I admit it, I am a procrastinator, and I tick all of the boxes for being a procrastinator. I have hated it previously, but now I know the signs and use them to kick-start me into action.
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You are a procrastinator, there’s almost no doubt in my mind.
I also believe you are a high achiever or at least someone who wants to be achieving more than they are.
If you weren’t a procrastinator I doubt you would be reading this as you are probably trying to distract yourself from doing something meaningful, by the end of this article I would have opened your eyes to the forms of distraction and procrastination, and what to do about it.
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After finally admitting it, I could look back at how debilitating procrastination was, and why I never got anything done, no matter how much I was shouted at or how much time I had.
Or there were many times I would either not start on something because I couldn’t figure out where to begin or I was too scared in case I failed or even too lazy and I would distract myself with gaming or porn (this was back in the day, I haven’t watched porn for well over a year, and I advise you do the same.)
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The reason we procrastinate
Let us address and figure out the reason why you are procrastinating. The main reason we procrastinate is self-doubt or low self-worth.
I used to procrastinate before making phone calls because I felt I sounded like an idiot, I hated my voice and I used to mumble and the other person on the phone had to repeatedly ask me again what I just said.
This is uncomfortable. Of course, I wanted to avoid it.
I even procrastinate by editing parts of articles I’ve written to avoid having to write more for the exact same article. Sound familiar?
This is the same for many pursuits in life, the obvious one being fitness.
not one person I know is genuinely happy with their body but so few are doing anything about it, so much easier to sit on the sofa and have a bar of chocolate to get that dopamine hit, than get hot and sweaty and ache after.
A version of what William James, the American philosopher, mentions is that action and feeling go together; we can control the action and then in due course, the feelings will follow. Doing that which we know is uncomfortable at the time, but in turn, makes us feel satisfied and happier is the way to go.
Short-term pain for longer-term gain.
The Four types of procrastinating. which one are you?
- The proudly lazy but internally unhappy
- The not-so-busy bee
- The shiny object hunter
- ‘’I perform at my best under pressure.’’
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Using laziness as an excuse to procrastinate
Being lazy and reaffirming you are lazy by telling everyone you are lazy is highly self-deprecating.
It is also highly unattractive and you wonder why you haven’t found Mr or Mrs right yet, and/or you are wondering why your partner resents you when they are at work all day or trying to achieve things in their life and you are moaning about being lazy.
It is a negative feedback loop that needs to be addressed. When your motivation is low and you don’t have much energy, you need to take action to address this.
The feeling of being unenergised won’t go away, you need to find something that energises you.
Usually eating the right food will help this, not snacking and eating less unhealthy food, drinking plenty of water etc. but you’ve heard all this before right? When you were feeling low about something else.
Finding something that energises you is the key, mine is gardening, meditating, writing and helping other people. If I don’t do these few things I run out of energy and feel less motivated to bother even trying to help myself. You have to ensure you find what refills that tank of yours. Be kind to yourself.
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Not so Busy Bees
I am pretty hot on questioning how busy people are when they say they are busy, especially when they are moaning about it.
I can guarantee no one is as busy as previous generations when they had to work all hours to get food on plates. When they were growing a lot of their food or raising and slaughtering their own animals for meat.
The idea of stopping to check Insta every 5 mins to see if they had some random person, they shouldn’t don’t care about, ‘like’ a picture they put up about their dog, is laughable.
Don’t use being too busy as an excuse, hold your tongue and find time to achieve what you want to. Fight the algorithms that are trying to distract you, understand when they have diverted your attention away and get back to achieving your dreams.
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Shiny Object Syndrome
This is a term that hits the nail on the head when you feel like you have achieved something without fully achieving it and then moving on to the next thing is a part of this so-called syndrome, another part is you are chasing something new and exciting and once the fad passes it is onto the next thing shiny new thing.
This can be broken down into smaller parts too. For example, you are decorating your house, you get started in the bedrooms.
You cut in and edge around all the sockets and corners, and you get a couple of coats of white on, amazing, and looks 10x better. what about the skirting?
no one likes glossing, do they?
But you really want the other rooms done so whoever sees it will be impressed by how much you have got done so quickly, you rush to open the other pot of paint, an electric blue, awesome, the guests will love this for their feature wall.
You get painting and realise you should have stayed with the white one from the first room, too late now, this goes on and on until you have done an average job of the whole house rather than monotasking and getting a perfect finish on the whole house, it would have just taken a bit longer.
I was very good at this form of procrastinating, and I would sit down at the end of it unfulfilled because I hadn’t actually completed any task to a good standard, just started lots of them.
This ‘syndrome’ is a form of procrastination and distraction, by stopping yourself and taking a breather. Think about what you want to achieve you will get more done. You feel as though you are busy and proactive but you aren’t.
You end up being a busy fool.
A trick I use now when I have a lot to achieve but only a day to do it in is to write down a list of what needs doing and tick it off one by one. I can safely say that when I do this, I have done all my tasks by midday and am happy and satisfied, and then the rest of the day is mine, it’s all a bonus, extra time. Imagine that.
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The time-pressure hero
I touched on this one before, waiting until the deadline to get everything done.
The classic I used to do when I was a serial procrastinator and I had just started going out with my then girlfriend, now wife. Was waiting until she had messaged to say she was on her way home for me to tidy up the dishes from breakfast.
I was a lot younger back then and didn’t have many responsibilities so I, kind of, forgive myself. However, I would game all day and stay in my pyjamas, and then as the day dripped on by and I felt more and more guilty about not doing anything whilst she was at work, I’d give myself until the last hour to go walk the dog, who’d be telling me with his eyes how lazy I am. I’d rush the walk, buzz home and tidy up, whack the hoover round, finally remember that I should do something for dinner get it out, and she would walk in the door.
I felt like I had tricked her, which is a bad feeling in itself, but I was mainly lying to myself.
This is not a good habit to get into, when I commit to a productive day and write a list and get it done early, then I have all the time in the world to be lazy on my own terms, but usually, by then I am more upbeat and don’t want to ruin my day by being lazy so I overachieve and get shit done.
This ultimately brings me closer as a person to the values I hold, which I believe is the ultimate path to happiness.
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Wake up with determination, go to bed with satisfaction.
You can’t go too far wrong with these words.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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