There is a saying in Hindi from the famous Kabir ke dohae “Kal kare so aaj kar, aaj kare so ab, Pal mey pralay hoyegi Bahuri karego kab.” and to that effect, in English, “tomorrow never comes”. The word “procrastinate” comes from the Latin word meaning “belonging to tomorrow.” Procrastination is an exercising of choice i.e. not to do something now and pushing it to the backburner. Studies have found that even the procrastinators who feel bad about their habit, procrastinate more and more in the future. Since we all try to avoid negative feelings in life i.e. fear of falling short, boredom, anxiety, frustration and guilt. We’re more likely to put off work that makes us feel negative emotions. Procrastination has less to do with time management and more about our emotions.
Impact of Procrastination: Study shows that the habit of delaying on a regular basis can have devastating effect as under:
- A long-lasting impact on our brain such that we permanently lose the ability to work on complex tasks which requires deep focus, creativity, analytical mindset, problem solving ability etc.
- Work would not be accomplished with quality as it is done in the last minute in a hurry.
- Erodes our self-confidence and we also lose the confidence and respect of others.
- Loss of wonderful opportunity to reiterate/ exhibit our capability, discipline, sincerity, professionalism etc.
- Adds stress to the self which surely impacts our mental health.
- Adds to frustration, anxiety which surely impacts our relationships at work as well as home.
- Most important, the long-term impact over years is disliking ourselves, disliking the practice/ life itself, getting frustrated, disillusioned, demotivated and depressed.
Types of Procrastinators: Now, we shall look at various types of procrastinators i.e. an attempt to understand different types of people (although not exhaustive):
- Type 1- Pressure Worker: Believes that he/ she works best under pressure. Attitude is that i can manage pressure and therefore, they would not start off till the deadline is near.
- Type 2 - Blames oneself: Keeps making himself wrong and beating self. May be working very hard. Maybe assume that they are good multi taskers and consider that they are among the 2% of humans who are effective which may not be true.
- Type 3 - Busy bee: Always busy and restless type, whose calendar is always full and overflowing. Maybe full of almost done, half done and at times routine works mixed with important works. Their life is quite cluttered.
- Type 4 - Entrepreneur Outlook: Always looking for challenges. Anything new comes, parks the present and launches into the new project till something else interesting comes on.
How to avoid Procrastination? The key question is, how we can break this terrible Habit? Once we accept that we do, understand why we delay, possibly there are some ways to overcome this challenge and live a full, confident and effective professional life. Some actions to resolve could be as under:
- Use technology to your advantage and let it not control your life. Have a dedicated time for its usage and keep them away from you when not needed. Marrying into mindless serials and entertainment with no time limits would be at the cost education.
- A 5 minute rule can be applied i.e. if you don’t want to do something, make a deal with yourself to do at least 5 minutes of it. After 5 minutes, its more probable that you’ll end up doing the whole thing.
- Break goals and tasks down into smaller chunks. Whenever you notice a task bringing up negative emotions or anxiety take a second and ask yourself “What is the smallest step I can take to move forward with this?
- Build the habits to stop procrastinating i.e. Once a habit loop is developed, then tasks would no more be emotionally taxing. For us: 1 hour of deep reading.
- Use the power of accountability – Commit to your client, friend, boss, colleague, employee about the clear time at which you would accomplish a particular task.
- Time Blocking technique – This is one of the most powerful techniques used by achievers. In the blocked time do not do any other task.
- Do the hard and important tasks first: Our daily biological clocks, known as our Circadian Rhythm, ensure that we are often at our most alert state in the morning.
- Developing hobbies: Add exercise/ game to your life to give a chance to reorient and get the right chemicals released to improve.
- Declutter and organise workspace/ area and mind. A desk full of books, files, papers does not inspire much confidence.
My wish:
- Don’t postpone your greatness – strive to be your best self
- Don’t postpone your speaking the truth [without hurting other unnecessarily]
- Don’t postpone being the biggest optimist in office & at home
- Don’t postpone loving and being compassionate
- Don’t postpone being authentic even if nervous.
There is a full-fledged article including a test pack to evaluate our levels of procrastination at hireganeacademy.com. We would love to have your feedback on additional insights and what worked for you and what did not at [email protected] or [email protected]) This article has been contributed to Bombay Chartered Accountants Journal.