Some would say that this blog article is a perfect example of 'procrastination'. I have been talking about writing it for almost a month now and my deadline is tomorrow. Now it is almost 10 pm and I need to go to bed in 15min, but instead, I am writing this article now. Could I do it earlier? Have I procrastinated this long?
I have to warn you, I may be a little unconventional here.
I think procrastination is just another 'scary' word that we create to keep ourselves disciplined and pressured into following the rules.
Unfortunately, 'scary' words create fears and worries, it highlights our failures and I don't believe that is a healthy way to educate and improve ourselves. It also implies that ‘procrastination’ is some kind of external issue and is hard to overcome. Which tempts us to give up and find excuses to stay in our comfort zone instead of moving forward and growing.
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I think my choice of leaving this article for the last minute was purely a poor choice of action and planning. I take complete responsibility for that and will look into ways to improve that in the future.
However, I also believe that there is no better time to do things than the time when you are doing it.
For example: I had an idea to write about procrastination because I realised that it is creating more stress for people, and my business - Lina's Holistic Coaching - is all about reducing it. So, here I am.
I also noticed that people worry about procrastination now more than ever. This could be due to more working from home and finding it difficult to concentrate or increased stress levels and lack of focus.
But, if I would have sat down and started to write this article a month ago I would not have known what I have learned about it now.
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Here is a couple of things I have learned this month:
Number one - I have read the book 'Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time' by Brian Tracy which I found super useful for building great habits and discipline. I would advise everyone to read it.
You can purchase this book here:
It teaches you :
how to plan every day in advance
focus on key results areas
how to take one step at the time
upgrade your key skills
identify your constraints
focus your attention...etc.
All of these are just wonderful skills to have, unrelated if you tend to 'procrastinate' or not.
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So, what is procrastination and why do we call it that?
The 'all knowing' Google says:
'Procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something'
And as we want to be on top of our tasks we start to stress about why we procrastinate and how to stop doing that.
First, I would only call it that, if you do that intentionally, it doesn't matter if that is on a conscious or subconscious level.
While doing my research for this article I found something interesting. I went through all my tasks that were delayed for one reason or another and found that very few of those tasks have been intentionally delayed. Most of them have not been done due to lower priority/importance level and overshadowed by higher priority tasks. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think that is procrastination, just poor planning.
So, let's rephrase that:
'Procrastination is an intentional action of delaying or postponing something.
Ok, now we are talking about intentional procrastination and here is another thing I have discovered in my research.
When attending the 'Procrastination Workshop' by Cathryn Remmington, founder of Full Focus Clinic.
There are few different types of procrastinators:
The Perfectionist - procrastinate to get things done perfectly.
The Pretend is not There'er - avoid the tasks and decision making.
The Self-Saboteur - puts obstacles in the way of its own work.
The last Minute'er - doing everything last minute.
The Worrier - the over thinker.
Each of these types has different ways of beating procrastination by:
breaking tasks into smaller tasks,
boosting your self-esteem and silencing your inner critic,
finding and eliminating your obstacles,
getting organised and starting tasks early,
planning achievable tasks.
All this knowledge is great and I found it very useful, but again, it is great information on how to be more productive according to your character and personality traits, this is how I see it.
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So, here I have this nagging question, is 'procrastination' really exist? Or we just found 'something' to blame for our lack of organisation skills, planning and discipline?
I believe, that is the case and no matter what names we will give to our problems our responsibility will always have to remain on our personal growth. There is no way to avoid it!
If we want to be more productive, more organised and complete our tasks on time let's stop looking for 'scary' words to call it and start learning the ways to do what we actually want to achieve. Improve your planning, organisation skills and your discipline and procrastination will become just a bad memory.
I would like to mention that I am grateful to all the sources on procrastination mentioned above and more. The information I have learned from them is greatly valued and I would suggest those sources to everyone.
My suggestion is to approach procrastination with a different mindset, which I believe is the better way to beat it.
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Lina Kochanske
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