Anti-Procrastination Habits: 3 Proven Cures

Each time you can’t say no, you say yes to things that aren’t important to you” – Dr Demartini

“Perhaps, as you may already know, All we have is now.

Now is the best time and the best time will always be now.”

Everything you want, is in the thinking that you will or life will be better in the having, being or doing of it and I am sure as we have all experienced at one stage or another challenges may arise seemingly blocking you from what you want to have or achieve. Today we are singling out procrastination and the dynamics it presents in derailing you from your success, progression and winning.

In the quest of finding a comprehensive definition for procrastination I found the wikipedia.org definition to be more functional and comprehensive.

Defining Procrastination…

Procrastination ~ is the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a later time. (wikipedia.org)

The definition above aptly outlines procrastination as counter-productive, a means to delaying other activities which may at the time seem less gratifying yet more important and hence the tasks done during procrastination are needless fillers or possible waste of time in nature.

Patterns of experience are created by habits of focus… What you focus on grows, so make sure you are looking at what you want. – L.Eggins

Being mindful that there maybe subtle variances in reasoning for someone procrastinating, research shows that majority stem from perfectionism (a personality trait characterized by a person’s striving for flawlessness and setting excessively high performance standards, accompanied by overly critical self-evaluations and concerns regarding others’ evaluations [wikipedia.org]), though in fairness an adaptive perfectionist mindset can drive individuals to attain what may seem unattainable, however when perfectionists fall short of their goal they may fall into a depression and this is the function that procrastinating serves, to protect people from their perceived impending doom, the deep fear that they are not enough.

In retrospectively analyzing human behavior it makes sense why people would procrastinate and avoid negative emotions, and delay perceived stressful activities. Furthermore, the belief that a person works best under pressure provides an additional motive for the suspension of tasks, is most times used as a BIG excuse and usually ends with the BIG freak out session and rush too close to the task deadline. In addition, whilst avoiding pain and procrastinating we seek pleasure through instantly gratifying acts which have no relevance to achieving the task being procrastinated e.g.

~ Going on a Youtube binge

~ Staring into space

~ Pretending the task does not exist

The list could go on. As you end up in behavioral routine whereby you don’t even know how you end up doing something when you are supposed to be doing something else.

The Tipping Point: Taking Back Your Power

3 Procrastination Cures….

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? – Marianne Williamson

When we now acknowledge our natural invaluable, innate and inherent reservoir of God-given talents and abilities we and can engage our dreams take responsibility that We are the reason our realization of what we desire happens as fast or as slowly as we perceive.

Quite possibly, when we perhaps calm and open our minds we may discover that just even the mere idea (the imaging/ imagining) of having what we desire makes us feel better… and from that posture and state of mind we are effectively lifted up, we are aligned and have a clarity that inspires us to act, and act boldly in the direction of the task that gets us closer to winning, closer to our dreams.

As there are several ways to combat procrastination here are in my opinion the three most powerful, practical and progressive procrastination antidotes:

• Having a plan, a specific plan, a specific plan that breaks down the entire big task into smaller more manageable tasks; whilst adequately rewarding yourself in fair proportion to what you have achieved.

• Stop focusing on faults and flaws and be prepared to fail to success, you’ve got to be willing to experiment… don’t miss out on your dreams because you don’t want to make mistakes, because you don’t want to look stupid, because you don’t want to fail, failure is part of the territory.

• Set easier, realistic, challenging goals that promote inspiration and motivation.

The same wind blows on us all; the winds of disaster, opportunity and change. Therefore, it is not the blowing of the wind, but the setting of the sails that will determine our direction in life – J. Rohn

In conclusion…

Procrastination is centered around instant gratification and perfectionism, and in the event you find yourself procrastinating, experiment a little and perhaps apply the three antidotes above to tip the battle in your favor or alternatively check out Tim Urban’s: Inside the Mind of A Master Procrastinator TED presentation (Highly recommended). In addition, Enjoying the time, the moment, the now, the present that we have is important, as all we have is now, though we must go about it in a manner such that we don’t find ourselves in a goal derailing cycle of procrastination through instant gratification. As we use our now to make our future-now a little more delightful or if we are a little thoughtful and use our now to make others future-now pleasurable too, let us master holding the paradox of enjoying the present moment and yet moving towards an evolved future we are yet to physically experience but have presently and mindfully designed.

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