Hello Procrastination!

If procrastination were a disease I would ask all of you to ‘rush me to the hospital, ’ but it’s not. LUCKY ME. It may be negatively associated with some mental disorders like depression and ADHD but in its self, its not a psychological disorder (or a disease) for that matter, in fact, the human race has procrastinated since the dawn of history-putting things off is in our DNA; SO NORMAL! 

For the longest time I thought I was just a lazy person who enjoys the state of doing nothing but Naah, it turned out that I am an avid procrastinator. Procrastination should be my middle name. I think I should be called Asia the Procastinator..sounds cool right?

Laziness is inactivity and unwillingness to act; an apathy state, while procrastination is an active process-you choose to do something else instead of the task you know, you should be doing. (For example, me writing this article instead of preparing my midterm exam on Wednesday ‘which is obviously a high-priority task instead I opt to write this piece, funny right?’

Which one are you? A lazy person or a procrastinator?

But how do we beat procrastination? (this is me thinking out loud and sharing the process with yall), How do we overcome this state of dilly-dallying? If we want to get things done or reach our future goals, then this is a massive obstacle, right?

By giving in to this impulse, we face serious consequences like feeling guilty or ashamed or being unproductive and missing out on achieving our goals.

I liken this situation to the person who thinks they’re walking (or running for that matter) but remains in the same spot expecting results. 

How can we expect results if we don’t really put in any real efforts..?

If we want to change that behavior then there are several things we should do:

First: Recognize that you’re procrastinating

If you don’t acknowledge the act, then we cant change it. You might be putting off a task because you genuinely had to re-prioritize and adjust your schedule, that’s not procrastination. But if you start to put things off indefinitely, or begin with the low-priority tasks when you know there’s something more important you should be doing then that’s procrastination. (I admit I am procrastinating right now while writing this piece lol)

Second: Work out the why.Why are you delaying?

Boring task? If so try to get it out of the way so you can enjoy the other parts of your day.

Unorganized? I have been told that organized people successfully overcome procrastination because of their prioritized to-do-lists and fancy efficient schedules. These tools help you to deal with procrastination; chunking tasks up make them look more manageable, less overwhelming and more doable instead of worrying about the full project it may help if you create an outline or a plan for attack and scheduling each part (not literary attacking of course)

Perfectionist ? Perfectionists usually have a mentality of ‘all or none.' They usually prefer ‘avoiding’ a task if they feel like they don’t have the skills to do it. Don’t do that. It’s better to do a fairly-good-job then not do the task at all.

Honestly, the reason I procrastinated this long weekend (we had three-days long weekend) and didn’t get any non-leisure activities done, is because I set too many goals and have so many expectations from myself. (Maybe I should include that in the previous list ‘expecting too much from yourself when I have an honest conversation with myself and try to write down my to-do-list. It turns out to be whole-book of a to-do-list. (Seriously, they do)

Things that need to be done at home.

Things that need to be done at work.

Things that need to be done to establish my own business

Things that I need to do for self-care purposes.

Things I have to read aka.books.

The list goes on..And on.

Till I am overwhelmed.

Till I am bored from my own lists and they give me a headache.

Till I decide to quit the whole process and decide to go back to my binge-watching  (Hello procrastination!!)

I guess I need to go easy on myself, make a grand plan (I am so good at making plans it's not even funny, maybe I should be a professional plan maker or something) Anyway, chunk things up!!!

So how do I chunk things up?

By deciding on the most significant task of all.

Apparently, at work, you should have a prioritized to-do-list that you follow, learn how to do things as they come up instead of letting them pile up.

But my struggle isn't even there.

My procrastination magnifies when it comes to studying, learning my Deen, working on my self-development, pursuing my dreams.

We all have the same amount of time, yet some people manage to use it more efficiently while the rest of us procrastinate and sleep. (You included)

So how do we overcome this nasty habit?

Of course, procastination is a habit, a deeply ingrained pattern of behavior which you cant break overnight but can change by being self-aware and working hard on improving it.

Which leads me to my third point.

Third: Strategies we can implement to overcome this habit

*Forgive yourself for your past procrastinations: this will make you feel good and confident about yourself and reduce the chances of you procrastinating

*Commit to a task when you chunk up the bigger tasks; focus on doing instead of avoiding.

*Promise yourself a reward: like being able to check your social media or watch an episode of your favorite T.V show only when you done with the task your committed to (I used this strategy last Tuesday when I had to sit on a paper for over 11 hours, I placed my phone downstairs and promised myself to check it only when I am done with a certain number of pages)

*Ask someone to check on you: the pressure of answering to someone (aside from yourself) will make you be more accountable and help you to self-monitor.

*Use your inner-dialog: use phrases that encourage you like ‘I can do this’ instead of ‘this task cant be done’ or ‘it’s impossible.' Use phrases that empower you. It works.

*Minimize distractions: Avoid checking your phone or emails while doing the delegated task or any random Google searches.

I hope this article helped. I personally will start practising those tips Inshallah and will let you know how things go. 

Here's a nice quote on procrastination 

💖

#procrastination

#schedules

#Prioritization 

#Lifestyle