What’s Behind Procrastination?

You know the saying “from procrastination comes adjustment”? Well, that’s exactly what people with procrastination do. But what’s really hiding behind procrastination?

People who often procrastinate cannot avoid it. It is like a greater force that sometimes has nothing to do with laziness, but with other factors. Today we are going to explore some of those factors.

Factors That Can Cause Procrastination

1. Suffering From Anxiety

Many people tend to procrastinate because they don’t know how to properly control their emotions and stress. This that can eventually turn into fear.

They are often anxious personalities, are easily distracted, they often see projects as overly large and incomprehensible. Therefore, they decide to postpone everything they have to do.

Sometimes it’s not because they have other projects to focus on. In general , procrastination causes them to lose time or spend their time on less important projects. Even if the project they are postponing has a higher priority.

Some of the ways people with anxiety tend to procrastinate in these circumstances are through self-deception or excuses, such as the following:

• “Right now I’m not very focused, I’ll do it tomorrow when I’m more inspired.”

• “I do not feel so good. I will work on those things that are easier and more serious when I feel better.”
• “There are other things I can finish now. I will work on that now and save it for the end.”

As we can see, individuals with fear will look for an immediate reward, to eliminate that very uncomfortable situation. However, in the long run this can make it worse as they will lose so much time.

2. Lack of Organizational Ability

When we talk about procrastination, chances are that the person who has it also has a serious organizational problem. Each of us looks for a way to organize what works best for us. Every person is different.

However, it is always necessary to keep in mind the primary tasks that we have. There are several tasks that we can put off, whether it’s because we can:

• schedule
• postpone for another day
• transfer to another person

However, what usually happens is that we delay performing the higher priority tasks. As a result, good organization can keep us from procrastinating and, when the time comes, we may even have time to spare.

To better orient your way of organizing, it is best to focus on the priority of your tasks. For this we recommend the use of the Eisenhower matrix.

In this matrix there are four blocks classified according to importance and urgency. Using it wisely and sticking to it can really help you stop procrastinating.

3. Overestimate how much time you have

Overestimating our time is something that people who are not punctual understand very well. They may think they have a lot of time to do certain things, before meeting friends for example. However, the reality is different.

People who procrastinate tend to overestimate their time, even if they think it goes along with some of the excuses and self-deception that fights against them.

For example, people who procrastinate think they can complete certain tasks within two days. However, most of the time, some kind of complication arises, doubt arises, or a problem arises that reduces the amount of time they have.

Overestimating the time it takes to complete a task can stress you out and make you feel unable to complete the task. Then the work may end up not being as good as it could have been. All this comes with very little satisfaction.

To avoid this, it is important to keep the Eisenhower matrix in mind. It will help you do the urgent work and eliminate the fear and tendency to overestimate the time you have.

The sooner you finish a task that you have no motivation for, the better before you free up time for less important tasks. After all, we will feel that we have made a lot of progress.

Do the least fun work first

Of course we all remember those moments when we were studying and we were told to “start doing the work or studying the material you like least” . This is wise closing advice that we can use in other areas of our lives, such as at work.