What is Procrastination?
Many people around the world have been suffering from procrastination even without their knowledge. This may be simply due to the fact that some do not understand what procrastination is or cannot tell when it starts creeping in. So, what is procrastination?
Procrastination is the tendency to put off your essential tasks to be done some other time. This will in most cases be characterized with non-essential tasks getting preference over the critical ones. The definition may seem and sound very simple but the effects of procrastination can be severe.
Deep within you, you have an emotional reaction. This reaction will be evident when you have to do something but you dislike that activity, or simply do not enjoy doing it. Sometimes you will be convinced that you cannot do a particular activity.
Learning to acknowledge this reaction is crucial as it is the first step towards having the awareness and understanding of procrastination. Moreover, it makes it easier to stop the detrimental habit of procrastination by putting protective measures in place.
Living in denial of your condition will not only make it hard for you to get a solution to the nagging problem but will also make you prone to repetitions of the problem. This means that you may be successful in overcoming procrastination but find yourself in the same problem after a short period of time.
Many people have had the problem and managed to overcome it successfully. You should thus be comfortable with it as it’s not an exceptional case. If others have made it through, why can’t you? Just embrace your current condition and make the first baby steps towards the recovery.
It may be hard but you have to push through. This way, you will be sure of making great progress that will earn you long lasting solutions. The fight against procrastination cannot be won if one does not understand their condition fully.
The understanding starts with an evaluation of self to determine what is different from the norm. Through this process, you will be able to trace back your steps and see where you have been going wrong.
This is made possible by the presence of signs and symptoms. These are the indicators of deviation from the norm that will sound alarms to make you realize that you are headed in the wrong direction.
A huge number of people have been known to procrastinate due to the fear of failing in whatever they do. This affects perfectionists in a big way. If you are a perfectionist, you will tend to push everything to work your way.
However, you need to understand that you can’t always be right and some things will prove to be different from what you expect or want them to be.
Trying to push such things will not only stress you up but will also leave you very disappointed when you do not get the expected results?
It is always advisable that you let things take their course and only try to change those things that you are in a position to influence. Otherwise you will be stressing yourself.
A little understanding on your self-esteem will also be very important. Doing things successfully serves as a huge boost to our self-esteem. On the other hand, doing things that bear no positive results is quite detrimental on one’s self esteem.
However, your self-esteem will in no way be diminished by recognizing and realizing that there are some things in life that you have little control over. Some things will always prove to be a hard nut to crack for you but that really does not have to make you feel like a failure.
If your emails and notifications from social media keep disrupting you as you work, you will spend so much time on them and you will end up in procrastination. The best way to handle such situations is by turning off all the email notifications as well as the social media notifications.
You can set apart time during the day when you will have time to look at your emails and to indulge in the social media. This will give you some time to work on your assignments comprehensively. You will realize that you can get so much to be done by focusing on the activities and keeping out disruptions.
There are people who get numerous calls throughout the day and they find it very hard to ignore a ringing phone. One of the best ways to keep people from disturbing you during your busy hours is switching your phone off and redirecting the calls to the voice mail.
You will have an opportunity to listen to what the callers intended to tell you at the end of the day. This will allow you to avoid callers who keep calling for no specific reason which ends up taking a lot of your time.