The 7 Reasons That Lead Us to Procrastinate When Making Decisions

Procrastination is the tendency to delay completing tasks or obligations, whether consciously or semi-consciously. It is a problem that, if not attended to, becomes established in a person’s daily life, conditioning their pace of life and causing them to accumulate things to do and reasons to suffer stress. When we internalize procrastination, it becomes part of our habits and makes us very vulnerable to unforeseen events, in addition to predisposing us to do things quickly and poorly.

In this article we will review the causes that may be behind the habit of leaving “for later” that moment in which we must make a relevant decision something that means generating conflicts with others, losing opportunities and being unable to cope with our work, family and even self-care responsibilities.

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What are the main reasons that lead us to procrastinate when making decisions?

As we have seen, this psychological phenomenon can cause great harm to the person who practices it and affects both their productivity and their physical and mental health, due to the cases of stress or anxiety that it can cause.

When making a decision, there are a series of reasons or causes that They lead the person to procrastinate at decisive moments , those in which we have to opt for one option or another from a strategic point of view: apply for a promotion, tell someone we like them, choose a university major, etc. These are the most common.

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1. Not having a schedule

Not having a clear schedule is one of the first causes that can lead us to procrastination both in the workplace and in any other area or responsibility that we must attend to in our daily lives.

The lack of time structure makes us fatigued by constantly having to decide what to do next ; That is why people who follow a well-defined schedule daily are more productive and are more satisfied with their performance.

Maintaining a daily work schedule will also help us prevent the appearance of psychological or emotional disorders such as stress, anxiety or depression.

2. Excess work stress

Excess work stress is one of the most common disorders in workers around the world, who experience how high work demands and increasingly high work rates exert a negative effect on your mental health

Excessive stress combined with the pending tasks that we must attend to makes us afraid of the experience of facing certain tasks that we see as accumulated problems.

This process becomes a loop that feeds back on itself, reaching the point where we can feel stress every time we get to work or perform any task that is entrusted to us.

3. Lack of rest

Not having slept or rested enough makes us never feel prepared to make important decisions or that we cannot be attentive or concentrated enough because our brain is tired or altered.

This happens especially when we decide to take advantage of hours of sleep at night to work, believing that this way we will perform better when what we really do is overload our brain and get excessively tired.

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That is why to work well and avoid procrastination it is recommended to sleep correctly and as many hours as we need so that both our body and our brain rest satisfactorily.

4. Lack of assertiveness

The lack of assertiveness, that is, not knowing how to say no to others in situations in which we should defend our personal positions also promotes involuntary procrastination in many cases.

This inability to say “no” in decisive moments causes us to prioritize what is asked of us and we do not take care of the personal tasks that are truly important to us, which in the long run robs us of valuable work time.

5. Believe that the more I work, the more motivation

Some people tend to procrastinate because they believe that the more work they have accumulated, the more motivated they will be to do it and the better the final result will be.

The truth is The more accumulated work, the greater the probability of overloading and stressing ourselves that is why it is important to keep work up to date and finish all obligations when they are asked of us.

6. Believing that we need to rest more

Another cause that sometimes pushes us to procrastinate when making decisions is the belief that we need to rest a little more before getting to work, since the more rested we are, the better we will perform.

This often reflects indecision and a lack of belief in ourselves which is why some people tend to delay the moment when they start working, since they believe that they are not yet prepared to do it correctly.

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7. Fear of failure

This is one of the most common causes for procrastination and may be an underlying reason for the previous cause.

Some people are so afraid of failing that decide to postpone as much as possible the start of the work they must face all as a defense mechanism against the belief that they will not know how to perform the task successfully.