A person who puts everything off until tomorrow. Think about motivation

Perhaps your plans for the next year are striking in their scope - you want to move assets offshore in the Balearic Islands or learn how to play the ukulele. And I'm going to spend the next few months getting rid of procrastination - the main obstacle of the world of the future on earth.

Procrastination, as Wikipedia suggests, is a concept in psychology that refers to a state characterized by constantly postponing important things for later, instead of doing which time is spent on trifles that really do not matter. For example, if you have to go and take out the trash and you're polishing an iPod; if you need to reply to business emails and you are using Google Reader. Many people spend twice as much time procrastinating as they do work, and it only gets worse every year. These types of people are called "procrastinators".

There are many reasons for procrastination. Some people can't work without adrenaline until a deadline hits them in the head. Others in this way try to avoid responsibility and delay the decision. Some people just have their brains full of nonsense. But in reality it doesn't really matter.

More importantly, procrastination is the foundation of half of modern civilization. For example, the popularity of communication in social networks is a direct consequence of this bad habit. Normally, a person reads the news once a day, looks into LiveJournal once a week, watches TV once a year. What do we see in real life? A huge number of people spend a lot of time on this - and all just because they can not bring themselves to write some kind of business letter.

Our internal and external enemies are ready to do anything to make it easier for us to procrastinate. They lure us into traps such as "Related Videos" on YouTube, "Popular Posts" on Yandex. But even completely disconnecting from the Internet will not get rid of this habit. Even Chekhov himself sometimes, after sitting for a couple of minutes at Ward No. 6, got up and ran to the buffet for a rowanberry. This problem must be dealt with in other ways.

There are many ways to treat procrastination. For example, "approach (10 + 2) x 5". The idea is this: first you need to set yourself a goal - say, write a paragraph of text. Then, honestly, without being distracted and gritting your teeth, complete the task in ten minutes, while noting the time. After that, you can relax for a couple of minutes, smoke, drink coffee. And then repeat all over again. In an hour, you will already have five paragraphs ready - a pretty good result for a robot.

But the problem is that it is far from always possible to achieve at least some result using the methods described above.

This is mainly because their use requires the presence of willpower, which in most of us has already atrophied. And for this reason, the solution of this problem should be made the main task of the year, and by the beginning of next year, try to reduce Live Journal attendance by at least 80%, smoking by 40%, searching for your last name on the Internet by 3 percent.

To be honest, I have no idea what will happen if people all over the world one day stop wasting time procrastinating. The world as we see it will cease to exist. And suddenly it turns out that everything we do actually takes half the time. I don't know what will happen next - whether the GDP will double, whether the financial crisis will end. But if I somehow find time to watch The Wire, I'll consider it my achievement.

Five types of procrastinators: which one are you?

Not all procrastinators are the same - and the methods of dealing with procrastination are different for everyone, says Gwen Moran from Fast Company magazine.

If your desktop gets tidy and tidy as the deadline approaches, you should be familiar with the effects of procrastination. And putting off until tomorrow what you can do today is not harmless: one new study shows that procrastination is associated with higher levels of stress, depression, fatigue, and even unemployment.

There can be benefits to procrastination, if used wisely. But its main driving force is the desire to avoid something painful, and this can be fatal, says psychologist Neil Fiore, author of The Easy Way to Start a New Life. Chronically procrastinating workers face life imbalances as they avoid necessary activities or activities, he says.

If you study your procrastination style - the reasons that motivate you to put off the necessary - you can draw useful conclusions. Here are five common types of procrastinators and methods to help them get out of the quagmire.

Five types of procrastinators

Perfectionist

Such people try to avoid embarrassing mistakes or judgment from others. They spend too much time on any one aspect of the project because they don't manage their time well, or they shy away from the project for a long time and then rush to finish it at the last moment. And this, of course, only increases the likelihood of errors.

"Impostor"

Such people are afraid that others will expose them and see them as unskilled or unworthy workers, and therefore postpone everything that is fraught with such risks, says Fiore. Often a person gets into such procrastination when he is surrounded by people who are prone to nit-picking. “If I can’t please my partner, parents, teacher, boss, this provokes what behaviorists call “learned helplessness.” And this, in fact, is the path to depression,” says Fiore.

unmotivated

When work is boring or unpleasant, some people procrastinate to avoid the activity, says Nicole Bandes, founder of the consulting firm Productivity Expert. If you hate what you're doing or it makes you dumb, it's hard to find motivation.

Overloaded

Sometimes there's just too much to do and it's hard to decide where to start, so we don't do anything, says Fiore. It doesn’t matter if you yourself have collected so many cases, or if the boss decided to put such a bunch of work on you - the very idea that we have to do all this leads to the fact that we avoid action.

Lucky

Some people believe they work best under pressure, so they procrastinate until life corners them.

If this is repeated and repeated without causing any negative consequences for the person, in fact, the person receives a reward for procrastination, says Bandes. “If, say, in school, you always waited until the last minute before turning in the assignment, and each time you got a good mark, this creates the impression that there is no need to rush anywhere at all,” she says.

How to deal with these types of procrastination

What to do if procrastination interferes with your work? First of all, you need to pay attention to this, says Bandes. And then choose the appropriate approach.

Make Sure the Job Gets Done

If you're procrastinating because you're overwhelmed or because you hate your job, the first thing to do is ask yourself if you really need to complete a particular task. Maybe you can get rid of some of its elements or delegate them to someone? When you eliminate those unnecessary ingredients, the path becomes clearer, Bandes advises.

Divide tasks into parts

When you know exactly what needs to be done to move forward, you eliminate uncertainty, a common cause of procrastination, and have a concrete action plan. The planning process itself also helps you see that things aren't as bad as you think (especially if you set a different deadline for each step).

Make specific commitments

Fiore says it's important to find your true motivation and get a feel for why you do what you do. For example, if you're trying to improve your health and wellness and exercise is part of your plan, it's important to make specific commitments. “If people write down or announce exactly when they will start exercising, designate what they will do for at least a short time, and internally rehearse the collision with obstacles, this helps to engage more actively, brush their teeth more regularly or, say, eat more vegetables,” says Fiore.

Do one thing

You can often beat procrastination if you force yourself to take at least some action, says Bandes. Even if this action is to review some research or draw up a project plan, it sets you on the path to completing the case. This is exactly the case with sports: often the hardest thing is to start.

Add urgency

Fiore and Bandes say that to overcome procrastination, it's also helpful to add urgency to your task. Set a deadline for the first version and tell yourself that this version doesn't have to be perfect, Fiore advises. For very urgent tasks, Bandes recommends setting a timer and forcing yourself to work on a project for 15-30 minutes just to get started. You can also add elements of the game - reward yourself for each stage or come up with a separate incentive for each component of the project.

What is procrastination?

Many people do not know what procrastination is, although this phenomenon is very common in our society and, to one degree or another, is inherent in almost all people.

This is shirking, postponing for later important things that still have to be done. As a result, this leads to serious problems, both in life and in professional activities.

Isn't that lazy?

No, laziness and procrastination are completely different things. If a person does not do something because of laziness, he feels great, enjoying a completely undeserved rest. On the contrary, a person suffering from procrastination experiences anxiety, fear, which in the long run becomes a cause of stress.

In other words, the lazy person is blissfully doing nothing, and the poor procrastinator is constantly remorseful, demanding to immediately get down to business, but the person does not have the “moral strength” for this.

Symptoms

So, if there is a problem - procrastination - its symptoms should be known to everyone.

A person suffering from this psychological disorder tends to put off all important things "for later", especially if there is a lot of time to complete them. He does everything, but not the right thing. He hangs out on VKontakte or Odnoklassniki, playing solitaire, telling his colleagues about raising rabbits or drinking tea. In other words, with all his might he delays the moment when he still has to get down to business.

As a result, he reaches the point that he is forced to do all the work at an emergency pace, which, of course, affects its quality and causes criticism from the authorities or the displeasure of the teachers, if we are talking about who else is studying.

This scenario is not performed occasionally (I don’t like a particular job), but always and as a result leads to severe psychological consequences.

What to do?

There is no consensus among scientists about the reasons for this phenomenon. They call the most different ones, and not a single version explains all the facts. So, without knowing what procrastination means as a psychological problem, what its origin is, it is impossible to eliminate its cause and you have to work with its consequences.

Important and non-urgent (graduate from the institute, become the head of the department ...).
Important and urgent (finish a diploma, buy medicine, submit a report ...).
Unimportant and urgent (go to an anniversary, watch your favorite movie ...).
Unimportant and non-urgent (often these are “chronophages” (time eaters): chat on the phone or chat online, hang out shopping, play cards ...).

Based on the analysis of these cases, a list of cases is compiled, starting with important and urgent.

And it is carried out, but starting from anywhere in such a way that cases from different groups alternate.

At the same time, you must adhere to the rules and be sure to set aside time for rest.

Know your type of procrastination?

How to force yourself to clean the apartment?

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There is not always a mood and a desire to do something useful. And it is useful for everyone to know how to deal with laziness and unwillingness to do what is needed, because often it is enough just to approach the organization of affairs in the right way.

How to do everything with a small child?

With the birth of a child, life in the family changes completely. A young mother should now not only take care of the housework, but also take care of the baby, which requires a lot of time and attention, and everything else should not be forgotten and taken care of. In this article we will talk about how you can do everything with a small child.

And the eyes are afraid, and the hands do not! By tomorrow, it is necessary to hand over a new project, prepare an important report, send the final results of the monthly work to the boss. But, here it is, a feeling of fatigue that has come from nowhere, and in the hands of the TV remote control, a sweet bun from the store opposite, favorite embroidery, a notebook and pencils. You need to water the flowers for a long time, help the child draw a boat, follow the domestic cat. And all this is done under unbearable remorse! Urgent work is postponed at best for a couple of hours, at worst - for an indefinite time. In psychology, the tendency to constantly put off very important and urgent things, leading to life problems and painful psychological effects, is called procrastination.

How to determine that procrastination has become a problem for you and interferes with your life?

Main features:

You are constantly distracted during the performance of your duties. For example, you can start conversations with colleagues, constantly look through messages on the phone, smoke, go to the toilet or drink tea.
It takes a long time to solve even the simplest problems.
You never have time to finish the work on time. And when “the deadlines are running out,” either you refuse to work, or you start trying to complete it in a short time. As a result, the quality result, of course, will not be.
Breaking the deadlines, you often feel guilty, reproach yourself, promise once again to do everything on time, but the situation does not change.
You are afraid of responsibility, complex tasks, large amounts of work.
Not very confident in yourself, have low self-esteem.
You constantly justify yourself, and come up with a great many reasons for postponing things.

"Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today." The meaning of the proverb is deep and understandable from childhood. But, nevertheless, not everyone manages to follow this simple truth. Consciously postponing "for later" important work, on which success and well-being depend, you do not rest, but spend your vital energy even more intensively. This unpleasant tendency must be urgently disposed of!

Seven steps to get rid of procrastination

Responsibility, aspiration, success, life achievements - all these are bright antonyms for such a word as procrastination. Each bun eaten and a newly watered flower at a time when you urgently need to sit down for the right job is a new round of this state.
Would you like to become more successful? Tired of someone else receiving praise and awards instead of you? Then right now is the best time to get on the path of correction!

First stage. Stop thinking!

When you procrastinate, you don't notice how endless planning takes up all your time. Sometimes this state reaches the point of absurdity: you are in constant search of the ideal solution. But, unfortunately, there is no such solution. The thing is, it just doesn't exist!
By constantly thinking, you are just wasting your own time. And that's a great excuse for idleness. In order to get off the dead center, you need to stop making endless plans and move on to action.

Second phase. From elephant back to fly.

All your problems are actually not as big and scary as they might seem at first glance. It is possible that the boss is not so evil and scary. And the work that he gives to the wave is within the power of a mere mortal person. It's actually hard to find work and home responsibilities that truly transcend human capabilities.
However, the state of procrastination is truly magical. Postponing important things, we begin to see them through the prism of our own doubts and experiences. And now the task, received a couple of days ago, grows to gigantic proportions. How to cope with it, you think with horror? Just look at it from a different angle. Armed with common sense, knowledge and worldly experience, start acting.

Soon you will see how the elephant you created turns back into a fly.

Third stage. Just take the first step

The first step is the most difficult, but also the most important. “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step,” Martin Luther King Jr. once said. In other words, stop thinking about the task on a global scale!
When you look too far into the future, any task or project seems simply incredible and overwhelming for you. As a result, after a few minutes, all attempts to do something important and necessary stop. And so you aimlessly browse the Internet, change channels on TV or flip through a useless magazine.
The third stage of the fight against procrastination is an attempt to shift your focus to real tasks. Now it is necessary to concentrate precisely on taking the first step today. Having determined the range of today's problems, you can easily get involved in the work. You know what exactly you need to focus on, where you need to direct your efforts!
In this way, you put yourself in a favorable state for the business, in which you feel confidence and other positive emotions. In this state, you realize that there are many tasks that need to be completed in order to complete the next step. But at the same time, you accept it, and do not postpone the matter until “better times”.

Fourth stage. Start the day with the hardest task

The most difficult and voluminous task is what scares you the most. A complex telephone conversation, painstaking reporting, preparing a project for demonstration in front of a large audience cause an unpleasant trembling in the body and make you give up? So this is exactly what you need to start today's work with!
By embarking on the most difficult and unpleasant tasks at the beginning of the day, you are doing yourself a huge favor.

Having spent a couple of hours on a difficult and unpleasant task, you free yourself from it in the future! And this means that you have taken a huge step forward and now you can start the pleasant part of your work.

Fifth stage. Learn to make decisions

Man is a biological and social being (that's how we were taught at school in biology lessons). And this means that simple inaction while waiting for a command is uncharacteristic behavior for us, which drives us into depression and causes severe depression. In order to feel confident and successful, you need to make decisions every day and actively engage in life!
Wanting something but not being able to decide to do it is the most obvious sign of procrastination. The lack of desired action causes a serious internal conflict. There is only one way out: take responsibility for your own decisions and your own life.

Sixth stage. Look fear straight in the eye!

Timely and correct solution of any problems inevitably leads to professional and personal success. This is both good and bad at the same time! Any procrastination is the fear of becoming successful, since success is a rather heavy daily burden.
It is much easier to live with a feeling of constant regret about missed opportunities. Once again, staying on the “roadside” of our lives, we think about how good it would be if we hurried a little and managed to catch a ride passing by.
Stop being afraid of success! Every missed chance makes life boring and gray. As a last resort, it is better to regret that, having taken advantage of a great opportunity, we did not get the expected result. In any case, willingly responding to various proposals, we attract useful acquaintances into our lives, which, one way or another, will play a role in it.

Seventh stage. Finish what you started

A business abandoned halfway through always causes unpleasant emotional experiences. A project not completed on time, an imperfect call, a missed meeting can cause you to feel unwell.
The final stage of the fight against procrastination will help you learn how to avoid this unpleasant and even dangerous condition. Once again, taking on a certain work, control the degree of its completion. Make sure that you have completed all the assigned tasks and completed all the stages. As a result, the result of your labors will not be long in coming! And to reap the fruits of your successful work is very pleasant and good for mental health. Social recognition, a welcome promotion, a massive cash incentive are just a few of the things you get when you defeat cunning procrastination.

From the article you will learn:

Putting things off until later is procrastination.

Procrastination is a term that refers to the act of putting things off until later. It seems that this is a matter of habit, but this is the whole problem of humanity in the 21st century.

Psychologists consider postponing things to the “beautiful far away” as a disease, although this problem is not always a clinical case, so I propose to figure out how an ordinary person can cope with himself and change his attitude to business.

How to stop procrastinating

This must be done, because problems in personal and professional life, sooner or later, will block the path to further development, a person involuntarily misses opportunities, sinks into depression, is constantly in a stressful state and feels completely helpless in front of reality.

Procrastination: why is this happening?

To answer the question "How to stop procrastinating?" The following psychological prerequisites should be noted.

A person's lack of self-confidence, and often low self-esteem or lack of self-respect, as a result of which a lot of time is spent working out a solution. At the same time, a person is afraid to show his insolvency and tries to postpone difficult tasks. As a rule, the technique of motivation is completely unfamiliar to such a person. There is another component of the problem "How to stop putting things off until tomorrow?". In this case, a person does not just put things off, but stretches out time in order to do his job perfectly.
The person belongs to the “person-child” psychotype, which, in fact, is infantile, lazy or irresponsible. In this case, a person can endlessly put things off, or not bother with the problem “How to stop putting things off for “later?”.
The person is stubborn by nature and is used to manipulating others. He does not try to complete his affairs on time, explaining this with his principles, workload and importance of the task, while showing that he does not want to be controlled.

How to stop procrastinating

As a rule, the most unpleasant things for you are put on the back burner. Those that you don’t want to do, but you need to do them to achieve certain goals. In this case, we are driven by nothing but fear. If we know that doing this work is unpleasant, then we are afraid of the discomfort that will inevitably arise if we take up this work. Sometimes we are afraid that we are not able to complete the task with high quality, and for this reason it is postponed indefinitely.

Remember an important thing: the longer you put off your affairs, the more discomfort you will experience. Moreover, not only during the execution of work, but also during the period of its waiting. It's like waiting in line at the dentist: it's much more scary to wait for your tooth to be pulled out than to actually pull it out. Also, the longer you put off a task, the less likely you are to get the job done right. The amount of procrastination will increase, like a snowball, and your motivation and desire to act, on the contrary, will decrease. Learning not to put things off until later is very important and greatly affects the result.

Top tips to stop procrastinating

How to complete your tasks to the end without delay? The longer we put off something, the more urgent it becomes. The more urgent it becomes, the more we think about it and the more remorse we feel. It becomes harder to do other work, because thoughts of unfinished urgent matters climb into our heads, even without our consent.

The first task is to divide cases into categories

Important, urgent. Such cases, as a rule, do not cause problems and are completed in a timely manner, and the question “How to stop postponing things for tomorrow?” not relevant.

Important, but not very urgent. These are the things that get put off until later. These are dream tasks, tasks about losing weight or maintaining health, as well as plans for home renovation and the like.

Turnover - things are unimportant, but urgent. This is communication, cleaning the room. Of course, the implementation of these tasks is mandatory, but not so essential.

Irrelevant and non-urgent. Such cases can really be postponed or abandoned painlessly.

Increasing motivation

The motivation technique involves turning uninteresting things into interesting ones on your own. Interest - increased self-esteem - stimulation of dormant abilities - increased productivity - satisfaction. This circuit really works. The organization of the competition is also effective, with its own conditions and prizes.

Convenient mode and workplace

You should work at the most convenient time, depending on personal preferences. The workplace should be equipped as best as possible, while social communication should be avoided. networks and the presence of strangers in the room.

Diary - a way to solve the problem

Entering a list of cases in a certain group involuntarily obliges them to be completed on time. Even better, reflect tasks in a smartphone app with regular annoying reminders. In addition, you need to learn how to set the exact start and end dates for the implementation of the planned work.

self-hypnosis

How to stop procrastinating? Maybe you are right. When the phrases “I have to, I have to, I need” are replaced by “I will decide, I know I can do it”, the approach to solving the upcoming tasks is specifically changing.

Clear goal setting

This is possible with the skills of daily planning, forecasting the expected result and timely correction of tasks.

Urgent and important matters

The more urgent things you have, the less time you have to do the important things. You begin to experience a lack of time. As a result, when the deadline for urgent tasks comes up, you grab on to them, neglecting everything else, sometimes more important.

The most important things should always be done first.

Then you will have time to complete secondary tasks. Imagine that your most important things are big rocks and your day is a bucket. When planning your affairs, you put large stones in a bucket. They do not fit as much as we would like, but they do not take up all the space.

Between large stones, you can put small - less significant things. But that's not all. There are gaps between small stones, and we can fill them with sand. Now our day is complete. But that's not all, you can pour water into it, it will also find its place between stones and sand.

What happens if you start changing this order? If you fill a bucket with sand, then large stones will no longer fit in it. In order not to experience a lack of time, follow the indicated scheme and complete tasks in order of their importance.

three day rule

If you put off any task for more than three days, your brain automatically adds it to the list of "unnecessary things." Subsequently, it will be very difficult for you to find the motivation in yourself to still do it. You may never complete this task. But even if you gather your will into a fist and take up this business, know that you will have much more work to do than you would if you started doing it right away.

Make it a rule for yourself: as soon as you have a problem that needs to be solved, solve it as soon as you find the time. Never procrastinate. At first it will be difficult and unusual, but the habit will form, and it will happen by itself. People who have managed to acquire such a habit are much more likely to succeed in life.

Haste and urgency

Haste is a negative phenomenon that occurs as a result of untimely completion of tasks. When we have to rush, we experience stress, our attention is scattered, and our productivity decreases. To be able to work slowly, you need to get rid of urgent matters in a timely manner. You don't have to do them fast, just do them. Start right now and you can save a lot of time in the future.

Urgency is a completely different concept. It means that you must start doing some work as soon as possible. Its postponement and non-fulfillment always entails negative consequences. It is better not to think about them, but just take it and do what is required of you.

Don't strive for perfection

It's better to do a job that isn't perfect than not doing it at all. The pursuit of perfection often prevents us from finishing what we started. It is also caused by fear. We delay finishing work for fear that other people will not like it, and also for fear of making a mistake.

In fact, there is nothing to be afraid of. No one does their job perfectly and flawlessly. You can spend a lot of time to take a fly in the ointment from a barrel of honey, while ninety-nine percent of people will not even notice it. Do not strive for perfection, you will not spend a lot of time on this useless task, but you will never achieve the ideal, because it is unattainable in principle.

Stimulation of "yourself - beloved"

It is not enough to obsess over the task of "How to stop procrastinating," it is also necessary to find time to rest after successfully completing the planned amount of work. Leisure can be anything, like outdoor recreation, or going to a cafe or cinema - for each person individually.

All of the above, as well as the willingness to survive failures, overcoming laziness, will teach you to do things without delay, and over time, the thirst for activity will increase. An important role is played by the technique of motivation.

By systematically following the plans, you will invariably feel confident against the backdrop of your victories.

How to do things on time?

Let's summarize and list everything we need to do in order not to put off our tasks "on the back burner" and not experience a shortage of time.

Do things in order of importance. First, throw large stones into the bucket, then those that are smaller.
Make it a rule to start doing any, even the most unpleasant thing for you, within three days. Otherwise, your brain will consider this matter unimportant and your motivation will decrease.
Do urgent things right away. Avoid rushing, if you do all your work on time, you will not experience time pressure.
Don't procrastinate your business. Get the job done in a timely manner.
Don't try to do a perfect job. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

I hope my tips help you. Good luck to you!

He dictates his own rules. To become successful, you need to work hard, learn new things and keep up with everything. A procrastinator is a person who wants, but for a number of reasons does not do even the most necessary things. This becomes a real problem, interfering not only with work, but also with a good rest.

The essence of procrastination

The phenomenon of procrastination has long been known. Many great figures of the past, especially creative personalities, were famous for their inability to competently organize their activities. However, only at the end of the last century, psychologists and sociologists began to closely study this phenomenon.

A procrastinator is a person who constantly puts off all things, despite their urgency and importance. He is engaged in small, insignificant things or endlessly perfects, polishing every little thing.

Such behavior is most characteristic of young people who have recently begun independent steps in life. Many over time get over the stage of procrastination. However, about a quarter of adults continue to indulge in the addiction of procrastinating.

Perfectionism and procrastination - what do they have in common?

There is a very common type of person who is so eager to make everything perfect that he often does not even start. He understands that there will not be enough strength, time, resources. And for less than impeccability - I do not agree.

Another version of the procrastinator-idealist - in an effort to do the best possible, the performer begins to endlessly polish small details. Moreover, he often does not do the whole work, but prefers to bring the initial part to perfection. As a result, time and effort wasted, but the job was never done.

In itself, the desire to do a job well and with high quality is commendable. Problems begin when the focus shifts from the word "case" to the word "impeccable." The ideal is unattainable, and this knowledge paralyzes the will of the procrastinator. Why start if the result will be just good at best?

Why procrastinators can't stop procrastinating

So why do procrastinators procrastinate? After all, it is obvious that if you put off some important business, then sooner or later you will have to deal with the consequences. Either finish the project in a hurry, or disgrace yourself and lose trust, respect, money.

It should be remembered that a procrastinator is a person who simply cannot stop postponing things for tomorrow. It has to do with the nature of our brain. If a difficult or unpleasant task is ahead, he helpfully throws up an idea on how to remove momentary anxiety. You must not do what you don't want to do.

Despite the simplicity of this approach, an avid procrastinator is well aware of the consequences of his actions. And his pseudo-rest is overshadowed by the future "retribution". It turns out that a person, on the one hand, does not work at full strength, and on the other hand, does not rest normally. Time is being wasted unproductively.

A procrastinator cannot just stop and start working. Most often, the reason is the inability to structure your time. Very often they take on big things without understanding their essence. And faced with the first difficulties, they give up, put it off for later, “gather their thoughts”.

Another problem that any great procrastinator faces is the inability to plan. His plan often looks too general. Blurred in start and end times and overly busy.

How to deal with procrastination

The bad habit of postponing everything spoils life, makes it less bright. A procrastinator is a person who not only does not know how to work, but also cannot rest normally. For his thoughts are always clouded by the knowledge of delayed deeds.

One day, a procrastinator decides to start a fight against a bad habit. And most of the time it fails. The fact is that the phenomenon of postponing for later is often confused with ordinary laziness. But these concepts are not identical. If laziness can be defeated by a simple effort of will and external motivation, then this is not enough to defeat procrastination.

The problems that procrastinators can't get to work on or get things done run deeper than simple reluctance. Most often, these are different forms of fear, coupled with inability. So it is necessary to eliminate not the consequence, but the cause.

First of all, it is worth understanding what is the reason for postponing, what kind of fear fetters actions. It can be anything - from the fear of not being perfect enough to doubts about your competence.

It is worth identifying and working out your fears and only after that proceed to the next stage - to learn how to correctly plan activities. Most procrastinators are brilliant at making lists. But more often than not, this is where it ends.

The main problem is that the lists of procrastinators are too general and voluminous. We must learn to break everything down into small and even the smallest details. Then any, even the most difficult work will become easy, understandable and accessible.

Is there any hope?

Is it possible to get rid of the habit of procrastination once and for all, or are most procrastinators hopeless? This question haunts young people. And those who have already passed the stage of overcoming, declare with confidence that everything is possible.

We must move gradually. It will not work in one fell swoop to get rid of a long-term habit. But with due diligence, competent introspection and a little effort of will, procrastination can be defeated.

Procrastination is a term from, denoting a tendency to regularly put off unpleasant, but obligatory tasks for later. At the same time, a person does not, does not lie on the couch, and does not watch films instead of working. He turns on the computer, opens the documents, but decides first to make himself a coffee, then he checks the mail, opens the letter and reads the sent article, i.e. busy with something all the time.

An hour later, the person remembers that he was going to work, but suddenly begins to clean up the table, being convinced that it will be easier for him to work this way, and then he goes to water the flowers. As a result, the procrastinator spends his time on unnecessary things, while he and, and the work is not done.

Causes of Procrastination

Psychologists believe that may result from several reasons. The main factor, as a rule, becomes a boring unloved job. In second place is a lack of understanding of your goals in life. If a person can hardly imagine why he should do a project, write a diploma or study sopromat, it will be quite difficult for him to get down to business.

Procrastination also affects people who are afraid to make a mistake and for this reason are afraid to take on a task, or, on the contrary, perfectionists who want to do everything in the best way and therefore miss all the deadlines. Finally, procasters may simply not be able to properly allocate their time and prioritize.

Please note - sometimes the reason for the inability to force yourself to do business may lie in beriberi, low hemoglobin levels or other diseases that reduce activity and performance.

Fortunately, psychologists offer treatments. First of all, you need to realize that it is present, and tune in to fight. After all, in the end you will have to do the very things that scare you so much.

Procrastinators not only ruin relationships with colleagues and others because of tasks not completed on time. They also have health problems due to constant nervous tension.

Engage in time planning. Break things down into blocks, write down how much time you will work on each block and how much you will rest. Get a special diary where you will record your plans.

Change your attitude towards responsibilities. Don't tell yourself "I have to do this". Replace this phrase with "I will do this of my own free will."

If you are constantly stuck on doing a certain type of work, consider if you could outsource it to someone, taking on some of that person's responsibilities.

To justify lazy people and idlers, who constantly leave everything for later, the obscure term “procrastination” was coined (translated from English, procrastination means delay). Together with him, ideal conditions for doing nothing were created. If earlier couch potatoes had to somehow justify their laziness, today it is enough to mention this sonorous word so that others begin to look at them with respect. But how does procrastination syndrome actually occur?

anxious

According to psychologists, the most common cause of procrastination is increased anxiety. A person tends to be afraid of ridicule, criticism, large financial costs, failures, and much more. That is why a long-standing conflict, for the resolution of which it is necessary to sort things out once and for all or even ask for forgiveness, makes most people endure the conversation again and again. They reassure themselves that it is better to wait for the right moment to resolve the situation. In other words, they are self-deceiving.

Another, equally common example of increased levels of anxiety is postponing hospital visits. It is better to endure pain than to get into unpleasant procedures or hear an unexpected diagnosis. At such moments, it is recommended to act according to the scheme "first into battle, and then we'll see." Fears, as a rule, turn out to be greatly exaggerated, and the gloomy pessimistic mood is quickly replaced by a businesslike approach.

Difficult

At first glance, many things seem very complicated. So complex that you can't figure out where to start. Buying a car, repairing an apartment, moving to another job, starting a family - for many, any of these options takes months, or even years. For a quick and successful completion of the case, you can divide its implementation into several stages. How, for example, to move a large mountain of sand from one place to another without special equipment? It is very simple - with the help of a shovel and a wheelbarrow to transport it in small portions. The same goes for repairs. Depending on the completeness of the wallet, the dwelling is divided into sections, in which repair work is carried out alternately.

Breaking down a complex case into stages with a record of all the steps and details allows you to see the big picture without overloading your brain. Otherwise, the gray matter in our head may refuse to solve problems, “hanging” like a computer.

Not important

Almost all of us often accumulate various small things that can be done at any time. But for some reason, a pile of utility bills continues to grow on the shelf, music CDs taken for a couple of days are covered with dust, and there is so much ice in the freezer that nothing fits into it. In this regard, one of the professors at Stanford University suggested structuring procrastination. That is, to force a person who shirks from one thing to engage in another - more pleasant and at the same time useful. So at least the feeling of guilt will be significantly reduced.

Psychologists have come to the conclusion that the level of procrastination is much lower when a person hopes for a quick, and most importantly, pleasant effect from a completed task. Therefore, you need to try to see something interesting in the task, otherwise it will remain in the plans. For example, imagine what nice things bonuses will be spent on at the end of the project, or how much "" will get a fun one posted on the Internet.

Impossible

Sometimes it's more like a dream. I really want it to be realized beautifully, non-trivially, on a grand scale. Because of this, its organization never has enough money or time. Here you should understand the priorities - what is more important: a beautiful, but such a distant dream, or still its implementation. People who experience the occasional need to fly in the clouds can be advised to continue in the same spirit, and those who really want to achieve a goal should break down the task in stages and, without hesitation, begin to complete it.