I am Always Late

Procrastination is a very common problem, and a great deal of modern people are suffering from it and struggling with it. Procrastination means a habit of avoiding doing some things or tasks, important or not too much important, which should be done. There are pretty many causes of procrastination which can include our usual lack of time, our laziness, or our desire to show our importance or our unique talents and skills. Procrastination can also take source from our inability of doing the things we have to, or from a lack of self-confidence. Finally, a lack of motivation also plays a role among the most common causes of procrastination. What can we do to fight this bad habit, and what are the most effective approaches to that?

Very often we procrastinate because we need to do a great deal of things urgently, or we need to solve many problems in a very short period of time. That is why we tend to procrastinate and push away doing something we find difficult or too hard. Many time management experts recommend using such an easy technique as writing daily or weekly plans and making lists of things and tasks to be done in a day or in a week. You can write hard and least pleasant things to do in the beginning or in the end of your list, and make a habit of not starting doing the things from the new list until all the things from the previous list are totally completed and fulfilled. You can choose the time for doing the hardest things, either earlier or later.

If you notice that you can not still manage and do the things in your list, you should take a sit and write the answers to the following questions:

1. What is the task or thing I am avoiding doing?

2. Is it really important?

3. What is difficult or hard about doing this?

4. What do I need or what is missing for doing this thing or fulfilling this task?

5. How much time do I need for doing this thing?

6. When will I have time and courage to do thing thing?

7. Can anyone help me in doing it?

This approach can help solving the problem and make the things done in the most effective way. Besides, it helps us avoid headaches and stresses, and it helps us form positive attitude and self-belief. We start doing the tasks or things, including the hardest ones we used to procrastinate on, and we start thinking about ourselves with confidence. Doing the planned things one by one, following the list, makes us feel that we work great, and nobody can say of think that we’re lazy people. It is an easy approach that works great, and this technique can be mastered even by teenagers and students, to be used further as a great help for their study and achieving great academic success.

There is one more thing to mention when talking about the causes of procrastination. Some people delay doing one of other thing because they believe that if something deserves to be done, it should be done properly. So, do the things properly, or do not do it at all, they think.  That is where procrastination begins, in those who believe that they can not do the thing or fulfill a task properly. It is quite a common situation, however, it is important to remember that in many cases, “doing something properly” has no strict definitions or rules. Besides, not doing anything is the least effective way of learning how to do things properly, how to value own efforts and energy, and how to achieve something in this life.

Procrastination is a common bad behavior pattern. Procrastination usually happens when a person bases the assumptions on some negative experience, and procrastination is directly linked to the risks of entering some uncomfortable zone. Therefore, procrastination goes hand in hand with risks and uncomfortable zone, and it can understood as the situation when a person does not assume the responsibility to take risks or take a responsibility for making a certain choice. Procrastination is based on our fear to face certain consequences of our actions, the consequences which are most likely to be negative or unpleasant and which a person does not want to face or deal with at the moment.

Undoubtedly, we all try to avoid making mistakes because all our mistakes lead to disappointments and being out of conceit with our life, our friends, other people, or our feelings. That is why we are ready to do everything possible in order to stay in our own comfort zone at all times. That is why we procrastinate and try to avoid the things or actions which can make us out of it. Many experts say that procrastination can actually have positive effects, and until you procrastination starts bothering you or starts ruining your life, you can look for ways to procrastinate and avoid assuming too much risks on doing what you do not  want to. However, in many people procrastination causes a lot of discomfort and arises the question “What do I want in this life?”

We all want something and we’re all interested in something, but we all hate to risk with something in this life. Therefore, in order to avoid risking, we give up our interests, forget about our values, our true desires and even our needs, misplace them or just substitute with our responsibilities and duties. We ignore our true feelings and emotions in order just not be bothered and remain in our comfort zone for as long as possible. We totally do not understand curiosity of small children and their desire to learn everything, try new things and take a great deal of risks. We understand that is can bring to pains, aches, numerous mental and physical stresses, failures, mistakes, and more and more disappointments.

As a result, we get lost in procrastinating and there are no curiosity or real passion in our life. We’re trying to play as safe as possible, that is why our life is becoming harder and harder, filled with undeveloped initiatives, unfulfilled desires and the dreams which have never came true. We’re afraid to look stupid, funny, or misunderstood. Those are the bases of our daily procrastination which makes us be deaf and not hear our inner voices and desires. Procrastination teaches us nothing else but being blind and senseless, being unhappy with our working and personal life, making only small and very often unnecessary steps to our happiness, instead of making one-two big steps and being happy right now. Procrastination makes us pull up at every corner instead of riding fast all along our way.

Procrastination is among the most common causes behind being always late. Procrastinators are those people who tend to find out millions reasons for not doing something they do not want or like doing. For example, they can start doing house chores instead of preparing a report or writing articles for a scientific magazine. Procrastination is something related to prioritizing the tasks and figuring out what is important for us at that very moment. Prioritizing and our effectiveness in it is a criteria which allowed Dr. John Perry define such a phenomenon as structured procrastination.

In his articles, Dr. Perry opens secrets of structured procrastination as an art of making procrastination work for our benefit. According to him, regular procrastinators just avoid doing things and are rarely busy with some really useful things and tasks. If they have something important to do, they’d rather do gardening or cleaning their apartment. Regular procrastination is linked to an irresistible desire to procrastinate with doing something very important, and there’s no procrastinator on earth who would go in for cleaning or gardening in case if those tasks are the most important for them for the moment.

Structured procrastination is a more complex thing. It is based on manipulating with the tasks of the top importance and the tasks which are a bit less important for the moment. At that, those who can find the balance perfectly well can earn much of success and recognition. Here’s an example: a teacher who gets sickened of getting ready for his lectures and checking out student’s essays chooses to spend a lot of time with his family and gains a reputation of a perfect father. He manages to keep up with his professional activities as well, however, usually spends only minimal efforts on that.

The specifics of structured procrastination is finding a moment when the most important tasks which the procrastinator tends to avoid doing, become less important and start having less meaning for the moment. For example, if you need to pick apples in October and November, but November is also the time for picking oranges, then for structured procrastinator picking apples in November will be a great deal! That is how it is possible to have things done in the framework of structured procrastination. And if you managed to master an art of “picking the right sorts of projects to the top of the list”, structured procrastination can work great and even bring more success to our life.