Procrastination is not laziness. Never was. It’s just something we all say to make ourselves feel better. Procrastination is when we have an important task at hand, but we would rather do the unimportant task which much more enjoyable & fun. On the other hand, laziness is just apathy.
Procrastination is not just limited to house chores or school/college work, rather it affects our work life. This can turn into a habit that can decrease your work equilibrium & efficiency to perform better at work. Sometimes, the solution might be very simple: just get done with it already. But the reality is something else because procrastination is in our very genetic inbuilt. Yep, you read that right. The tendency to procrastinate probably runs in our families and is linked on the genetic level to impulsivity, creating a catch-all of difficulty regulating our own behaviour. According to a study published in the journal of Psychological Science notes that procrastination is, unfortunately, a lifelong trait. But this doesn’t mean that you’ll always be like that & get no work done. Here are some easy yet effective tips that will help you with that procrastination:
1. Always say ‘I want to’ instead of ‘I have to’
When we instruct something very seriously to our minds, our mind listens & creates that shift in perspective. The moment we change that little habit of ‘oh, it’s nothing, I’ll do it later, to ‘I’ll do it now, we change our feelings of dread & trepidation to drive.
2. Don’t focus on perfectionism but rather on doing the better work
Perfectionism is just a misleading term for people to hate failing. But failing’s good. Don’t link yourself to the performance, rather be comfortable in your own skin, don’t overthink it. What happens, happens. Just focus on the task at hand & have faith.
3. Mood change will happen when you’ll work
In a 2013 study, Dr. Timothy Pychyl and colleagues found that individuals procrastinate not necessarily to avoid a tedious or overwhelming task itself, but to avoid the unpleasant feelings related to such a task. Procrastination may offer short-term mood relief, but it costs us by lengthening guilt and stress. Instead, paradoxically, what will most likely make us feel better is doing the very task we’re avoiding.
Reconsider procrastination.It might be fun to avoid the task at hand & do the more fun stuff but at the back of our mind, we’ll always think ‘about that pending task’. So better not complete the task & then have fun. Sounds better, right?