Now comes the big question: why do we postpone when we know it's terrible for us? How can we overcome procrastination without hating ourselves or the techniques we use?
Let's take a look at each question one by one:
We procrastinate because
One of the first things I learnt was that procrastination is a human condition. Almost 95% of adults admit to procrastinating, according to Piers Steel, author of The Procrastination Equation. And the remaining 5%, in my opinion, are lying.
Procrastination is "a truly visceral, emotional reaction to something we don't want to do," according to Tim Pychyl, author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle. If a task is unpleasant, you are more likely to put it off.
In his research, Pychyl uncovered a set of seven triggers that made a task appear more aversive. Consider a task you've been putting off. The task is likely to have many, if not all, of the characteristics Pychyl identified as procrastination-worthy: In his research, Pychyl uncovered a set of seven triggers that made a task appear more aversive. Consider a task you've been putting off. It's likely that the task possesses many, if not all, of the characteristics Pychyl identified as procrastination-worthy:
• Boring
• Frustrating
• Difficult
• Ambiguous
• Unstructured
• Not fundamentally rewarding (you don't love the process)
• Lacking personal meaning
On a physiological level, procrastination is the result of the limbic system, your brain's emotional half, coercing the prefrontal cortex, your brain's rational, intellectual half. The logical part of your brain gives up when you choose Facebook over work or watch another episode of House of Cards when you get home.
How to Get Rid of Procrastination
There is, however, a method for giving your reasonable brain the upper hand. Resist the impulse to procrastinate when you notice a battle between logic and emotion coming up. The most effective strategies I discovered during my investigation are listed below.
Reverse procrastination's causes. Consider which of Pychyl's seven procrastination triggers a despised activity provokes. Then reconsider the task in order to make the idea of completing it more appealing.
Consider putting together a quarterly report. Make it a game by seeing how many words you can churn out in a 20-minute period if you find it tedious. If you find a work task to be unclear and unstructured, create a protocol that spells out the exact steps you and your team should take each month to finish it.
Work within your comfort zone.
Assume you have a significant quantity of research to complete for a pending project. Measure your resistance level by using a sliding scale to determine how much effort you put into activities. Could you commit an hour to reading, for example? No, that historical time appears to be still terrible. Perhaps 30 minutes?
Reduce the time until you are no longer resistant to the task, and then finish it. Do something – anything – to get started. Once you've gone beyond the initial hurdle of getting started, sticking with an activity becomes much easier. That's because the chores that cause us to procrastinate are rarely as bad as we envision. Starting something forces a subconscious reassessment of that work, and we may find that the actual task activates fewer triggers than we anticipated.
We recall unfinished or interrupted work better than completed attempts, according to study. It's like listening to catchy music and having it cut off in the middle, leaving the tune stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Starting a task implies that you will continue to work on it, increasing your odds of accomplishing it later.
Make a list of the costs associated with procrastinating.
This method works well for deferring more difficult tasks. While it may not seem reasonable to spend 20 minutes estimating the expenses of not exercising every night, doing so can be quite useful when planning for retirement.
Add to your list all the ways that deferring retirement investing could harm your social life, finances, stress, happiness, and health, to name a few.
Making a list of the personal and professional responsibilities you put off, big and small, and calculating the cost of procrastinating for each is also an excellent idea.
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beating procrastination, ways to overcome procrastination, research based strategies
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