Stopping Procrastination

How to stop procrastination?

The word procrastination means that you delay/postpone a particular task. It can be a task related to your educational life too. For example, if you have two weeks to finish a particular assignment, then the procrastinating person keep postponing it until the deadline. Then he/she does it in a hurried way without giving his/her full focus to the assignment itself. I have seen many such students in my academic life who are tensed and panicky stricken due to procrastination.

Sometimes you can procrastinate the task if it is an unpleasant, difficult, boring or stressful experience according to your perception. Even procrastination is related to your feelings that can be associated to the task such as self-doubt, anxiety, insecurity, low self-esteem etc. I believe procrastination is more related to our emotions.

When we are faced with a certain task which makes us feel insecure/anxious, the threat detector part of our brain, the amygdala perceives it as a threat to our well-being/ self-esteem. Though we intellectually recognize that putting off the task can create more stress to us in the future, our brain is still hard wired to be more focused/concerned with the present threat removal where this is known as ‘amygdala hijack’.

So, according to my experience, if we can manage our emotions then we can cope with procrastination. If we have procrastination as a habit, then use BBO (Bigger Better Offer) to our brain to rewire the habit. Because our brains are looking for rewards. So, we need to find a better reward than avoidance for procrastination. Otherwise, we will keep on doing it over and over again. The reward for procrastination should relieve our present challenging feelings without causing a harm to our future self.

Hence, you need to develop self- compassion which supports personal growth and motivation. Honestly, there should be a genuine commitment to face your challenges without regret and rumination.

Tip:

The following link explains about four types of procrastinators. Find your type and break the procrastination pattern.

https://www.businessinsider.com/main-types-of-procrastinators-how-to-avoid-accountability-coaches