Stop procrastinating now – or maybe tomorrow.
For the next 3 days, we’re going to get to grips with this procrastination thing that affects us all.
Today, we’ll look at what procrastination is and its causes. Tomorrow, we’ll see how procrastination really affects our lives and on Friday, I’ll share some strategies for managing it more effectively.
So let’s get to it.
We procrastinate when we avoid something that needs to happen.
This cut and dry definition, though, doesn’t describe how people feeeeel about it. We feel guilty or lazy or not as good as the guy next door. If you procrastinate you ‘are just plain bad’.
Beyond not having good time management skills, which is easily remedied, procrastination can be caused by many different factors.
Action – See if any of the following rings bells for you – maybe you are currently procrastinating because of one of them!
- Maybe the task doesn’t appear relevant to what you want to achieve.
- Or it has no significant meaning for you because it is part of someone else’s goal.
- You might have some performance anxiety, being worried about how others will judge your outcomes.
- If you are trying to do something completely new, and therefore unknown, you may hesitate.
- And of course if you are uncertain of what is expected of you, it may be hard to even get started.
- Right up there as well is whether you actual feel confident that you can achieve what is required.
All these factors can cause us to procrastinate.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at how that procrastination really affects us.