For many, procrastination is a daily issue all around the world. While we can typically sometimes find the space to avoid doing something, we can feel often blocked from approaching something when we feel stuck. This is why it is important to understand the root of our procrastination; by knowing what is happening, we can identify the stage(s) to address it. Below are three common reasons we procrastinate, with suggestions to cope with each of these:
1. Lack of Direction
A common home base reason for procrastination, is that we do not know what we should be doing, or, we have no clarity. When clarity is lost, and there are no clear actionable steps, there are too many variables. As tasks become larger than life, and part of the completion becomes uncertain, the weight of almost any task feels difficult to carry. When we face ambiguity it is often easier to escape and avoid the unknown, than to address it.
Symptoms of Lack of Direction
- Overwhelming lists.
- Confusion about where to start.
- Beginning different things without completing them.
What can be done about it
Break Down Task into Achievable Steps
Big tasks can be overwhelming, however breaking tasks down into smaller, achievable steps will ease the anxiety and tell you where to go next. Instead of, "write a book" consider:
- writing the outline of the chapters
- doing research
- writing a chapter per week.
Clearly Define Your Objectives
Working to SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely) will bring clarity to your intended actions and aims. Prioritize Tasks:
To help you become more productive, use a daily list of priorities to guide you on which tasks are more important to get accomplished. The daily list will provide you with direction and a way to manage your energy and focus.
Digital Pea Creations offers planners and templates to help you to organize your goals and tasks and help provide relief and direction to your day.
2. Perfectionism
Perfectionism is another key area of productivity breakdown. Many people will procrastinate because the fear the work they are producing will not measure up to their unrealistic standards. The fear of imperfection can freeze people into no action at all because by delaying they avoid dealing with producing work that they would likely judge as below standard.
Signs of Perfectionism:
- You are often disappointed in your work
- You would rather avoid a task altogether to spare yourself any mistakes.
- You spend long hours tweaking or worrying over the fine details of a project rather than completing it.
How to overcome perfectionism:
- Accept Imperfection: Acknowledge that perfection is not possible, place your priorities on progress, each time you complete the task that is productive to you.
- Use Realistic Standards: Set realistic standards for your task. It will relieve you of the anxiety and set an expectation for you to complete.
- Meditate: Mindfulness can help regulate perfectionist tendencies, as it creates a period of time to become aware of your internal feelings without interfering with your actions. Mindfulness comes in many forms, meditation, breathing practice, etc. Mindfulness provides grounding to your thoughts and limiting the stress response of performance which induces procrastination. Digital Pea Creations offers mindfulness and self-reflective journaling resources to help with perfectionism and progress-minded thinking.
3. Fear of Criticism
Another reason people procrastinate is fear of criticism or judgement. Criticism can cause us to hesitate in beginning or completing a task out of fear of rejection, which can cause us a great deal of anxiety and avoidance.
Signs of Fear of Criticism:
* Avoiding tasks that require evaluation from another person
* Feeling too sensitive to constructive feedback
* Hesitant to share work with peers or supervisors
Ways to Manage It:
Reframe your Idea of Criticism: You are not a personal attack. Criticism is intended to help you grow, and constructive feedback can help you improve your skill base, as well as the quality of your work.
Build your confidence: One way to develop confidence in your capabilities is to reflect on whatever you have achieved, whether it is a big or little step in your project. Consider journal-writing accomplishments to remind yourself of what you can do to maintain perspective.
Gain supportive feedback: To help build your resilience to criticism start with trusted friends and family. Gaining directive feedback from them can create a bridge to share work in a safe place. Then, you could gradually (if you are the type of person who likes and can tolerate gradual) widen the conversation to feedback from more than just those supportive individuals.
Digital Pea Creations provides guided reflection planners that encourage people to track growth or accomplishments, to help establish confidence in their abilities.
Conclusion: Breaking the Procrastination Habit
Now that you know procrastination could be due to unclear direction, perfectionism, and/or fear of criticism, you can begin to factor in the solutions. If you can identify any of these root causes and use these ways to think about and improve any procrastinatory behaviors in your process, then you have already defeated procrastination.
Moving forward in clarity, facilitating imperfection, and reframing criticism means you can be on your way to taking action. It is important to remember that overcoming procrastination is a process, and you have to allow yourself time to adjust or learn.
You can do this with help from Digital Pea Creations' planners and templates, their creators make it easy for users to use the planners for productivity and motivation. Eventually you will see your productivity improve, thereby minimizing procrastination and regaining control of your time.