Self Empowerment By Overcoming Procrastination

Empowering yourself to conquer procrastination
What exactly is procrastination? Why can’t I follow Nike’s slogan “Just do it!”? When we fail to do something that we yearned to do but did not, we ask ourselves the question “Why can’t I just move my butt and DO it?” It just means the act of putting off actions or tasks to a later time.

Procrastination, the opposite of decision is a common enemy that everyone should conquer in order to achieve the goals.

Why people procrastinate?

There are many reasons why people procrastinate and I will share with you the most common ones.

1. Fear of failure – you are not in control of other people response to work and over-valuing of these responses can cause anxiety and uneasiness. Take for example, if you want to achieve perfection in a task which standard cannot be met will discourage you from doing it.

2. Fear of success- you might find this strange, but it is true that some of us are afraid of what might happen if we are successful.

3. Fear of changes – you do not want to change yourself to adapt to the new state because you are afraid of the impact the changes will bring to you, it is simply that you are already in your comfort zone.

4. Peer influence – if you associate closely with people who procrastinate, you will become one of them, so be careful of your association. Remember this “you are what you attract”.

5. Habit – If you have this habit since young, it will become part of you and changes will be extremely difficult, for example, it will be hard for a smoker who has smoked for 30 years to quit, it will be mission impossible.

6. Difficulty in making decision – some people is indecisive in what they wants, so they will always tell themselves, “Next time then do”.

7. Low frustration tolerance level – if you are easily aggravated by small hiccups or obstacles, you will tend to give up easily.

There are many more reasons like low motivation, stress, lack of skill, lack of assertion, laziness, fear of the unknown, lack of self confidence and many more factors that can lead to procrastination.

Next, we will come to how we are going to overcome it?

1. Prioritize all the tasks to be done. Imagine if you have one large job on hand, you will tend to become over-loaded and soon you will be frustrated which will lead to procrastination. You can overcome this by breaking out the job into different tasks and prioritize them accordingly into 3 groups namely, H (High priority) – needs to be done immediately, M (Medium priority) – needs to be done, but not instantly and L (Low priority) – not essential but good to get it done. Focus on one task at a time.

2. You must also development good time management to prevent last minute excitement over incomplete work.

3. Adopt a habit of keeping a “To Do” list so that you can’t “conveniently” forget about the overwhelming jobs to be done.

4. Promise yourself a reward once you have completed the task. This will motivate you to work towards your goals. You must reward yourself and not torture.

5. Identify and acknowledge the unpleasant consequences if the work is not completed.

In summary, use these empowering techniques to help you establish the right priorities, and manage your time in such a way that you make the most of the opportunities open to you. Always take action when opportunities arise, STOP procrastinating!!