Procrastination has become a modern disease. It destroys our lives, forcing us to transfer everything to “after”, to tomorrow, to the last moment. This is not only for the implementation of some important business projects and urgent matters, preparing for exams, making life-changing decisions, but also for basic household chores – cleaning the house, ironing clothes, shopping, etc. After all, most people recognize themselves in painting: I go home, mentally prepare to redo a whole bunch of things. Result – In the process of changing clothes, I sat with my pants halfway down, fiddled with the phone, then ate and did not notice how I fell asleep. Or I come to work and instead of taking on a project that’s about to expire, I sit around reading all kinds of useless silly stories about the life of stars or chatting with friends. Or I cannot decide to develop relations with a partner, although I know that my name will be the decisive step in the further development of the novel.
As one of my friends said: “Ilya Muromets was idle for 33 years, and then he got up and how he did something.” The hero had a good reason not to work – he was sick. And because we are healthy, we slow down our development due to lack of purposeful activity.
There are many reasons why we put things off. We are bored, we cannot concentrate in any way, we cannot find the energy to complete the task, we have no motivation, we are afraid to finish the job we started with failure, etc. We want to get the job done perfectly, but we have no idea how to do it and we prefer to procrastinate in anticipation of inspiration or a surge of energy and strength.
We are at least surprised when we see a hobby whose whole life has been planned, which always does everything on time, even finding time for some additional lessons. “What does he accept, where does he get the energy, the will and the strength to do all this? Where does this fountain of thought and possibility come from?”
My friend had a boss who was literally bursting with fresh ideas and didn’t put off their implementation until later. Therefore, the entire team, led by the boss, stayed up late at work, often losing days off, but getting bonuses. The team had to adapt to the responsible attitude to work and the hyperactivity of their boss. He was the source of motivation for all these people who happily stretched a three-day job to three months. The chief’s anger and the prospect of disgrace swept the whole team.
Yes, but what if you don’t have such a strict, energetic and motivating boss – if you work for yourself? You yourself are not lucky to be so responsible, but ultimately it is up to everyone to develop it within themselves. And actually get work done by sitting at the computer and don’t watch content on social networks or be distracted by notifications from instant messengers while you’re pissed off at yourself and worried that things won’t work out again.
There is no pill to help us spend the planned time on the useful without distractions and procrastination. However, there is an opportunity to change our attitude towards what we have to achieve: if we begin to treat the goal not as an unpleasant task, but as a task whose solution will make you a better expert in your field, improve your qualifications, add competencies or deliver results that really matter to you.
So how do you finish what you start without the urge to “think about it tomorrow” like Scarlett O’Hara did? The first and main law is to determine for myself which task I will definitely complete today, and which are less important.
You should do things according to their importance. Considering we have to write 30 papers for a thesis, buy shoe freshener, and fix the vacuum cleaner at the same time, we get lost in this mess and don’t know where to start. But our lazy brain will most likely choose the easiest and most understandable task for itself. He doesn’t like to be overly stressed, especially when there are endless things to do.
And often, first of all, we complete the easiest, not so important and necessary things. I call these “second-order cases”.
My recipe: Solve an important task every day. One – I won’t get anywhere, I won’t say anything to anyone, I won’t be able to make some money, without fear of being able to do something.
A strong motivator for me personally is that procrastinating to the last moment and then doing it in haste always worsens the outcome. Moreover, I spend a lot of energy to catch up with the hustle and bustle time. And at some point, the feeling of being in a hurry and being late becomes the norm for the soul. As a result, emotional fluctuations, the imbalance between private and work life, the number of emergencies are more than I can handle. Life becomes a race.
And of course, it’s imperative to reward yourself for work done, albeit with small gifts. Acknowledging feedback and rewarding yourself for good things leads to increased self-esteem and performance.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.