Why You Should Stop Delaying Your Tasks

Procrastination can be a frustrating and disheartening habit, but it doesn’t have to be permanent. By understanding why you procrastinate, setting realistic goals, and maintaining a positive attitude, you can break the cycle of putting off tasks and start tackling them head-on.

It’s Friday afternoon, your colleagues are discussing their weekend plans, and you are trying to focus on a task in your hand, working furiously to finish the task before the EOD deadline. At the same time, cursing yourself for not acting on the task early and thinking how to stop procrastinating.

No matter how organized, self-disciplined, and committed you are toward your goals, chances are that you may have wasted some hours doing unnecessary tasks (binging your favorite show on OTT, scrolling social media sites, shopping online) instead of focusing on your goals. At one point or another, we all have faced the challenge of procrastination that majorly impacted our job, grades, and life.

Whether you are postponing a project at your workplace, avoiding an assignment, or neglecting household chores, don’t worry, you are not alone. Since our existence, we have been stumbling with delaying, dodging, and procrastinating on the issues that matter to us.

This post is to understand what is procrastination, why we do it, and share proven and easy-to-act strategies to stop procrastinating.

What is procrastination

Before you think how to stop procrastinating, you must understand what is procrastination. The word procrastination is derived from the Latin verb procrastinare, which means putting off something until tomorrow. 

If we look back in history, the ancient Greek philosophers defined a word that closely resembles the act of procrastination. That word is Akrasia, which means a lack of self-control or acting against one’s better judgment. It is when a person knows that action A is the best course of action, yet the person would do anything other than A.

In the current world, procrastination is delaying or postponing a task or tasks.

According to a group of researchers, procrastination is a form of self-regulation failure characterized by the irrational delay of tasks despite potentially negative consequences.

Why do we procrastinate

When it is about delaying some work, we often come up with many excuses. According to different researchers, the following are the most common reason why people procrastinate:

• Not aware of what to do
• Do not know how to do something
• Do not want to do something
• Doesn’t care if it gets done or not
• Not in the mood to do it
• Have the habit of waiting until the last minute
• Believing that you work better under pressure
• Do not have the courage to get started
• Forgetting
• Blaming sickness or poor health
• Waiting for the right moment
• Needing time to think about the task
• Delaying one task to complete other

The following are the few psychological reasons that cause procrastination:

Present Bias

According to a field experiment involving students, the present bias is the act of being happy and motivated with immediate rewards and not looking at the long-term rewards. This is why some people enjoy the moment of procrastination. The experiment proved that the present-biased students procrastinate when working on a single task, while they successfully manage to control themselves when doing a repetitive task.

Similar to the present bias, the “time inconsistency” phenomenon from behavioral psychology also shed some light on why people procrastinate. Time inconsistency is the tendency to give more value to immediate rewards than future rewards.

When you set your goals such as going to a gym to lose weight, writing a post like this post, or learning new skills, you are making plans that will benefit you in the future. You are picturing your future life and what you want to be in the future.

Even though you set goals for your future, you need to take action in present. When it is time to take action and make a decision, you no longer think of the future. You think of the present and researches show that in present we like immediate rewards and not long-term payoffs.

For the same reason, even knowing that it is good if you start saving for retirement in your 20s, many young people couldn’t do it. The reason for this is that retirement benefits are many years away. However, the treat in their favorite restaurants, those cool and new gadgets, or those new clothes seems to value more today as they will give immediate pleasure.

The immediate reward of remaining in bed binging your favorite show on OTT, or scrolling social media sites, is more appealing than the long-term reward of going to the gym, which would take much longer to accomplish.

Decision paralysis

Those days are gone when people couldn’t make their decisions, even their life-changing decisions. Current society emphasizes individual freedom and believes that the freer people are, the happier they will be.

So, why people in today’s world aren’t happy as compared to the people in the past? Because this freedom to decide has confused people. Confusion to set priorities, confusion to decide what is right and wrong, what is needed and what is not, and what to do and what not to do. This confusion to decide leads people not to do anything at all.

Psychological disorders

Procrastination itself is not a psychological disorder. But in some cases, it may be a sign of an underlying psychological disorder such as depression, OCD, or ADHD.

I am neither a psychology expert nor a psychiatrist, so will refrain from writing more on this topic. I will not give any advice that may lead to negative impacts and will focus on how to stop procrastinating.

What procrastination is not

So far, you have read and understood what procrastination is; let us shift our focus toward what procrastination is not and bust some myths.

Procrastination is not the same as being lazy

Procrastination and being lazy are two different terms, yet people often get confused. In procrastination, you act on something. You decide to do something instead of something that will help achieve your goals.

However, laziness is about not doing anything. It is about inactivity and unwillingness to act.

Procrastination is about doing an easier and more enjoyable task, in place of an unpleasant task that requires more effort, but is an important task.

Relaxation is not procrastination

Similar to laziness, do not get confused between relaxation and procrastination. When people relax, they recharge their energy and prepare themselves to perform further. However, procrastination drains your energy and makes you more stressed.

Why should you stop procrastinating and delaying things?

Procrastination is not a disease, it is more of a habit and does not have life-threatening effects in most cases. It is only when procrastination becomes regular and begins to impact someone’s daily life that it becomes a serious issue. In those cases, it’s not about having poor time management skills, but it is more a part of their lifestyle or daily habit.

According to a research, in the longer run, procrastination can leave serious marks on a person’s mental health, social, professional, and financial status.

How to stop procrastinating and delaying things

Procrastination is a problem that almost everyone struggles with at some point in their lives. It can be very difficult to overcome the urge to delay things, especially when it comes to important tasks.
The good news is that there are a number of strategies you can use to overcome procrastination. In this article, we will explore the causes of procrastination and some of the most effective ways to change your behavior.

If you are struggling with procrastination, then keep reading to learn more about why you procrastinate and how to change!

With the correct efforts and patience, you can break any habit. Here are some ways to overcome procrastination:

1. Understand the Nature of Procrastination

In order to begin breaking your procrastination habits, it’s important to first understand why you procrastinate and develop an awareness of when you are doing so. Some common reasons for procrastination include fear of failure or success, distractions, feeling overwhelmed or lack of structure or motivation. Striving for perfection can also be a bigger cause of procrastination than most people realize. Recognizing when and why you procrastinate is the first step in making lasting changes in your behavior.

2. Accept that you are procrastinating

To break any habit, the first step is to accept that you are doing wrong and only then you can take corrective actions.

In the past, you might have delayed some tasks because you have re-prioritized your workload, or perhaps you are waiting for some more inputs to start an important task. If you are delaying a task for some good reason, then you aren’t procrastinating. 

However, if you continue to delay that task for an indefinite time and every time find a reason to delay it, or do something else just to avoid a task, then you might be procrastinating.

3. Find out why you are procrastinating and how to stop delaying things

After accepting that you are procrastinating, the next step is to find the reasons behind your procrastination.

For example, you may be avoiding a task because it is boring or unpleasant to you or you like to be disorganized and can not set your priorities.

Another major reason that can lead to procrastination is poor decision-making skills. If you can’t decide what to do, then it is likely that you will delay things.

4. Create a Clearer Vision and Set Obtainable Goals

Identifying your ultimate goal and breaking it down into smaller, more achievable tasks can make the task seem a lot less overwhelming. When determining your goals, make sure to give yourself achievable deadlines that fit into your daily schedule and create a timeline specifically for that project or task. Even though it’s still important to strive for great results, you don’t have to get every detail perfect. The point is to make progress in terms of completing tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible.

5. Develop More Effective Time Management Techniques

Developing better time management techniques can help you avoid procrastinating by allowing you to make a plan for how you will use your time. This involves focusing on knowing what tasks need to be done, setting realistic goals and deadlines, breaking the task into smaller steps, focusing on one task at a time, eliminating or minimizing distractions during work hours, and scheduling breaks throughout the day.

6. Replace Unhelpful Self-Talk with Positive Thinking and Affirmations

Unhelpful self-talk is the negative inner dialogue that can often lead to procrastination. Examples of this talk might include statements such as, “I’m no good at this” or “I can never get anything done on time.” Replace these thoughts with positive mantras or affirmations to help you motivate yourself and keep you on track. Tell yourself “I can do this,” “I am capable,” and speak kindly to yourself whenever your self-doubt threatens to overtake you.

7. Identify Strategies to Overcome Distractions and Motivate Yourself Regularly to Stop Delaying Things

When you find yourself procrastinating, identify the most common distractions that draw your attention like social media or messaging apps. Mitigate these distractions by blocking access to them when you need to get work done or setting time limits for when you are allowed to use them. Additionally, create a regular routine or schedule for yourself and create incentives so you can reward yourself for finishing tasks on time. This will motivate you to keep working and help break the cycle of procrastination.

8. Take charge and use any or all of the following strategies to stop procrastinating

After you know what makes you procrastinate, it is time to beat those reasons and stop procrastinating. Remember, you can’t overcome procrastination overnight. Breaking a habit needs effort and patience.

Also read: What are the Causes and How to reduce stress at work

• Forgive the past: The first and foremost thing is to forgive whatever you have done in the past. Please remember, I am not suggesting to forget, you must remember the past and consider them as your learnings. There are studies suggesting that self-forgiveness helps you feel more positive about yourself.
• Make a commitment to the task: You must focus on doing things and not avoiding them. Consider writing down the things that you want to achieve and give them a deadline. When specifying the deadlines, ensure that they are not too close and make you stressed. This will be your to-do list.
• Associate a reward with each task: It is always good to associate a reward with every task. This will motivate you to complete it and also when you complete the task, it allows you to treat yourself. Ensure that your brain understands that feels good when you finish your tasks.
• Take baby steps: As I said at the start of this section, you can’t overcome procrastination overnight and achieve everything in one go. Consider breaking tasks in your to-do list into small and achievable tasks, so that they don’t seem to be overwhelming.
  The renowned psychologist, Albert Bandura in his book Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control, also emphasizes that to develop your self-efficacy one of the most effective ways is through achieving small wins.
  Also read: The Ultimate Guide for Writing a SMART Goal Example
• Remove distractions: When identifying the reasons for procrastination, you must have found what takes your focus off your important tasks. It could be those new post notifications on your phone or new email notifications from your office mailbox. You must turn off all those distractions. If it is about checking work emails, you can set a time of your day, when you will be checking your emails. You can also inform your colleagues that you will be checking your email at that time and will reply only during that.
  Scott Allan in his book, “Do the Hard Things First: How to Win Over Procrastination and Master the Habit of Doing Difficult Work” emphasized avoiding distractions to overcome procrastination.
• Take a break: When you strike off a task from your to-do list after completing it, reward yourself and take a small break. Take a break to do something that makes you happy. Maybe head over towards your kitchen and beat a coffee or go for a quick walk.
  Remove unnecessary tasks from your to-do list: There are a lot of tasks on our to-do list that we want to do and think are important to us. However, not all tasks fit your future goals and the things that you want to achieve in your life. Those tasks might take the time that you would otherwise spend on completing other important tasks and achieving your goals.
  Greg McKeown in his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less explains why you can’t achieve bigger goals if you are concerned about the things that don’t matter to you.
  Even though I will strongly oppose multi-tasking, some ways can help you achieve more by doing less. Richard Koch in his book The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less, explains those ways that can help you achieve 80 percent of your results by just doing 20 percent of your tasks.