Procrastination

By Sarah O'Driscoll (Counsellor)

“Remember, action today can prevent a crisis tomorrow”
Steve Shallenberger

Oh procrastination, we all do it, we all know it is a negative behaviour but what exactly is it?

Procrastination can be defined as the act of delaying something that must be done, often because it unpleasant or boring. (Cambridge, 2020)
 
We have all been in that situation where we have a task that we need to do but find ourselves finding all sorts of excuses to avoid completing it – it may be boring, overwhelming or you just plain cant be bothered but then what is the consequence? more often than not the task snow balls and it becomes so much bigger or more intense than it would have been if we had just completed it the first time.

Procrastinators will often catastrophise tasks to avoid them,  this then creates feelings of anxiety, being overwhelmed and being unmotivated.
 
So how can we stop procrastinating?
Here are some easy, useful strategies you can implement in your life :

• Personal Vision – this is so important; this is where you visualise your self and your life and the goals you would like to accomplish. By creating a personal vision, it will be much harder for you to feel “lost” you know where to focus your skills and time and can also hold yourself accountable.
• To Do today method – we all know about “to do’ lists however to do lists can often become long and overwhelming which leads to procrastinating. The “to do today” method is about what you need to get done “today” and prioritising those tasks not only will you feel accomplished you will not have a long list to do each week.
• Meet with yourself – this is basically checking in with yourself , set some time aside to see how you are tracking what have you been doing lately ? are you meeting goals ? are you completing tasks? This is a great tool to keep yourself accountable and prevent things from spiralling.
• Get out your calendar/diary – we all have them use them! If you have studies or important tasks to complete by a deadline schedule in the time to do it, if you are able to see that you haver a deadline you are more likely to complete the task.
• Break it down – often we procrastinate because the tasks are two big or overwhelming so why not break them down into smaller tasks ? make them more manageable and easier to complete.
• Get rid of the excuses!!! – if you find yourself making excuses tell yourself off ! remind yourself you are only making an excuse and use this time and energy to complete the task.
• Reward yourself – reward yourself for completing tasks they keep motivation up and give you something to work towards and enjoy, as well as the satisfaction of completing tasks.​ (Phd, 2020; Procrastination.com, 2020).

The important thing to remember is the more we procrastinate the harder it is to motivate ourselves; procrastination is a habit that some more than others must deal with.
 
References:
Cambridge. (2020, October 26th). Procrastination. Retrieved from Cambridge dictionary: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/procrastinate
Phd, E. L. (2020, October 26th). 11 ways to overcome procrastination. Retrieved from Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/better-perfect/201703/11-ways-overcome-procrastination
Procrastination.com. (2020, October 26th). What is procrastination. Retrieved from Procartination.com: https://procrastination.com/what-is-procrastination