How To Defeat Procrastination
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As you know from reading this book, procrastination is a problem for many people, and it has affected them in many ways. The causes are many and can vary between one person and another. It really is hard to give any concrete reasoning behind the problem because each person who suffers from procrastination does so in a variety of ways. But the bottom line is that procrastination is a hard problem to solve and it seems that it won’t go away. At least this is the way the sufferer feels about it.

Why won’t procrastination go away? Why does it rear its ugly head constantly? Why can’t people get rid of it quickly so they can lead normal lives? These are all good questions and the answers may surprise you. Procrastination has deep causes, which is why people can’t seem to get rid of it as they want to.

Although people may have made some attempt to do something about it, unless the core or root is addressed and resolved, the problem will continue onward for as long as the root is still there.

As for the root causes, there are many to choose from. Here are just a few:

• Disorganization: Whether you wish to accept this or not, procrastination and disorganization go hand-in-hand. People who are bad organizers are usually procrastinators. There are four levels of disorganization you need to consider since not all levels are the same or cause procrastination. These four levels include:

  • Can’t distinguish between urgency and priority – Procrastinators have a difficult time distinguishing whether a problem or task is an urgent one, when it must be fulfilled and in what order. Procrastinators prefer to work with tasks that are more comfortable for them and put off the inconvenient or troublesome ones till later. In other words, they'd rather do what is convenient than what is urgent or priority. When procrastinators start working on the simple tasks, they find that the more urgent tasks are piling up and not getting done. Next thing they know, people start hounding them about the other tasks, so they start taking on other tasks just to quiet the crowd, but in the process, they find they get overwhelmed so they drop the previous task to take on the new task, which in turn leaves the previous task unfinished. But at least the present task has now become a priority where it was urgent before. Now, all the tasks that were assigned have gotten mixed up regarding execution time. Those that take on priority or urgency status are left behind for those that are more comfortable or non-urgent. Once a procrastinator gets into this situation, they are unable to establish proper priorities. This causes the procrastinator to request a reprieve from the tasks at hand and then he focuses on just the ones that are not so urgent or have a priority attached to them.

  • Distractions – The procrastinator can easily get distracted to the point where tasks that may have been important are tossed aside for less important ones, mainly because they may be easier to handle or have less stress involved. If someone asked them why they didn’t get the present task done they will just claim something else came up.

  • Being forgetful – Oftentimes a procrastinator will simply forget what they are supposed to do. When they take on a job or a bunch of tasks at once, they may claim to have a great memory so they can remember everything. But when it comes down to it, they may still say they remember what to do by claiming they were about to do it. If you ever checked out a procrastinator's home or belongings, you may just find they have a bunch of reminders tacked away somewhere, either in their pockets, or in their desk drawers.

  • Lumping together – This is what procrastinators do very often. They take a bunch of activities and bring them together under one task and try to do them at the same time. When they do this they feel they have to hurry to get everything done on time. When this occurs, they put off doing it for the reason that it is too complicated a task.

• Fear: Fear was covered in a previous chapter as a cause, but it is worth mentioning here again because fear also is a common problem with procrastinators. Fear is what motivates them not to do anything. Fear forces them not to engage in a task or problem and avoid it as much as possible. Fear keeps procrastination around and allows it to haunt the sufferer. The procrastinator struggles with fear on four levels: rational, irrational, discipline, or discomfort. Based on these levels they look at things from different perspectives, like knowing they should do it but for some reason they just can’t get into doing it, and they don’t know why that is. Or, they planned to do it, but just didn’t feel like doing it.

• Perfectionism: This is another trait that was covered previously as a cause. But because it is a predominate trait that causes the condition to stick around, it is also covered here. Procrastinators can’t seem to do anything unless they can do it perfectly. It has to be just right or they don’t want to do it. Despite the fact they have this attitude, they will not acknowledge that they are perfectionists. They will deny this claim emphatically. Yet, they will start a project and stop it at some point, if they feel it isn’t being done right. They will start up again when they believe they are more in control and will continue until they lose control again. When they sense everyone around them is irritated with them, they stop what they are doing, claiming to be exhausted from what they did. If you are not sure what perfectionism is, or know of a procrastinator who does it but you aren’t too sure if what they do is perfectionism, here are some guidelines that will help you determine if perfectionism is involved:

  • Being rigid or inflexible when doing a task. Procrastinators who are perfectionists tend to be rigid in the way they do things. They have to make sure it is just right or else they won’t comply.

  • Procrastinators who are perfectionists will observe a project or task being done and believe it is not being done right. Therefore they will step in and take over even if they don’t finish it.

  • They will have the attitude that if you give them a task to do, they will refuse to do it unless they can do it perfectly, no matter how simple the task may be.

  • The procrastinator who has signs of a perfectionist, will feel inadequate and will want to find closure. They will feel agitated in some way or even have some level of discomfort, if a task or assignment they were assigned to or view, is not completed. These feelings will keep that person from performing the task at hand.

Reviewing the material above will give you some ideas as to why it is hard to get rid of procrastination. As long as the person who suffers from it has inward fear, feelings of needing to be in control, or is guided by the belief that what is done has to be perfect, they will continue suffer from procrastination.

The person’s inner self is what causes the problem of procrastination and it is also what allows it to continue bombarding the sufferer with continued bouts of feelings that surround the condition.

Procrastination can be dealt with. Those who suffer from it can be free of it. But in order to do something to keep procrastination from becoming a major persistent problem, changes must be made on the inside first. Once these changes are made, any kind of problem that may have surfaced previously will be eliminated.

Many procrastinators just make excuses for themselves claiming they may just be inherently lazy or have justification for why they behave as they do. They put on this mask as it were with the hope people will understand their feelings and leave them alone. The only problem with this logic is it doesn’t work. People will be more concerned than ever and will try to pry into their lives to offer help or try to find the reasons for their behavior.

Procrastination does not have to be the dominate factor here. Instead, it can be a less dominate factor in your personality, but it takes time and a lot of effort to curb its influence.

If you suffer from procrastination on an ongoing basis, you may not do so in every area of your life. Some people procrastinate in one form or another. There are really five areas of life that you face daily. You may be a procrastinator in one area but not another. Or you may be a procrastinator in more than one area. It is rare that a person who suffers from procrastination is affected in every area of their lives, although there have been some who have done so.

The five areas of your life that are affected to some degree by procrastination include personal, school, work, home, and relationships. To determine which area you procrastinate in you have to examine many characteristics of those areas. This way you can determine the area that needs the most attention.

Listed below are the most common characteristics you will find that are associated with each area as noted above. These areas are again personal, school, work, home, and relationships.

• Personal: There are many facets of your personal life that can be affected by procrastination. Let’s take each one in turn:

  • Eating habits – Does procrastination interfere in the way you eat? Do you delay eating because you aren’t sure what you wish to eat, or don't feel like preparing a meal?

  • Finances – What about your finances? Do you keep up to date with your checkbook, or do you delay in getting it done? Do you find you are behind in your bills? Always knowing where your money goes is vital to a balanced life. Without knowing this you could be in for financial disaster.

  • Sleep – What about sleep? We all need sleep. But are you afraid to get enough sleep because you may miss out on something, although you can’t accomplish the task anyway? Does this attitude cause you to be tired all the time because of lack of sleep?

  • Healthcare – What about your health? Do you refrain from going to the doctor to get a checkup because you are afraid the doctor might find something wrong? Do you suffer from some illness or disease but you can’t see the doctor because you are afraid of seeing one? Having this kind of fear can even put your life in jeopardy.

  • Exercise – How are you with exercise? Do you try to exercise at least three times a week or do you make the excuse you are too busy and keep putting it off? Do you have a schedule you should follow but don’t because you feel overwhelmed with everything you need to do? It is important to work out several days a week. It strengthens your muscles and helps condition your heart and lungs. By not doing it, you can become lethargic, weak, and awkward.

  • Personal Hygiene – What about your body? Do you keep it clean? Do you keep your hair cut to a certain length so it doesn’t look long and shabby? If you are a man, do you keep your face shaved, or at least keep your mustache and beard trimmed? If you are a woman, do you keep your hair clean and neat? If you are to be respected by others you must keep your appearance respectable. Unfortunately, some procrastinators go around with smelly bodies because they claim not to have enough time to wash. Does that sound like you?

• School: School is another area where procrastination can be involved. This can include many different situations. These situations are usually:

  • Getting to class on time – Do you find this is a major problem? Procrastinators are often late for class. Just when it gets close to class time, they look at the clock and claim they have plenty of time to get there. They delay by doing other activities. When they finally take the effort to get there, the class is over. Do you go through this constantly? If so, is this why you refuse to even go to college or to pursue further education? This can have a bad effect on your future life. And the problem here is that it happens to many procrastinators.

  • Doing homework – How do you feel about doing homework? Do you drag it out, hoping the homework will just do itself or will just miraculously go away? Do you see your grades failing because you just can’t get into gear to do it, and so you either don’t turn your homework in on time, or you are late?

  • Doing assigned projects – What happens to you when you are assigned projects in school? If you are teamed with other members, do you jump in and do the project because you find they aren’t doing their part right? Or do you just give excuses why you can’t be in the group and request to either do the work alone or with someone else? Procrastinators have been known to do this in school and this causes more problems than it is worth. This is why the teacher will be selective in giving a student who the teacher knows is a procrastinator any kind of project because of the way the procrastinator handles it.

  • Research – What about research for your homework or assignments? Do you engage in research? Do you go to your school library and do the proper research you need to get your work done? Or do you shy away from the responsibility, claiming you’ll get to it the next day and find it didn’t get done or you were late in doing it?

  • Test-Taking – How are you regarding taking tests? Many procrastinators will look at a future test as happening far in the future and will not be too concerned about studying for it until it is too late. Then they fail the test and wonder why.

• Work: The workplace is another area where procrastination can cause many problems for the sufferer. Here are some general areas in the workplace where procrastination can cause the most problems:

  • Getting to work on time – There are too many procrastinators who lose their jobs because of chronic lateness. Nearly every day they are late by 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Many procrastinators can’t hold down a job because they have lateness issues. Until they get psychological help, they just don’t have the ability to find or keep a job.

  • Completing tasks at work – For those procrastinators who have no problem with getting to work on time, they just can’t seem to accomplish a task on time. They are constantly yelled at by their boss for failing to meet deadlines. This has often caused a problem for the department the procrastinator works in, because the manager has to work around this issue by assigning the task to another worker, which delays the process and production. The boss may feel sorry for the worker, thereby not firing the person, but will reprimand them, hoping the problem will go away.

• Home: If any place causes the most problems other than the workplace, it is the home. This is because when the procrastinator is at home, that person’s family is exposed. This can eventually lead to a lot of frustration and confusion on the part of the members of the family. If the procrastinator lives alone, the only damage that is done is to the person. Here are some common problems that a procrastinator may face in the home.

  • Getting things repaired – If any appliance were to breakdown, this could disrupt the household. What if the TV went dead? Everybody would be without a TV for a while because the procrastinator would not take the time to call for service, unless, for the procrastinator who has a family, another family member kicks in and does the calling. But this could cause resentment on behalf of the family against the procrastinator.

    • Getting groceries – Whether the procrastinator has a family or lives alone, the one aspect to everyone’s life is to eat. How do you eat? You have to buy groceries. This is where going shopping comes in. But the procrastinator will hesitate to go shopping. The person’s excuse will be that there is always time to go shopping, or they do not feel like going today. There is always an excuse. In cases like this, the person has to be really motivated to go, or someone would have to force them to go shopping.

    • Cleaning the house – Here is another concern for procrastinators in and around the home. If you go to the house of a procrastinator, you may find the house dirty, disorganized, dishes unwashed, dishes left on furniture, food left everywhere, etc. Some procrastinators aren’t affected in this area, so this is no problem for them. But for those affected, it can be a real problem.

    • Laundry – What about the laundry? Does it get done? Or does the procrastinator wear unclean clothes? If the procrastinator has a family, someone else may do the wash, seeing that the procrastinator does not do it. But if the procrastinator lives alone, do they live in a house with dirty laundry lying around? Or, maybe they manage to do the laundry but just do not put it away. These are all serious issues the procrastinator has to deal with.

• Relationships: This is has got to be the hardest part for a procrastinator to face during their existence. The hardest thing to deal with as a procrastinator is a relationship. Relationships are hard enough to deal with without the added complication of procrastination. Here are some things that a procrastinator has to deal with in relationships:

  • Dealing with friends – How are you with friends? Can you talk to them? Or do you put off dealing with them for some reason or another? If your friend acts a certain way against you, do you take it out on the person, or do you just shy away without reacting? Procrastinators will not even budge against the person, thinking that they don’t want to get involved in a fight.

  • Going on a date – If you are a procrastinator, how do you handle a date? Do you go out with the person hoping to have a good time or do you dismiss it and hope the night ends soon? Or do you use and excuse and not go out at all? Many procrastinators feel very timid about being out in public with someone else for fear they may disappoint them and their date may not like them. So they avoid the situation by not going out at all. If this is a problem for a procrastinator, the sufferer could be very lonely.

  • Getting out of a relationship – If you are a procrastinator and you happen to have gotten into a relationship, but have found that relationship has gone sour, you may avoid getting out of it because of your feelings toward the person. Even if the relationship is bad, your feelings of low self-esteem may keep you in it no matter what. This creates a problem for the procrastinator and the family, if there are kids involved.

If you are a procrastinator and you find that one or more of the above situations concerns you, you are not alone. There are many people who have the same issues. Despite the fact procrastination can be a problem for people, it can at times be an advantage. For instance, the procrastinator may use his condition to delay making a decision so as to give the matter careful consideration.

You can also use it to put off doing a task you may find contradicts your beliefs, or which may prove to be unethical or immoral, or just does not fit your lifestyle.

Procrastination is a problem that just won’t go away, or at least the procrastinator finds it hard to overcome the condition. But there is hope. In the next chapter you will learn ways to control procrastination.