Procrastination

From continual coffee breaks (instead of completing work tasks) to postponing the payment of bills (which leads to penalties for late payment).

Suppose you face a deadline in your project or need to get ready for an important exam. But instead of finishing the task, you go to a party with friends or start puttering about the house doing some mindless activities. Sounds like you? Then it's very likely that you’re also a procrastinator.

Before psychologists invented the term "procrastination" everything was clear. Those who postpone things are lazy, and it's bad to be lazy. Nowadays, the attitude to this issue has changed. Procrastination is seen as being different than laziness. In addition, procrastination itself is not necessarily a problem.

Psychologists divide procrastination into two main types: delaying things and avoiding making decisions. Each of these types has its own reasons, and you need to deal with them in different ways.

Delaying things happens, for example, when a person has a gap between intention and action, low consciousness, or poor self-organization. In this case, conscious actions related to goal setting and time management can help. For example, the Eisenhower matrix of priorities.

When it comes to avoiding decision, things are a little more complicated. This phenomenon has more complex psychological reasons. For example, the fear of defeat (or victory), a conflict of interest, or problems with self-esteem. To understand this type of procrastination, you need to develop the skills of self-observation and introspection. In this case, psychological help is sometimes required.

Some reasons for procrastination are not as obvious as they may seem. While studying the topic, I was surprised to find one of them. The desire to control everything. I, for one, like to feel that I am in control of my life to some extent. In the past, if the issue of control was too acute, I resorted to a special kind of procrastination. To resist every rule and reject every request. In this case, procrastination became my strategy for fighting for independence. If a close person asked me to do something for them? Well, no, not now.

Another example. Procrastination before going to bed. The familiar "I'll go to bed, but later, in the meantime I'll watch TV and read a book" forces us to accumulate a lack of sleep. Which can eventually become fraught with health problems (like sleep deprivation). In this case, my advice is to understand why you are fighting with yourself, what you are running from, and start taking care of your health.

Interestingly, procrastination like this, is often the reason for low employee engagement. Participants in my leadership courses often ask this question. Why are their team members opposed to completing tasks? Here's the answer. This is a way of fighting for your independence.