Gosh you’ve really got a label going on there. Fear not because I won’t judge. Everyone has a reason for procrastinating. There are just hundreds of reasons for this to happen. I can name a few for my procrastination. Yes, that’s right. I have procrastinated on multiple counts and I may or may not have regretted it.
Here are 5 situations that contribute for my (some others too) procrastination:
1. Writing
I don’t know what to write about because I have too many stories to tell and I’m not sure if I should play it safe and make it a fiction or just do a tell-all in a memoir like novel. Then there’s the approach to my target audience that often changes especially when social media influences oh so rapidly. So I just start and then can’t complete because everything around me was moving too fast. I couldn’t catch a breath to catch up so I would just sit on it to rethink my approach. That’s when a new idea pops up and I’m suddenly on to something else. Not to say that I don’t end up writing. I will still write but probably not for the same goal. The point is, I’ll still write.
2. Social project
I like to occasionally put my finger on a social project just because I feel for something quite strongly. This happens when I have some free time in between my career commitments to work on something as a stress reliever. Getting started is still the easy part but maintaining it takes time and whenever I miss a scheduled activity due to work commitments, I would once again feel like I can never catch up. It’s a time play gone wrong and I tell myself, I’ll get back to this when I have more time. I say this realising that time waits for no one. The point is, it is supposed to be stress free.
3. Holidaying with my daughter
I know right? Who would actually procrastinate on this? Well I can tell you that I do and I feel terrible about it. First of all, there’s location search and then comes the holiday activities to plan because at my daughter’s age, she’s active. I on the other hand, see a holiday as just not doing anything at all. After all this comes the question of when is the right time for a break. School holiday would be too crowded and expensive. Weekends are too short. Taking time off school is a bit tough for a growing child. Then of course I have to consider my work commitments. Eventually, I’ll say to myself that we’ll just not plan and go with the flow. That flow of course, never leads to an unplanned holiday. We still go anyway.
4. Project Presentation
My least favourite thing to do despite it being the part of life that pays the bills. Among all the tasks for a project, preparing for a presentation is not something I would get a step on immediately. It would sit for a while. I would occasionally browse the template and then ask a team member if he or she could kickstart while I gather my thoughts about it. It’s horrible of me, but I know that even if I get started, I’d be doing it all over again at the end. It’s just one of those things that I cannot bring myself to do right away. Presenting the later to be presentation deck, is the easy part for me. In this case I always get it done on time. Having great team members is a big bonus. There is of course the occasional itch that will not stop unless I just do a bit first before I sit on it. I give in to that.
5. Subscriptions
Okay so I know this is when I have to spend a bit of money. Usually I don’t have a problem spending money on something I need. If I have to then I’ll buy it. In fact, I look for quality in my purchases and if there is a bargain, I’d buy in quantity. However when it comes to subscriptions, just to be clear, I’m referring to the ones online, I tend to sit on it a lot and long. I’d get extra diligent at looking for alternatives even though in reality, I know I have to subscribe for the benefits. Just like this right here on Medium. Eventually, I will get around to it just like I did with Netflix. I don’t regret it and I always try to make full use of it. Alas, it is something I will still procrastinate on until I’m truly ready for a commitment.
So, you see. Procrastinating doesn’t always mean that I’ll completely fall off the track. It just means that I put things on hold until I really, really have to do something about it. It is not a thrill nor it is a stressful thing to do. I just feel that I am allowed to be lazy when I want to. As long as I know that when I have to get on with it, I can go miles with no regrets that I ever procrastinated.
Truth be told, I procrastinated on this article a bit.
Popular discourse: Procrastination is a bad habit
Sure it is. People who are high on productivity will strongly emphasize this to anyone they find to be on the procrastination spectrum. They have an ideal way to look at this as a disorder and that it can be helped. The likeliness of someone falling into procrastination is at some point reaching a high stressful level of a task, for example. To not think about it or rather take a break from it, they would start doing other activities away from their tasks. Sometimes, it can take hours and lead up to days, weeks and months. The end of that stretch is of course, reaching a deadline or a case of “get it done or else something bad will happen”. When this behaviour start repeating, that is when it becomes a bad habit.
The workaround: We are all creature of habits
This is human of us. We have different behaviour because we were brought up different from one another. We received education differently from one another despite going to the same school. We make different choices for our own personal reasons. Bottomline is that we are all different. We all have habits. Some habits are not good like drinking alcohol to fall asleep or smoking to release tension (what nonsense!).
Bad habits are self-destructing and can affect other people. So, check yourself to see if your procrastination disrupts the work or emotions of other people. Check to see if you did poorly as a result of procrastinating. Check to see if you can attempt to reduce your procrastination without feeling depressed about having to do it. Check to see if you needed to be given a deadline to get things done or can you otherwise succeed without.
These checking is just to help you see what’s good and what’s bad about your procrastination. How does it affect other people and yourself. Would it be different if you didn’t procrastinate? Would you have achieved a lot more with the time you didn’t spend doing something else? You also want to check on how you feel with all these answers.
In my opinion, for myself, I could have had more if I didn’t waste too much time overthinking certain things. Then again, I’m not too big of a risk-taker and if I have taken big risks, I’d be feeling anxious and stressed. So I choose relaxation because I am making a conscious decision when I procrastinate knowing that there is a deadline. It is because I know what I am capable of doing. However, if I feel that I am not great at something I needed to do, I’d be smart enough to spend more time on it before I can even think to relax. That’s just me.
