Procrastination: possibly one of the most frustrating forms of self-sabotage. Common in university students, procrastination can happen easily despite knowing putting off the work won’t help with anything. With assessments and exams coming up, here are some handy tips on how to stop yourself from procrastinating – sooner rather than later!
It starts with your drive to work and your opposing drive to delay. These two opposite forces are playing tug of war in your mind, causing the frustration you feel when you start to procrastinate. When you procrastinate, your drive to delay overpowers your drive to work. In other words, your prefrontal cortex (where decisions are made) and your limbic system (the pleasure centre) are fighting for attention. This could be because you have more enjoyable things to do, there is something distracting you, or there is something easier for you to complete. But, the good news is that it is not as difficult as you think to help your drive to work win.
The first step in reducing your procrastination is recognising how it makes you feel. Does it make you feel anxious, stressed or even ashamed? Perfectionists and people with high standards often experience negative feelings like this, because they fear they cannot live up to their own high expectations. So, never forget to be kind to yourself and don’t punish yourself for procrastinating! It is a completely normal phenomenon. Self-forgiveness after procrastinating is a good habit to develop, otherwise the guilt and anxiety you feel as a result can cause it to worsen, creating a vicious cycle! Accept that procrastinating from time to time is normal – hopefully, this should stop you from procrastinating as much.
Next, never underestimate the power of a little treat. If you find it difficult to get yourself started on work, try rewarding yourself after completing a task, no matter how small the reward. Procrastination in itself feels rewarding because it relieves stress and anxiety - ridding yourself of negative emotions feels good. Give yourself a reward that feels better than the feelings that come with procrastination. Show your reward system who is boss!
Behaviour that is rewarded is repeated, so make sure to reward your drive to work rather than your drive to delay.
Setting reachable and realistic goals for yourself is also key to getting your work done: increasing your motivation to complete tasks. This could mean dividing your work up into bite-sized, manageable chunks, and finishing one chunk at a time. Having worrying, unmanageable goals can make you feel anxious, and can set you up for disappointment. So, to avoid the disappointment, you begin to procrastinate - instead create smaller goals for yourself that you know you can complete. Another tip is to think about why you want to complete that small chunk – assigning a “reason why” to each chunk can make it feel much easier to achieve.
The irony of procrastination is that whilst procrastinating, you often find yourself carrying out other tasks instead of the task that you should be completing. These tasks offer instant gratification, often because they are easy to do. The point is, sometimes you can find yourself being more productive than ever while procrastinating! Why not turn lemons into lemonade by looking for the good in your procrastination habit? The next time you feel yourself giving in to the wrath of procrastination, take advantage of the situation by completing some easier, more gratifying jobs that you enjoy more. Ironically, you may end up getting more work done than if you hadn’t procrastinated, even if they are smaller, easier tasks. Who said procrastination always had to be a negative thing?
Many people find that their environment plays a huge role in how much work they can get done. It’s easy to change your environment to prevent the pesky distractions that are causing you to procrastinate. It can even be as simple as removing the cues that trigger your procrastination. This could be a visual cue such as your phone. It could help to work in a library because you may find there are less distractions. Interestingly, these can be mental cues, such as certain beliefs or ideas you have about the work you are trying to do. These could be, “I find this task boring,” or “I’m not good enough to do this task”. Hide these mental triggers just as you would your phone. Try altering your negative beliefs by reframing your thoughts more positively, for example, “I find this task boring, but there are some parts of it that interest me,” or “I am just as qualified to do this task as someone else”. When you remove annoying triggers from your physical and mental environment that affect your ability to work, you may soon start to find procrastination really is becoming a thing of the past.
Finally, one of the main reasons why procrastination occurs is because we are intolerant of the emotions that procrastination elicits in you. These could be anxiety or boredom. Remove the anxiety or boredom that you associate with your work by making it fun. You could do this by adjusting your general mindset and reframing your mental image of the work you are procrastinating. Studies show that when people feel the work they have to do is serious or important, they are more likely to procrastinate with it. So, by changing the way you feel about and view the work, and by not viewing it as a huge scary task, you will be able to crack on with it.
Procrastination can be annoying, but with these handy tips you should be able to understand what’s making you procrastinate and how to finally get started with your work.
