Why You Procrastinate and How To Stop It

The art of procrastination.

Dreaded procrastination, polar opposite to the more desirable motivation. A state of being that eliminates our effectiveness and makes us all feel really guilty.

Everyone has, at one time or another, been guilty of aimlessly squandered their time in order to avoid completing some sort of task or skirt an issue that needs to be addressed.

Instead of berating yourself about not doing what you are supposed to, why not turn inward to investigate why you are ignoring what you feel you should be accomplishing in the first place?

PROCRASTINATION AND LIMITING BELIEFS

We procrastinate because what we are holding off on doing is tied to some sort of negative belief either about the action that should occur or about ourselves. The fact that you don’t want to wash the dishes should come as no surprise, as it is not a particularly enjoyable task for most people. Instead you find yourself window shopping on the internet to waste time.

On the flip side, motivation comes from aligning what you want and your internal beliefs about what you desire. Is having a very tidy living space important to you or is it a task you have assigned yourself due it is a self-imposed rule? 

EXAMINE THE WHY

Next time your find yourself procrastinating on a project, examine why. Is this action that I am hesitating about something that I need to do as a step to accomplish a larger goal? Is reaching the end result truly important to me? 

For example, you are desperately unhappy at your current place of employment and you promised yourself that you must start the job search immediately.

The resume gets updated as does the cover letter, yet when it comes time to actually search job postings and submit your resume you drag your feet and watch trashy television shows for several hours (we’ve all been guilty of that).

Could this procrastination be tied to your beliefs that you won’t be able to obtain a better job or the fear of putting yourself out there and not succeeding? Our subconscious beliefs are very powerful and can affect our conscious thoughts and actions.

These buried fears and unresolved feelings create amotivation or lack of direction which leads to procrastination.

A STRATEGY FOR DISMANTLING THE FRAMEWORK OF PROCRASTINATION

Uncovering the mental framework about why we are procrastinating is a strategy that helps us to be more forgiving for our actions (or in this instance, inactions) as well as getting to the root of the issue.

Once the cause has been identified, the belief then can be corrected, direction can be clarified, and a decrease in procrastination behaviors will follow. As you become more adept at drilling down and figuring out the source of your actions, the easier and generally faster you get to create what you want.

When you are creating what you truly want those feelings of self-condemnation diminish. Just make sure you still allow yourself some time for mindless television viewing.

ACTION STEPS

What ways have you been guilty of procrastinating and what belief underlies it? Have your say below!