How to Stop PROCRASTINATING

All of us have postponed more than once tasks that we did not want to do and substituted another unimportant activity. Despite this, procrastinating or postponing actions begins to be an object of study from psychology, showing that it is a complex concept with multiple causes and manifestations. If you want to know more about this trend and how to prevent and address it, keep reading this Psychology-Online article: How to stop procrastinating. Here you will find what is procrastination and what we can do to avoid it.

Index

1. What is procrastination in psychology
2. How to stop procrastinating
3. How to stop procrastinating: 15 steps

What is procrastination? In order to fully understand the term, we proceed to explain its meaning, as well as the reasons why it happens and the consequences of procrastination. We will also differentiate the types that exist.

Meaning of procrastinate

The etymological origin of the word procrastination is found in Latin;

In procrastination can be distinguished Two levels different: eventual and chronic.

• Eventual: refers to people who do not postpone regularly, but in a timely manner.
• Chronic: the second to those who do it constantly and in many different situations.

Why do you procrastinate

Among the causes or explanatory factors of procrastination, the following have been identified:

• Self-regulation and proper time management difficulties: inability to delay immediate gratification and low tolerance for frustration, as well as difficulties in timing may be at the root of the tendency to postpone.
• Fear of failure and perfectionism: Faced with an action that has no guarantee of success and there is the possibility of failure, people may unconsciously try to avoid that moment as a way to protect their self-esteem.
• Low self-image and self-concept: Irrational beliefs by which people perceive themselves as not very competent and therefore have a tendency to avoid certain activities or actions.
• Anxiety: the saturation and accumulation of work can increase the feeling of vulnerability and the development of thoughts catastrophic events, which is why it is possible that people present difficulties in making decisions, insecurity and immobilization.
• Perception of the action: If the act to be performed is perceived as overwhelming, difficult, boring, or stressful, the chances of procrastination are increased.
• Delay: it is an evasive behavior that is used as a mechanism to avoid facing a task that produces us anxiety or fear, so another act that produces temporary relief is performed as a means of escape from the stress.
• Temporality: Time is one of the factors that affect procrastination, so the further the goal is, the greater the tendency to procrastination, in many cases due to loss of motivation.
• Impulsiveness: impulsiveness and impatience lead to a lack of self control, which may explain the act of procrastination.

Types of procrastination

Based on the various causes for this postponement, a distinction is made between different types of procrastination:

• Procrastination by evasion: Procrastination is avoidance behavior due to fear of failure or feelings of vulnerability to a task.
• Procrastination by activation: refers to the delay until the end or limit, until there is no choice but to perform the task.
• Procrastination for indecision: the person spends an excess of time thinking about how to carry out the task or considers too many options, mentally ruminating in a neurotic way.

Consequences of procrastination

In extreme cases, this evasive attitude can lead to the development of dependence on these other activities or external elements that fulfill the function of evasion, such as television or mobile, sometimes generating addiction. This trend is present in all population groups, and not only among young people, as has usually been believed due to the existence of the called student syndrome, which refers to the phenomenon by which in the academic field people postpone tasks until the deadline of delivery. However, this attitude is not limited to the area of ​​studies, but is present in many other spheres of life.

If you wonder how to stop procrastinating, you should know that procrastination is conceived as a volitional problem, that is, related to the will. It is also related to a lack of self-regulation and self-control, as well as with difficulties in Planning and time management. For this reason, normally the approach to this tendency to postponement is oriented to the work and training of these skills, increasing the organizational skills of the person, responsibility and self-motivation.

Procrastination carries a series of negative consequences such as feelings of guilt, stress, poor performance, lack of self-esteem, anxiety, etc. For this reason, it is important to incorporate a series of habits in the day-to-day life that prevent or reduce the tendency to procrastination. Below we show you a series of keys and strategies to avoid procrastination:

1. Start the task: The first step in learning how to stop procrastinating is forcing yourself to start the task. To facilitate this push you can add pleasant elements that help to overcome that resistance and motivate you, such as playing music. The most difficult thing is the first step, once it is taken it is much easier to continue.
2. Eliminate distractions: To facilitate focusing on an activity, it performs a stimulus control, whereby those that are tempting or make it difficult for you to do the task are not kept in sight or close. Also try to minimize the possible interruptions that you can foresee.
3. Analyze your work environment: How to stop procrastinating? Continue to evaluate your current work environment and the elements that compose it and try to identify if any of them (disorder, light, etc.) are hindering our activity. It is also good to change your workplace from time to time.
4. To establish objectives: Goal setting can help prevent procrastination by following the SMART technique. Its acronym in English suggests that when setting goals, they are specific, measurable, achievable, achievable and time-limited to promote their achievement.
5. Simplify: One of the elements that can generate this attitude of postponement is a perception of the task to be carried out as overwhelming, difficult and / or heavy, making it bigger than it really is. To overcome this perception and increase willpower It is advisable to divide the objectives to make them smaller, including the steps to be carried out in each sub-objective. In this way it is possible to see with greater clarity and specificity those actions and procedures necessary to achieve the goal, just as the initial perception of the task is overcome.
6. To plan: to avoid procrastination make use of calendars, lists, timelines and agendas that in a way visual are useful for scheduling the tasks to be performed based on the objectives and organization of the weather. How to stop procrastinating? Monitor and review compliance with your plan on a regular basis.
7. Schedule breaks: take breaks every x time, for example 45 minutes, while you perform a task, as well as set the time of these breaths. In this way, your perspective of the activity will not be so negative, since you will know in advance that you will be able to take breaks and when they will be.
8. Manage energy: To avoid procrastination, when planning, do not do it solely based on temporal criteria, analyze yourself and identify what hours or moments do you have more energy or are you a more productive person and take that into account when scheduling your day to day.
9. Put limits: put a time limit to finish an obligation and previously set a small reward for finishing on time.
10. Use apps: There are several mobile applications that can be useful in your goal to stop procrastinating, some of them are Todoist, Quality Time, Corkulous, Stay focused, Time Tune, etc.
11. Search company: How to stop procrastinating? Looking for company since performing those tasks that we try to avoid with another person can be a incentive to carry them out, as well as assuming responsibility for the supervision of another person.
12. Make it public: If you announce to people in your close circle what tasks you have to do, you are more likely to feel responsible to fulfill it vis-à-vis other people and feel a little more pressure not to fall into the postponement.
13. Reflect: Spend a few minutes thinking and analyzing the negative consequences of postponing each of the tasks, the cost of not performing the action is evaluated.
14. Reward yourself: it is important to include the motivation in the process of stopping procrastinating, so reinforce yourself with small rewards that you find rewarding. It is advisable to establish the prizes in advance so that it is not an excessive prize or they are too many.
15. Be flexible: Do not treat yourself too harshly if you cannot stop procrastinating in a short time, since it is a process and implies the establishment of habits. Therefore, pay attention to the small advances and progress that you are making.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to How to stop procrastinating, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.

• Matrángolo, G. M. (2018). Leave for tomorrow: Personality and academic procrastination. Hologram, 27(1), 3-10.
• Palmero, F., & Martínez-Sánchez, F. (2008). Motivation and emotion. Madrid: Mc-Grawhill Interamericana of Spain.
• Steel, P., Brothen, T., & Wambach, C. (2001). Procrastination and personality, performance, and mood. Personality and individual differences, 30(1), 95-106.