The Quote Series: Procrastination

Today I’m going back to basics and taking a look at procrastination through the eyes of a number of influential and/or famous people.

Procrastination is a problem for a lot of people.  Sometimes it’s just an occasional problem but for others it can be a chronic habit that causes difficulties in many areas of their lives.

Napoleon Hill describes procrastination in terms that we will all find familiar:

Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday. 

Like many people, I recognise myself in this quote, although I don’t procrastinate over everything.  Some tasks are appealing enough in their own way and I need nothing more than for the task to present itself for me to take action.  But sometimes, even tasks that I find appealing fall out of favour and I find myself putting things off.

Why do we procrastinate?

I love this quote from Christopher Parker which illustrates one of the reasons why we procrastinate:

Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.

Imagine all the fun, exciting or relaxing things we can be doing instead of getting on with the task that we know we should be doing.  By ‘should’, I don’t mean things like getting the washing up done or washing the car.  Instead I’m thinking of those things that will bring us longer term enjoyment and gratification.  Our problem is that we’ve become a generation who are obsessed with instant gratification.  If it doesn’t please us right now, then we don’t want to wait, consequently taking action on our long term goals is delayed.  We take our fun now, and then have to live with the long term consequences.

And here’s another reason why we may procrastinate according to Erica Jong:

We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.

We put off doing the things we want to do because we’re scared of being judged by others, or maybe we just don’t want to stand out from the crowd.  We all want to fit in, and if we’re going to do that, then we will have to do the same as everyone else.  In other words, we’ll have to remain average.  Stepping away from the crowd will cause others to judge, it’s inevitable, because, frankly, anything or anyone who is different will draw attention and judgement.  Our choice is therefore whether we’re happy to live with this and get on with creating the life we want, or whether we’re happier being average Joe.  It’s our choice.

Why we shouldn’t procrastinate

If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it. Says Olin Miller

Have you ever experienced this?  The longer you leave a task, the bigger and uglier it becomes?  Sometimes this is because in our minds it becomes a bigger and bigger monster, but sometimes it really does become a little more difficult each day, like old food caking onto dishes that need washing.  We should always try to remember this when we know we’re putting something off.

Or what about this quote from Victor Kiam:

Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin. 

This is probably one of the worst outcomes of procrastination: preparation failure.  A promotion opportunity arrives but we’ve neglected to update our skills, a holiday of a lifetime with some of our best friends is being organised but we haven’t saved any money, or there’s a great party being thrown but we’ve neglected a homework deadline.

It’s easy to see all the reasons we procrastinate, and also some of the reasons why it is so important to get this habit under control.  Below I’ve given some simple hints and tips to help overcome procrastination.  You probably know these tips or variations of them, but, by the nature of procrastination, we need to be reminded often!

Accountability

I find being accountable for my planned actions the best anti-procrastination technique of all, and furthermore, being publicly accountable is best.  Knowing that I have to provide a daily or weekly account of my progress really gets me moving.  There’s nothing I hate more than having to publicly declare that I’ve failed to progress on a given day or week!

Just Start!

Starting is often the most difficult part to overcoming procrastination.  Quite often when we get moving, we’re happy to continue, so the trick is to find something that will motivate us to just get going.  This could be by setting a timer for 5 to 15 minutes and allowing ourselves to stop at the end (if we still want to), or rewarding ourselves for taking action (but keep the reward commensurate with the actions!), or sometimes it helps to read a couple of quick blogs (or check out youtube) about people who are doing what you want to do so that you are ‘contaminated’ by their enthusiasm and are enthused to get going yourself!

Simplify

Sometimes we procrastinate because we have to decide between competing options.  My way of dealing with this is to schedule the tasks I want or need to do, either to a time of day or day of the week. When doing this, it’s important to write your plans at a time when you’re relaxed so that you can capture all the things you need to do.  If you fail to get everything in, you will have created another competing decision!

Prepare

Similar to simplify, preparation can be key to avoiding procrastination.  If there are things you need to do to enable the task to happen, cover these off well ahead of the task itself.  A simple example is to have your running gear right by the side of your bed so that you dress to run immediately you get up in the morning.

Another example could be mental preparation – visualise yourself doing and enjoying the task before you start.  For example if you plan to decorate a room on the weekend, for a few days leading up to the weekend visualise yourself carrying out the task, successfully taking each step and enjoying the process.  Also see yourself appreciating your achievements and congratulating  yourself when the task is completed.  This may sound a little weird, but it really does help!

This has been a whistle-stop tour of procrastination.  It’s an easy concept, but a broad and wide-ranging subject, but I hope I’ve managed to convey to you that it affects everyone, even the influential and famous!  I also hope that you will find the hints and tips useful.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts on procrastination and also any hints and tips you have which may help me and everyone else who calls by!  Or if you prefer you can leave a comment on my facebook page.

 

Photo: Charles Hutchins