Do you know the difference between a procrastinator and a lazy person?
A procrastinator is someone who wants to do a work but keeps postponing or delaying intentionally. A lazy person just doesn’t want to do anything, now or later.
Yet the procrastinator often gets bracketed with the lazy ones. They get labelled as undisciplined, unorganised, or even unambitious.
In reality, procrastinators are doing everything except what they must be doing. Like sharpening the pencils and arranging their desk when they should be working on the reports.
Or standing before a cluttered cupboard trying to look for an outfit when they should be organising the cupboard.
Procrastinators aren’t avoiding work; they’re avoiding dealing with the feelings associated with them. It’s like a child closing their eyes and thinking that no one can see them.
What We’re Really Avoiding
Look around you and there’s no shortage of instances. That unanswered email, the health check-up you promised to take, the project you kept postponing.
Each of these are still waiting for some concrete action from you. The only reason you haven’t attended to them is not because you don’t want to, but simply because you aren’t ready to deal with the fear of failure, or disappointment, or expectations.
Postponing the health check-up won’t change the outcome. Nor will rewriting the first slide repeatedly help you complete the deck.
Every time you delay something, you’re prolonging the misery of dealing with the task. Until it becomes your default reaction to any job.
The earlier you take note of this repetition in your behaviour, the earlier you’ll be able to deal with the procrastinator in you.
Take steps before procrastination begins to look like a character flaw.
The Small Costs We Don’t Notice
It’s sneaks up on you so quietly that you don’t realise when it begins to control you, unknowingly bringing about changes in your personality.
Every time you delay something you know you should do, you end up having conversations in your head discussing why you can’t get it done. You convince yourself the reasons are justified.
That’s when chinks appear in your self-confidence. You doubt your ability to do it. Beyond you, others witness your repeated putting-off tasks for reasons they don’t get.
This impacts your credibility as a dependable person, as someone who can get the work done.
An unwanted but plausible outcome of your procrastination habit.
Another offshoot of procrastination is the energy you spend on avoiding doing the task.
Going on around it, planning it, then thinking of reasons you can’t do it, convincing yourself, getting annoyed (for not doing it), and so on. This mental exercise is beyond exhausting, it’s nerve wracking and emotionally draining.
And no, motivation or pep talks won’t help in these circumstances. I mean, motivation is itself unpredictable so you can’t keep waiting for it.
Procrastination Is a Mirror
The best way to deal with procrastination is getting started. Don’t stress about the outcome. Just begin. Progress will evolve with each step.
I look at procrastination as a reflection of our own reservations and insecurities. And these come to the fore every time you want to embark on something new. Your doubts burst forth, clouding your thinking.
You can’t totally eliminate it but you surely can be ready to deal with it. Don’t overthink and just take the first step. Forget perfection and focus on completion.
Every step gets you closer to the goal. It’s forward movement. Procrastinating can then become avoidable.
Remember, progress happens when you stop waiting and begin moving.
