1st year English TTU

Dealing with Procrastination

“Procrastination is the thief of time.”

“Procrastination is the thief of life.”

What is Procrastination?

It is postponing a task that you need to complete in order to achieve a goal. Procrastination is
about delaying. Delaying may be about not having the skill to do the work, little interest in
the work, worry about failure or wanting to get the work perfect.

Negative Cycle of Procrastination:

1. Sit down to begin assignment/exam study

5. Feelings of increased pressure and 2. Negative thoughts and feeling eg.

anxiety as time runs short worry about failure, perfectionism

4. Avoiding work and engaging in 3. Feel urge to avoid uncomfortable

procrastination activities feels rewarding feelings and delay starting on studies

Reasons Why People Procrastinate

1- Fear of failure
2- Fear of success
3- Fear of losing control
4- Fear of separation
5- Fear of attachments
 This will explain how your self-talk feeds delaying, avoidance and procrastination.

It can be difficult to break out of the pattern of procrastination because it is a self-

perpetuating habit - i.e. avoiding challenging tasks and uncomfortable feelings can actually
feel “rewarding” in the short term, but this process eventually reinforces the same patterns of
negative thinking and feelings and self-defeating behaviours. Unfortunately, as time runs
short, the open loop of anxiety, fear and avoidance leads to outcomes such as poor exam
preparation or not completing assignments by their due date.

There are other difficulties that contribute to procrastination. For example:

 Excessive self-doubt and viewing your abilities and qualities in a negative way

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 Trying to be a perfectionist and maintaining unrealistically high expectations about

the standard of your work, which can also result in avoidance behaviours.

 Having poor time management skills.

Overcoming Procrastination

Your ability to overcome procrastination and to get the job done on schedule can make all the
difference between success and failure in your life, studies, and career. However, the fact is
that everyone procrastinates. Everyone has too much to do and too little time. For you to
produce at your maximum, you must resolve to engage in “creative procrastination” from this
day forward.

What to do?

Consciously and deliberately decide which tasks you are going to put off. Look at your list of
work for the day and choose those items that you are not going to do until you have
completed other items that are vastly more important. You must work consciously and
deliberately instead of procrastinating accidentally and automatically.

We always tend to procrastinate on our biggest tasks, which are usually our highest-value
tasks as well. There are a series of techniques that you can use to overcome or at least
manage procrastination. Here are some good ideas that you should start with right away.

Mental Programming

“Do it now!”

These are perhaps the most powerful words you can use to increase your productivity.
Whenever you find yourself procrastinating on an important task, repeat to yourself, with
energy and enthusiasm, “Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!”

The amazing discovery is that after you have repeated these words ten, twenty, or even a
hundred times, you will find yourself unconsciously impelled to stay on your most important
task and complete that job before you do anything else.

Completing Larger Tasks

Any big task that you have to complete can be completed if you break it down into enough
small parts. One of the best techniques of all is to divide your task into “bite-size pieces.”
Take a piece of paper and write down every small part of the task that you have to do, in
sequence, from the first little job to the final job that completes the task. Then, discipline
yourself to do “number one” on your list. Sometimes, the decision to take action on the first
step on a large task makes it easier for you to do the next step, and the next step, and the next
step as well. Sometimes just forcing yourself to start on a major task will help you to develop
the momentum and energy necessary to work right through until the task is complete.

Develop a Sense of Urgency

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One of the rarest and most valuable human qualities in the world of work is a sense of
urgency. It is estimated that only about 2 percent of people move quickly to get the job done.
When you develop a reputation for having an “action orientation” and for getting the job
done quickly, you’ll move onto the fast track in your career.

The most important qualities are 1) the ability to set priorities and 2) the ability to start on the
most important job and get it done quickly and well. When you develop a reputation for
starting on your most important tasks and completing them quickly and well, you will be
happily surprised at all the wonderful opportunities that will open up for you.

Acceptance

The strategy of acceptance may seem counter-intuitive at first. Its aim is to enable you to free
yourself from the loops of unhelpful thinking and emotions, and the urge to avoid difficulties
and challenges. The key idea is that it can actually be helpful for you to simply accept that
you (like most other people) will experience uncomfortable feelings and thoughts and that
struggle with procrastination is universal.

This form of acceptance is not about giving up responsibility, nor about avoiding trying to
find solutions to your problems. It involves not expecting that you should have no discomfort
or unwanted experiences, and also a willingness to allow them to be present as you work on a
project or study. As noted earlier, experiential avoidance – such as procrastination or
perfectionism - can be an easy way to escape discomfort and unwanted thoughts and feelings,
but such avoidance actually increases psychological distress.

Paradoxically, when you are more accepting of your feelings and thoughts, it is likely that
you will experience them less intensely and that you can find yourself motivated to learn new
ways of interacting with your experiences.

Realistically we know that tomorrow will not miraculously be a better time to get productive
and follow through with things.

Here are more ways to challenge your unhelpful thoughts and excuses and to experiment with
new ways of doing things. Ask yourself:

Is it really true that I will be better off in the long run delaying this task or goal?

Is it really true that I can’t make even a small start on the task or goal right now?

Can I still get some parts of the task or goal done now, even if conditions aren’t ideal?

If I do make some start on the task or goal right now – What might happen? How might I
feel?

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The Positive & Achieving Cycle:

1. Sit down to begin
assignment/exam study

5. Outcomes are positive eg. Obstacles 2. Negative thoughts and

are overcome, study tasks are completed, feelings about study recur
less stress, positive beliefs about ability
to achieve in the future

4. Engage in effective action to 3. Adjust thinking and accept

complete study task. Eg. Time uncomfortable feelings.
management, meet deadlines, and Dismiss procrastination
reward yourself for effort excuses and be positive

Strategies for Procrastination Intervention

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Was there a time when you didn’t procrastinate, or was it less severe?
2. What were you doing different at that time?
3. Could you do that again? Could you do more of that?
4. In trying to resolve your procrastination, what have you tried and found
helpful?

Guidelines For Goalsetting:

Goals should be… • Meaningful & Desired

• Believable, Realistic and Achievable
• Concrete, Specific and Clearly Defined
• Stated in the Positive
• Vividly Imagined and Internalized
• In writing
• Measurable
• Prioritized
Prioritizing:
Step 1 - List all of the tasks that need to be done

Step 2 - Break the list into 3 groups:

• H – High Priority – needs to be done right away
• M – Medium Priority – needs to be done, but not immediately
• L - Low Priority – not essential, but things I’d like to get done

Step 3 - Put a letter (H, M, L) beside each item on your list

- Within each category, assign a number for the order you will tackle these items