Ironically, this blog is being written because I’ve been procrastinating on my previous blog! That’s right, I am suffering from the little devil that is known as procrastination. Staring at the exact same words on the page for weeks and weeks on end, with little to no progression or inspiration!
Have you ever been in that moment when you find yourself checking your phone, distracting yourself away from completing important tasks by finding more meaningless ones to keep yourself busy? Let’s face it, we’ve all been there!
This doesn’t make us bad people or lazy, it’s simply another human trait that we all carry, some more than others and that’s okay! However, procrastination can run a little deeper than just wanting to do something without the motivation and willpower to make it happen.
In this blog, we are going to dive into the real reason behind why procrastination occurs and how we can prevent it from raising it’s head too often.
Let’s dive in…
What is procrastination?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, Procrastination means “the action of delaying or postponing something.”
When we procrastinate we can find ourselves keeping busy to avoid doing the one thing we need to do to move us forwards.
Sometimes we stare into space, scroll through social media or start moving our living room furniture around. We do anything to avoid doing the one thing we really need to get done.
It’s a good excuse to ignore something important that is bothering us. Procrastination lives in the future, lingering in the air like a transparent brick wall.
However, we know when we are procrastinating and it can be very difficult to push ourselves through it.
Does overstimulation cause procrastination?
Sometimes our brains are running at a million miles an hour and it’s hard to keep up, which can be very exhausting. Do you find it can be hard to focus and concentrate? Our minds are overstimulated with pressures from work, our social circle and the biggest one of all; Social Media.
Social media plays a big role in procrastination in the modern world. Our phones are incredible but they’re also the biggest distractor of all, wrapped in a small package. It has become a habit to keep our phones by our side, carry it around in our hand and have a mini heart attack the moment it is out of sight.
It is concerning that our lives revolve around technology more than in-person connection. Our phones can be the cause of depression, anxiety, stress and procrastination.
We see someone on social media “living their best life” before we’ve even made it out of bed to start our day. The moment we’ve felt that pressure of what our lives should look like, we then feel no motivation to complete the tasks we need to.
We sink into procrastination!
During a task, we may be bored and our brains begin to cry out for dopamine. Dopamine is the chemical released in the brain to make us feel good. We may get dopamine from food, coffee, our favourite TV show or our phones.
Do we head to the fridge for a snack because we are hungry or because we a prolonging the task that needs to be done?
Are we checking our phones and finding ourselves stuck in a social media scroll because we are interested in what others are doing or because we are bored out of our minds?
Top Tip: Next time you feel yourself reaching for your phone or heading to the fridge for a snack in the middle of a task. Ask yourself, am I procrastinating? Also, put your phone in another room or use the Forest App which is super helpful for focus.
What is the real reason we procrastinate?
Let’s dive a little deeper. One of the reasons why we put off tasks and distract ourselves with something less important can be due to a deep-rooted limiting belief.
It may be that we don’t feel we are capable, maybe our achievement won’t be good enough, we are afraid of failure or we are afraid of success (this is a thing). Whatever it may be, it can sabotage us subconsciously and hold us back from achieving what we want in life.
5 Tools that will help reduce procrastination!
Procrastination isn’t avoidable but we can put the right tools in place to help us when we are procrastinating and give us the best opportunity to prevent it.
1. Morning routine
How we start the day can determine how our day will go. If we start our day looking through social media and not by completing any tasks, that will unfold for the rest of our day.
If we start our day by avoiding our phones, checking in with ourselves and completing one task, we are giving ourselves the best chance for a great day.
The most basic task is to make your bed in the morning, this instantly puts you into a ‘task completion mode’. If you would like to read more on what to do in a morning routine then check out our blog.
2. Meditation
Meditation is an important tool for mental and physical well-being, however, it can help us to concentrate and focus by allowing us to practice being present. Focusing on our breath and tuning into the present moment quiets our minds and helps us to focus.
3. Movement
Starting the day or taking some time out in the day, even if it is just for 10 minutes, to move your body or get outside will help secrete endorphins, helping us to feel good and motivated to complete tasks. It is a great way to shift our energy.
4. Removing the one device that is an easy distraction, our phone!
Putting it on “do not disturb’ mode isn’t enough. Either we need to turn our phones off, place it in another room or use apps like Forest App to help us avoid opening our phones when we pause or feel like doing anything but the task at hand.
5. Stop being so hard on yourself
If we have a deep-rooted limiting belief, we can work on this daily with affirmations, meditation and listening to podcasts etc. Everyone procrastinates and it is very difficult in an overstimulated world to stay focused. It can be harder for some than others so don’t be hard on yourself and give yourself some slack. Try the various tools and find what works for you.
Summary
Ironically, I procrastinated on my previous blog and this one included. I then procrastinated for another two weeks before realising I seriously needed to put these tools into practice. We all fall off the wagon sometimes and struggle to get back on. That is ok, it isn’t about the falling but the getting back up!
YOU”VE GOT THIS!
Seek and Discover
