Why do we procrastinate? 10 tips to end procrastination.

Why do we procrastinate or delay things?

We all must have thought about it.

Have you ever felt lost at some point of time when you are not able to achieve what you really want from within? Have you thought that you have a career, family, regular source of income but still you are not satisfied. Your life does not feel complete? 

We need to stop running and think for a while, that why this happens, are we actually living our passion or not? 

There are so many people who go for jobs, do business but are not happy and are not following their passion. 

Giving a very meaningless purpose and objective which is not able to complete the self satisfaction need of an individual. 

What are the tasks we procrastinate? 

• We generally procrastinate the work which is new to us because we have the fear of uncertainty. We think; what if we fail, what if people make fun of us, what if we leave our current job and stop our monthly regular income? 
• The fear of failure makes us procrastinate to even start our work.
• We procrastinate the work which needs a lot of our mental energy, which is big or difficult to achieve, or is long term but why do we do that? 

Our mind is categorized into two parts:  

1) one is the conscious mind which governs our life only 10% 

2) second part is the subconscious mind which governs 90% of our life 

Example 

A housewife had a passion for dance. She wanted to be a dance teacher and make some earning out of it.  

Her conscious mind which is the ambitious part of our brain makes her think repetitively that why she is not working. She has got many awards in dance and she can be a teacher. She can earn and live her passion.

But within seconds her subconscious mind tells her; ” I need to wake up in the morning, clean home, utensils, make food”. “Dress up the child, pack the food and send the kid and husband outside for work, then take care of other household things”. She thinks she does not have time nor energy to take up a big task. She does not have any certificate to become a teacher so it is too late to change her Lifestyle now. 

Finally the subconscious mind overpowers the conscious one and she keeps on delaying her dreams. 

Our subconscious mind does not focus on the possible success rather it focuses more on all the possible problems we will have or we will face in order to achieve anything. It then magnifies all those problems. 

This happens before we even start thinking about the work. 

10 Tips to end the habit of procrastination: 

1.Have goals and dreams in life

First we should have some goals in life with proper timelines. We have to write our goals and do proper Goal Setting . For this we can set alarms, reminders so that our focus is regained to achieving those again and again.

2. Break your goals into sub goals / task

In the above example the housewife gives herself a bigger goal of being a dance teacher. This goal seems very difficult to achieve. So she can give a smaller goal to herself like her neighbours can leave their kids at home and she will teach dance to them. This way she can follow her passion of dancing and earn. Simultaneously she can give 1 hour a day to learn dance and take classes for certifications. 

Often the start is difficult. thinking of the result before starting the job is very human but at times when we start the work the result comes out to be totally different yet rewarding.

3. Do not multitask 

If you are doing different types of work together then actually you are not focusing on any work. There is a possibility that randomly you pick the easiest work in which you are comfortable and procrastinate the difficult and important one. 

4. Take care of your health 

Because when you become lazy you will lose your focus very easily. Have a proper diet plan, drink lots of water. When we are physically fit; our mind is refreshed. We are able to think better, focus better and eventually achieve better.

5. Have an inspiration 

Inspiration acts as a motivational factor for you to pursue your dreams and work towards them. 

6. Work on your will power

People with good will power do not break easily or get persuaded easily. They are the ones who  take their failure as an opportunity to do the work in a different way to succeed. They either succeed or they learn but they never fall. Learn how to increase Will Power here

7. Remove or be away from distractions in life

We generally get distracted by the people around us. There are many friends, relatives or acquaintances who tell us not to do some work. They instill fear in our heart for that work. They tell us that it is not achievable because they also tried and failed. Our conscious mind gets over power by our subconscious mind. It is designed the way that it will believe everything that we discuss with others. Our mind itself will start distracting us from achieving our goals. Therefore its good to maintain a distance from those people.

8. Have a routine

your subconscious mind really loves repetition and routine because it works that way ,therefore  you can make a timetable with deadlines. Like for the housewife example above – from 7-8 she can do all the household activities, till 9 am she gets free after sending her husband to work.  From 10 – 11 am she will learn dance and from 4 – 5 pm she will teach dance to small kids.  

9. Reward yourself 

our mind tends to repeat the work which gives us a feeling of achievement. This is also called Reinforcement theory . Reinforcement theory states that if we control the consequences of the behavior we can change our behavior. Give yourself some kind of reward after doing something difficult. Ex: If you complete your sub goal within the deadline then you will go out for a fine dine at your favorite place or go for a picnic after 1 month of regularly doing some task. 

10. The 5 SEC rule

This is a bonus tip. As per the book “the 5 second rule by Mel Robbins” The 5 second rule states that our mind takes 5 second to populate various kinds of thoughts when we think of any task. Therefore if you have to do something difficult, just simply start doing it within 5 seconds. When you start the work before your mind starts distracting you, your body comes from thinking mode into action mode. And the moment you will gain momentum you will start feeling good that at least you have started. The progress , be it little, will act as a motivator to finish the task.