"Procrastination is a type of behaviour which is characterised by deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite procrastination as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination
Procratination can also be seen as an attempt by the procrastinator to lighten the immediate workload by putting off work to a later date. This is proof of the fallability of our minds as procrastination, while slightly decreasing the current workload, dramatically increases the percieved and real, future workload.
On some level we all know this and this knowledge makes us go into a spiral of self loathing and stress whenever we start procrastinating something. This causes us to shy away from the whole subject of the procrastinated task since even approaching the subject causes all the guilt and anxiety to float to the surface. So we keep putting it off, thinking that someday we will have time and energy to deal with it.
In the mean time under the surface the guilt and stress keeps growing and expanding. Every once in a while some of that guilt reaches the surfaceand we are reminded of the thing we have been procratinated. The surfacing stress and guilt however, while reminding us, also overwhelmes us causing us to, in a kneejerk response, push it back down.
Eventually a deadline of some kind approaches and we are forced to digg the task up and get it done. So there we are, the night before deadline, digging our way through our own guilt and stress, now with an added flavour of panic, doing the best we can with the limited time left in a panicked frenzy of work, all the while wowing to never procrastinate again. But we all know we will.
So how do we get out of this cycle of procratinating thing? Like with anything awareness is key. The answer to the question why we procrastinate may also contain the recepie for beating it. Lets look at what has been written on the subject:
John roth over at www.getrichslowly.org writes this on the subject:
Never underestimate the power of Doing it Now. In earlier posts I have mentioned the benefits of doing now."I am a procrastinator. I always have been. It’s a character flaw, and I admit it. I’ve tried all sorts of things to beat the habit — Getting Things Done, e-mail reminders, dozens of list systems — but the only thing that seems to work is to:
- You still have a clear Idea of the size and scope of the task. As the procrastination routine progresses the task that is being put of tends to grow and transform in the mind of the procrastinator. While the task is the same it is now percieved as imensely larger and more complicated then it was originaly.
- No drama attached. There is no guilt or stress attached to the task, the latter assuming you used good judgement and only accepted tasks you could reasonably be expected to be able to do. As you procrastinate the guilt and stress increases and blocks your progress.
- No time to back out. The mind can sometimes be quite independent and it is my belief that we are all slightly schizophrenic on some level. It we simply go from thought to action imediately then we have no time to talk ourselves out of it. If we wait then the internal comittee meeting on the relevance of the task and if we shouldn't go do something else will start. If we let this discusion go on in our minds the majority will shift towards not doing the task, causing procrastionation.
- Define the task. Nothing causes procrastination faster then having a nebulous undefined task that we know will take up a lot of time but we dont quite know how to get started with. Break it down. Not the whole thing but the beginning. Do you need some reading material to get started? Then make that the first task. Any smaller task that leads to getting the bigger thing rolling is good.
"My favorite tonic for procrastination—which I have mentioned in passing previously—is what I call a dash, which is simply a short burst of focused activity during which you force yourself to do nothing but work on the procrastinated item for a very short period of time"
Bring in point 4 from above, define a smaller task, then do it. Dont worry about working a very long time. Give yourself a lifeline, like a 10 minute timeframe or a certain unit count (I will read 15 pages in that book. I will spend 10 minutes sorting through my old bills.) When the time is up or the pages have been read you might feel like continuing. Go ahead! Knock yourself out! But dont feel guilty if you after 10 minutes decide to move on to other things, you gave yourself that option to make the task seem bearable and shoud not feel bad for using it.
This is in no way an all encompasing treatment of the subject of procrastionation, but it is a few pointers. (And I'm afraid that if I would give an all encompasing description you would be bored out of your mind reading it) Good luck in fighting procrastination everyone!
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