THE ART OF PROCRASTINATION AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
Jeff had worked as a support worker for 8 years. He really wanted to work as an Adventure Therapist and as a mentor to young people wanting to get into the Australian Football League (AFL). As we explored the factors holding him back from this, it came down to fear holding him back and his strategy: Procrastination!
Jeff wanted support in working out how to overcome procrastination.
So let’s look at what is procrastination?
The etymology of the word procrastination is derived from the Latin Verb Procrastinate: ‘to put off until tomorrow’. Procrastination is the avoidance, delaying, or putting off a task that needs to be done. Neil Fiore, author of The Now Habit, defined procrastination as “a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing a task or decision.” It is good to write down what you will have achieved once you have completed the task that you are procrastinating over.
People procrastinate for all sorts of reasons. The 4 most common reasons are as follows:
Fear. Over-scheduling and not properly prioritising can lead to procrastination and anxiety.
Fun. The pursuit of more pleasurable options.
Future Deadlines. When there is no set deadline, or the deadline is too far away.
Fussiness. Fussiness left unchecked becomes perfectionism.
Once you know the cause of your procrastination, you can then go about resolving it.
So, let’s look at the pitfalls of each of the above areas of procrastination:
Fear: The Pitfalls of Procrastination from Fear are that too many tasks can be scheduled that are not realistic to allow for the balance of work, rest, and play. This can exasperate your situation and lead to further poor decision-making and ineffective time management.
Fun: If given the choice between pleasure and pain, you would probably choose pleasure. The Pitfall here is that almost everything you have to do in life has something unpleasant about it, or something you would rather not do. If we avoid the things we don’t want to do, we will also avoid the things that will lead us to more pleasure and satisfaction.
Future Deadlines: Often when things have a longer deadline, it is that they are the bigger projects, and this can lead to overwhelm. The Pitfall is that if we try and make ourselves feel better, by doing the easier options, we usually find that these are less of a priority and still not getting the things that truly matter achieved.
Fussiness: The pitfall here is that you can waste so much time criticising yourself and what you are doing, that you don’t get anything done.
When you understand the pitfalls of the strategies you are using, (procrastination is a strategy), it will support you in choosing more effective strategies.
There are always two sides to a coin. If you procrastinate, what do you get in return? You get to avoid discomfort in the here and now. Used at key points, procrastination might be useful if there are already a lot of other priorities, and for a time, you focus on the one you enjoy to support “filling the tank”. In this case, we would call that taking a break.
In short, procrastination is when you know what you should be doing, see the benefit in it, and are avoiding it anyway, as opposed to taking a break. Taking a break happens when we have been focused and putting energy into our task and have reached a certain point where we need to ‘top up our tank’ so that we can continue to be productive. Sometimes, we can’t make progress without a break and it isn’t due to procrastination, like when we have done all we can do, or we are waiting on a key ingredient or resource to continue. This is taking a break. Knowing the difference between the two is key to making sure that your brain doesn’t try to trick you into procrastinating. It is important to take breaks and give yourself a chance to rest and refresh and be ready for the next productive time on your task. In fact, scheduling breaks and important “you time” is important in your schedule and it works well to put these ‘appointments’ in your diary first.
So now we understand it, how do we overcome Procrastination?
Let’s again look at the headings we have already spoken about:
Fear: Use the Unscheduled method, which is to schedule fun activities and rest before putting other things in the diary to support a more balanced overall schedule.
Fun: This is a time that you may need to “wind up” to the task that you really don’t want to do and allow yourself to do something else that is on your to-do list (as opposed to just aimlessly watching kitten YouTube videos). When you succeed at a task, that will often give you the drive to support the other less interesting tasks for you to do.
Future Deadline: Set yourself deadlines that are early enough that you won’t put the task off and let people know when that deadline is. Break the task into items and put each small section in your schedule with its own deadline.
Fussiness: It is important for you to think of 5 tasks you completed that may not have been perfect, but the consequences were the same as if you did. Then follow point 3.
So, in Summary:
- Write down what you will have achieved and gained once the task is complete.
- Review the 4 F’s of Procrastination so that you know where to start to resolve the problem.
- Seeking out strategies that support your success rather than pitfalls is a key step.
- Sometimes you need to go with the task that you are interested in to fill your tank.
- It is important to take scheduled breaks to allow your mind to refresh and be ready to stay productive.
- Breaking tasks into smaller goals and putting those in your diary with deadlines as well as putting rest time and “you” time in your diary will support you in getting your tasks done in a sustainable way.