“Doing is better than improving” is a Facebook slogan.
So. You have a goal to which you are going. But you are not quite sure how exactly you need to start acting. You tried to visualize how the project will look when it is finished and you cannot wait to see it completed successfully.
But for whatever reason, you do not feel ready to start a project right now. You are a little unwell and don’t know exactly where to start. There is not enough time in your schedule for everything that you would like to do. Then you decide to think a little: “Do you know what? Tomorrow is much more suitable for starting!”
Regardless of the project you are working on, we all follow the same scenario. An important task at work. Your hobby, which devote free time. Clean up the garage. Jogging And countless examples.
The overwhelming majority of people (over 95%) admit that they are subject to procrastination from time to time. (Procrastination - the constant postponement of cases for later, sometimes the replacement of really important paramount cases with other non-urgent ones). And forgive me if I do not completely trust the rest of the 5% who claim to be holy. Procrastination is very human. But it is also dangerous. The consequences of procrastination are not only unfinished (or even not started) affairs, but also an incredible stress that it adds to our life.
During the study of students' behavior, it turned out that those who prograstinated the most, even those who claimed that they "increase their working capacity when deadlines are tight," proved to be worse than absolutely every parameter. They are also much more likely than others to fall ill from the effects of stress, night work and dry meal, all that they did to still have time to prepare for the exam.
Where does procrastination come from?
Where does the desire to color come from? Researchers have discovered 3 possible causes, depending on your personality, forcing you to put things off until later.
1. Perfectionism
We have an amazing ability to visualize the future. She filled us with inspiration to build pyramids, cathedrals and skyscrapers. But when we focus our attention on these masterpieces, when we lay their foundation, we feel despondent and loss of motivation, seeing how far we are from our goal.
It makes us impatient, restless and hopeless. And to avoid this feeling, we prefer to leave work for later. We hope that if we postpone it, tomorrow we will be able to really move.
Or, even worse, we are postponing this work not for tomorrow, but forever, because we feel that all our attempts are hopeless. And gradually we are affirmed in the thought that we will never be able to create the ideal project that is in our thoughts.
2. Impulsiveness
The second reason we are slow is our impulsivity. We are very excited when we present a project, but when it comes to a monotonous process, we get bored. And to avoid boredom, we do something that gives us pleasure.
Thus, we postpone the course writing until tomorrow in order to play video games right now. We postpone our run to chat with a colleague. We are postponing the putting in order in the garage to watch the series of our favorite series.
Procrastination due to impulsivity is its most dangerous form. People who are prone to the strongest level of procrastination usually suffer because of impulsivity.
3. Neglecting the delay
As human beings, we value the benefits that are right at our feet, much higher than the abstract ones that we have to wait. That is why countless experiments confirm that people will choose 500 rubles today, and not 1000 rubles in a month. This phenomenon is another reason that we postpone our plans for later.
We can not consider watching the program on TV or news feed in a social network reward. But if we can choose this occupation instead of doing important work, it becomes much more tempting. It also means that if we are trying to be productive now, using a future stimulus, it will most likely seem less attractive (it’s not so interesting to get a book as a gift if you have to stand in line for 4 hours). This puts us in a difficult position, because we cannot even properly stimulate ourselves and get to work.
Procrastination treatment
The key to the victory over procrastination agitated the minds of people in the days of St. Augustine, who said: "Give me chastity and temperance, but not now." Mankind is in a constant struggle to first do the first things and do things that can easily be transferred to tomorrow. If I had a universal answer to this age-old question, I would already be given a medal for increasing human productivity around the globe.
Unfortunately, I do not have a definitive answer. He has no one. But I can offer you several proven tactics to fight this phenomenon, as old as the world.
1. The alternative to do nothing
Perhaps there are no bigger procrastinators than writers. They do not have a clear work schedule from 9 to 6, they do not have a boss, they have no clients to meet with and who help to build a schedule for the day. They have nothing but time, keyboard and deadline to complete the task. So based on the writers, we can develop better ways to combat procrastination.
The first method is associated with hidden procrastination. My friend discovered that every time he put off writing his book, he replaced them with some other important activity. Instead of writing, he read a newspaper, works of other authors, or engaged in any other positive activity. This made him feel better about his decision to postpone an important matter and justified him in his own eyes. But this meant that the work was not done.
But instead of imposing disciplinary action on oneself, never, never prokrastirovat again; he decided to follow the following rule: at the time he set aside for work, he could either write or sit and do nothing. If he really could not write anything, he allowed himself to look out the window, stand on his head or get caught up in his own thoughts, but did not start any other activity! This gave him the motivation to finish the job without feeling that he was imprisoned by his work schedule.
The next time you need to do the work, give yourself two options: work or not do anything. This allows your brain to feel free to choose, not giving you a fun reason to distract yourself.
2. Do not do the most important task.
The following proven tactic, developed by a well-known psychologist, asserts that thanks to her you can read a book on particle physics, tidy up in the closet and respond to a letter 20 years ago. It consists in the following: all that needs to be done is to make sure that these matters are not in the “first priority”. You just need to make a list of cases, and so far not to do the most important (most likely and most unpleasant) case.
Of course, if you have a deadline and you have to do an assignment in the evening, it will not work. But if you could not find the time to tidy up the garage or finish reading a book borrowed from a friend, do it when it is not so important as, for example, go to the gym. When there is a choice, they will seem more attractive to you and you will do something important.
3. Divide into parts
Often, we postpone the business simply because we understand how much work we have to do to make the project complete, instead of focusing on what can be done now to get at least a little bit of progress.
Dividing the task into smaller, better manageable pieces, prevents a situation in which you will be torn between a bunch of cases. If a small task seems to be achievable to us, our brain is less likely to start looking for an alternative to what to do.
If you cannot break a task into parts, use the following technique: set the timer to 25 minutes and just start working. During this time, the brain will not be overloaded with excess information, but these minutes are enough to move a little. Ideally, you need to work for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, and then repeat until the work is finished. But even if you do not do this, you will be 25 minutes closer to the goal.
4. Just start.
The most important thing that stops us from doing things is our imagination. We believe that the task will be too boring, difficult, painful. But once we start, we understand that everything is not as bad as we imagined.
When we perform a task that we really want to postpone, we feel confident and contented. This feeling will always be more pleasant than the activity that you choose as a procrastination. But we will never know if we do not begin.
Conclusion
Almost every person on earth struggles with procrastination. Today, doing what is easy and even rational to transfer to tomorrow is not part of our nature. Unfortunately, in our busy lives, when we have more items on the to-do list than the time to complete them, this can be dangerous. Chronic propensity for procrastination leads to poor results, severe stress and even illness.
Overcoming it is not easy, but it can be done. Following the proposed techniques will help you succeed. But the most important thing is to just start doing something. Sometimes it takes just a couple of minutes to get into the work.
