Procrastination

We all do it sometime or the other. Some of us do it more than others. It’s so easy to say that you’ll be able to do whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing tomorrow, or next week, or even next month.

It’s the habit that we all wish we could quit. It’s probably one of the hardest habits to quit. Because there’s no equivalent of a nicotine patch to slap on to aid us in kicking this habit. For this, the change has to come from within. Everything – self-discipline, self- motivation – has to come from within.

And we’re all different. We all put off things for different reasons. We might put off confronting someone because we’re afraid of their reaction. We might put off other things because we mightn’t be confident in our ability to get them accomplished. We might put off things because we feel sorry for ourselves and we want to give ourselves a break. We might put off things because it’s sometimes easier to completely avoid something than dealing with it right away.

It’s easier to say you’ll do something tomorrow than to actually do it right now. It’s so much easier at the time to procrastinate. It’s easier to push things away to the back of your mind to deal with later. And we all like to take the easier route at some point or the other. So it’s very difficult to deal with procrastination.

However, since we can’t avoid things forever, (there’s that inexorable “moving hand of time”) there’s the inevitable mad rush to get everything done before time runs out. And it’s an adrenaline rush sometimes, where you’re on autopilot racing to finish.

And then there’s the stage of regret where you know you would’ve done much better if you’d started earlier. You would’ve had so much more time to perfect things. (Sigh) Or you would’ve been able to clarify things sooner.

We all have different ways that we deal with procrastination. I like making lists and planning out things, and making schedules. But I still need a nudge sometimes. Other people might have different ways of dealing with procrastination.

And that’s the important thing – dealing with your problem of procrastination. Because the worst thing you can do is allow your procrastination to define you and constantly get the better of you.

And we all already know that we shouldn’t procrastinate.

But as Portia says in The Merchant of Venice , “I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.” To know what you should be doing and actually doing it are two very different things. But it’s worth it to make the effort to stop procrastinating.

So stop putting things off. Get up, get out, and find ways to deal with your procrastination. Find a way to motivate yourself to get things done.

Don’t allow procrastination to define you – because then you’ll probably feel like a “failure by design”. And that’s the worst feeling in the word – knowing that you could have been so much better if you had tried harder.

Fight procrastination!