed with the most difficult part, everything will be much easier with the rest of the subtasks.
  5. To cope with a complex task, create a step-by-step plan for its implementation and finish it sequentially by points.
  6. If there is no direct personal benefit from the work, feel free to reward yourself. For example, after every report submitted on time, allow yourself some goodies.

And most importantly, act and don’t be afraid. After all, the fear of doing the work takes much more time and energy from us than the execution itself. Why spend time on groundless fears and worries, if you can spend time on interesting and useful work and enjoy the result.

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