The Power Of Habits To Fight The ‘I’ll Do It Tomorrow’
In psychology there are abundant paradoxes, and one of them is the following: while the same type of emotional discomfort can be caused by many different types of behaviors that we have learned and internalized almost without realizing it, a single pattern of behavior that forms part of our habitual repertoire of behaviors can give rise to many different problems.
The latter is what happens, for example, in the case of procrastination, which is the word with which psychologists refer to the propensity to leave things for later, or for “tomorrow” (with emphasis on the quotes). ). It is something we can adopt with surprising ease, put into practice almost without realizing it, and give rise to a wide variety of disastrous situations and frustrating failures as a result.
In this article we will see how, Through small changes in our habits, we can fight procrastination in order to better perform our responsibilities and have it easier to enjoy quality free time.
As we have seen, procrastinating means postponing, without having a truly valid excuse, the fulfillment of our responsibilities or the tasks necessary to reach the goals we have set for ourselves. We will agree that, defined in this way, this behavior does not provide any significant benefit, and in any case creates problems. However, it is something that the vast majority of people fall into at some point or another. Because?
There are several factors that explain the existence of procrastination. One of them has to do with a personality trait: low responsibility. Those who score significantly below average in the Conscientiousness trait in personality tests based on the Big Five model tend to fall into the “I’ll do it tomorrow” situation much more frequently. This indicates that procrastination is linked to a broader aspect of behavior: a lack of interest in meticulousness in what is done, or in the way of complying with a set of rules.
On the other hand, Nor are those who are perfectionists free from procrastination in all cases. It has been observed that there is a type of perfectionism that is linked to procrastination: that in which the person’s focus of attention is not on the specific steps to be taken to complete a task well, but on the fear of making mistakes, the fear of not doing something to be proud of. When this type of perfectionism is predominant, procrastination comes into play.
Another important aspect is the lack of practice. If we must start a task that we have not yet mastered, the idea of starting to work on it can be difficult for us, because first we must invest effort in deciding what to do, how to organize time, etc.
And since none of this has to materialize (by happening in our heads) and we have no way of knowing if we are doing it right due to lack of experience, we do not have the feeling of progress, which turns experience into very frustrating, something worth starting “for real” when we are in a better state of mind.
5 habits to fight against the “I’ll do it tomorrow”
These are several simple habits that you can apply to combat procrastination.
1. Be careful with emotional hunger
Many people “disguise” their procrastination sessions under the guise of visits to the refrigerator that in theory have the purpose of quenching hunger. A hunger that is curiously timely and appears intermittently every few dozen minutes.
This is, in reality, emotional hunger: a false feeling of hunger that arises from problems when interpreting the discomfort we feel and that has psychological roots, not physics. In this way, we learn to calm that anxiety or restlessness by snacking between meals, and giving ourselves an excuse to neglect what is really important to concentrate on the pleasant sensations that food gives us. So, to keep procrastination under control, set a meal schedule and keep food away from the work area.
2. Create your work area
Many times, the key is to start the task; Everything else is easier once our ideas about what we should do are already on track. Therefore, it is good that you associate your work area only with that, work: do not use it to rest or entertain yourself. Thus, it will be easier to make a commitment to work because sitting in that chair in your study will mean for you that your day begins at that very second.
At the same time, It is very important that this place is away from the most tempting distractions for you. If you use a computer, it may even be good to create digital barriers on that computer that make it difficult for you to access your social media profile, certain entertainment websites, etc.
Related to the above is the need to be physically well to be able to attend to our responsibilities. Even if we have the energy and ability to concentrate to accomplish a task, Feeling fatigued exposes us more to procrastination.
4. Make free time plans
Another aspect that favors procrastination is having unstructured and diffuse free time, without clear limits. If you create plans of activities that you like for your free time, you will reduce the influence of that diffuse free time and you will give it to another type of leisure that, in addition to making it easier for you to commit to what you have to do, is usually more stimulating and enjoyable than staying on the couch watching anything on television or on your cell phone.
