How To Stop Procrastinating

What is procrastination? In order to fully understand the term, we proceed to explain its meaning, as well as the reasons why it happens and the consequences that procrastination entails. We will also differentiate the types that exist.

The meaning of procrastination in psychology has its etymological origin in Latin; pro It’s forward and crastinus refers to the future. Procrastinating is the action of postpone or postpone activities and situations for others that are more pleasant, even if they are irrelevant. Through this act, a evasion of responsibility or the action making use of other tasks that serve as a refuge and excuse.

In procrastination you can distinguish Two levels different:

• Eventual: refers to people who do not procrastinate habitually, but rather punctually.
• Chronic: the second to those who do it constantly and in many and diverse situations.

Among the causes of procrastination, the most common that have been identified are the following:

• Difficulties with self-regulation and proper time management: inability to delay immediate gratification and low tolerance for frustration, as well as difficulties in temporal organization may be at the basis of the tendency to postpone.
• Fear of failure and perfectionism: When faced with an action that has no guarantee of success and there is a possibility of failure, people may unconsciously try to avoid that moment as a way to protect their self-esteem.
• Low self-image and self-concept: irrational beliefs through which people perceive themselves as not very competent and therefore have a tendency to avoid certain activities or actions.
• Anxiety: Saturation and accumulation of work can increase the feeling of vulnerability and the development of catastrophic thoughts, so it is possible that people have difficulties in making decisions, insecurity and immobilization.
• Action perception: If the act to be carried out is perceived as overwhelming, difficult, boring or stressful, the chances of procrastinating increase.
• Delay: It is an evasive behavior that is used as a mechanism to avoid facing a task that causes anxiety or fear, so another act is performed that produces temporary relief as a means of escape from stress.
• Temporality: Time is one of the factors that affect procrastination, so the farther away the goal is, the greater the tendency to procrastinate, in many cases due to loss of motivation.
• Impulsiveness: Impulsiveness and impatience lead to a lack of self-control, which can explain the act of procrastinating.

Based on the various causes for this procrastination, different types of procrastination are distinguished:

• Avoidance procrastination: Procrastinating is an avoidant behavior due to fear of failure or feelings of vulnerability when faced with a task.
• Activation procrastination: refers to the delay until the end or limit, until there is no choice but to perform the task.
• Procrastination due to indecision: the person spends excessive time thinking about how to perform the task or considers too many options, mentally ruminating neurotically.

Consequences of procrastination

In extreme cases, this evasive attitude can lead to the development of dependence on these other activities or external elements that fulfill the function of escape, such as television or mobile phones, sometimes generating addiction. In this article, we tell you how to overcome mobile addiction.

This trend is present in all population groups. Not only among young people, as has normally been believed due to the existence of the so-called student syndrome, which refers to the phenomenon by which in the academic field people postpone tasks until the deadline. However, this attitude is not limited to the area of ​​studies, but is present in many other spheres of life.

If you are wondering how to stop procrastinating, you should know that procrastination is conceived as a volitional problem, that is, related to the will. Likewise, it is related to a lack of self-regulation and self-control as well as with difficulties in planning and time management.

Therefore, to stop procrastinating, the approach to this tendency to procrastinate is normally aimed at work and training of these skills increasing the person’s organizational skills, responsibility and self-motivation.

To stop procrastinating, it is important to incorporate a series of habits into your daily life that prevent or reduce the tendency to procrastinate. Below, we show you a series of tips and strategies to stop procrastinating:

1. Start the task: The first step to learning how to stop procrastinating is to force yourself to start the task. To facilitate this push, you can add pleasant elements that help overcome that resistance and motivate you, such as playing music. The most difficult thing is the first step, once taken it is much easier to continue.
2. Eliminate distractions: to facilitate focusing on an activity, carry out stimulus control, by which those that are tempting or make it difficult to complete the task are not kept in sight or close. Also try to minimize possible interruptions that you can foresee. Discover how to improve concentration.
3. Analyze your work environment: how to stop procrastinating? Continue to evaluate your current work environment and the elements that make it up and try to identify if any of them (clutter, light, etc.) are hindering our activity. It is also positive to change your workplace from time to time.
4. To establish objectives: Setting goals following the SMART technique is a good way to avoid procrastination. Its acronym in English suggests that when setting goals, they should be specific, measurable, achievable, achievable and limited in time to promote their achievement.
5. Simplify: One of the elements that can generate this attitude of procrastination is a perception of the task to be done as overwhelming, difficult and/or heavy, making it bigger than it really is. To overcome this perception and increase willpower, it is advisable to divide the objectives until they are smaller, including the steps to be taken in each sub-objective. In this way, you can see with greater clarity and concreteness those actions and procedures necessary to achieve the goal, just as the initial perception of the task is overcome.
6. To plan: To avoid procrastination, make use of calendars, lists, timelines and agendas that are visually useful for scheduling the tasks to be carried out based on the objectives and organization of time. How to stop procrastinating? Monitor and review compliance with your plan regularly.
7. Schedule breaks: Take breaks every x amount of time, for example 45 minutes, while you perform a task, as well as establish the time of these breaks. This way, your perspective of the activity will not be so negative, since you will know in advance that you will be able to take breaks and when they will be.
8. Manage energy: To avoid procrastinating, when you plan, do not do it solely based on temporal criteria, analyze yourself and identify what hours or moments you have more energy or are a more productive person and take this into account when scheduling your day to day life.
9. Put limits: Set a time limit for finishing an obligation and previously set a small reward for finishing on time.
10. Use apps: There are several mobile applications that can be useful in your goal of stopping procrastinating, some of them are Todoist, Quality Time, Corkulous, Stay focused, Time Tune, etc.
11. Search company: How to stop procrastinating? Seeking company since performing those tasks that we try to avoid with another person can be an incentive to carry them out, as well as promoting taking responsibility for the supervision of another person.
12. Make it public: If you announce to the people in your close circle those tasks that you have to perform, it is more likely that you will feel responsible for completing them in front of other people and you will feel a little more pressure not to fall into procrastination.
13. Reflect: Spend a few minutes thinking and analyzing the negative consequences of postponing each of the tasks, evaluating the cost of not carrying out the action.
14. Award yourself: It is important to include motivation in the process of stopping procrastination, so reinforce yourself with small rewards that you find rewarding. It is advisable to establish the prizes in advance so that it is not an excessive prize or there are too many.
15. Be flexible: Don’t treat yourself too harshly if you can’t stop procrastinating in a short time, since it is a process and involves establishing habits. Therefore, pay attention to the small advances and progress that you are making.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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