People who put things off. Or maybe it's just laziness? Urgent and important matters

Procrastination is a psychological problem of a person, postponing things for later, as a result, they remain unfulfilled. At first, this problem does not seem global, however, this is not entirely true. Procrastination Syndrome is a habit that you just need to fight.

Postponing things for later is a process familiar to everyone. However, if it becomes a habit and becomes a stereotype of behavior, it becomes a problem and is called procrastination. Her syndrome is fraught with a certain danger.

A person who is used to putting off important things for later, as a result, refuses them, which leads to degradation and the development of depression. Looking back, you can see a lot of missed opportunities. For the further realization of a person as a person, this becomes dangerous. We urgently need to take action. Otherwise, a feeling of chronic dissatisfaction with life will begin to devour you from the inside.

Don't expect to be able to stop procrastinating all at once and effortlessly. Positive results take place only if the maximum amount of effort is applied by the person himself. The habit of postponing everything until later will recede if its true cause is correctly determined, if you use tips and recommendations.

Where to begin?

In fact, postponing syndrome is not a disease. However, the desire to postpone things for later can provoke serious violations in human health. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to get rid of it. Before starting the process, it is necessary to determine the type of procrastinators to which the person belongs.

Tense procrastinator:

Fear of achievement. Some are afraid that later they will be required to do this all the time, some are afraid of losing friends because of this, there are also people who consider themselves simply unworthy of success. This type of setting should be changed to positive.
Fear of failure. Getting a bad result will be more painful than doing nothing at all. Another side of this type is well articulated by Abraham Lincoln: “It is better to be silent and seem like an idiot than to speak up and dispel the last doubts.”
Confrontation: "I can't be forced to do anything." In this case, you need to ask yourself who will be worse off if the deed is not done. Perhaps this confrontation is just a protest for the sake of a protest. Is it worth spending your whole life aggressively asserting your personal freedom, instead of bringing something useful to it?

Relaxed procrastinator;

Rejection of a particular type of activity and the desire to avoid it. The way out will be a new attitude - the desire to put off unpleasant work is the choice of students and uneducated people.

There is no hiding from life's difficulties, sooner or later you will have to face them face to face. You can stop putting off unpleasant things for later by taking just seven steps. The recommendations should be applied immediately, because by putting them aside for later, a person will again plunge into procrastination.

Get a diary. Tasks require accounting, so you should make a list of tasks that were postponed until later and prioritize. Use a different color marker to make personal notes - by urgency, by personal interest, by degree of importance. Put an approximate due date next to it - you will see that tomorrow there will be the following things, so nothing should be postponed. Tip: think over a system of rewards and punishments for yourself.
A large work of many components can be divided into blocks: "The big elephant must be eaten in parts." Unpleasant work that requires a lot of time can be broken down into time slots: "I'll do 15 minutes and rest." Psychologically, such work will be much easier to approach - it will no longer seem impossible. We recommend taking a break between stages.
Write down all the standard phrases used for procrastination, and for each pick up a counterargument. "I can do it tomorrow" - "It should be done today, and tomorrow I will spend going to the movies, shopping, etc." Look for positive moments, lay in more positive arguments, and life will cease to be bleak.
Don't get distracted from your main business. Focus on only one of the cases and do not be distracted by outsiders. For example, when you start cleaning your closet, focus only on cleaning, not trying on clothes. After completing the main task, you can do more interesting things for yourself.
Make a detailed plan of realistic goals, defining each as short-term or long-term. After reaching even a small one, reward yourself for your responsibility and hard work. Praise and please yourself, because you completed the task on time, without putting it off for a long time.
Look for the right motivation and self-interest, because, according to Calvin Kulich, “nothing in life can replace perseverance.” Come up with a positive reason - and things will go much easier. For example, doing a new project, you are approaching an increase in salary.
If you have no idea how to approach a business and do it correctly, just start doing it. Our behavior is also subject to the law of inertia. This means that energy must be expended only at the beginning of any business. And then it becomes noticeably easier - the law of inertia comes into force. In the process of activity, the decision will come by itself, you will get involved and complete the task imperceptibly even for yourself. Praise yourself! After all, you did not spend a lot of time to tune in, prepare for execution and think through the sequence of actions in detail.

How to get results as quickly as possible?

Any habit is developed within 21 days. We advise you to develop a certain business regime - to start business at the same hour. If you started on time, be sure to praise yourself, a little, slightly. To make it not so boring, develop a personal ritual of inclusion in work. After 21 days, most likely, the habit of postponing things for later will disappear, and a new, useful one will appear instead.

By the way, the reason for the delay may be the desire to do the job superperfectly. And the person begins to waste time collecting information. And you just need to get to work. According to the Pareto principle, 20% of the available information already provides 80% of the information necessary for work. And the rest is just a waste of time, since the missing 20% can only be calculated in the process of doing practical work. To reduce the time of searching and processing information, the simplest plan will do, so there is no need to complicate everything.

Give yourself permission to be imperfect and you can start doing the work quickly. The best teacher is practice, its experience is invaluable. Having done something once, in the future you will do it much faster and better. Learn to enjoy the little things, encourage yourself for the work started on time and not put off for later.

Even if the result is not exactly what you expected, cheer yourself up - after all, you did it!

There is such an unpleasant phenomenon - procrastination is what we do to cope with the anxiety that arises in the beginning of work on a task and in trying to finish what we started. Someone, avoiding an important matter, begins to dig into small and not urgent ones, someone, on the eve of the annual report, recalls that he has long been going to sort out things in the closet ... How can you stop postponing things for later and drag them to the last?

Why do we procrastinate

"Why are you procrastinating?" The most common answer to this question is: "Because I'm lazy." However, even the most avid procrastinators are not without motivation and energy, which they use in some areas of their lives - sports, hobbies, reading, caring for other people, music, investing, gardening, or surfing the Internet.

Many make progress in the areas of activity that they themselves have chosen, but at the same time are completely unable to start working in other areas.

In my theory, neither laziness, nor disorganization, nor any other character flaw can be considered a reason why you procrastinate. Procrastination cannot be explained by the assumption that people are inherently lazy and therefore need outside pressure to motivate them.

My system is based on Dr. Martin Seligman's theory of positive psychology, which Dr. Susan Cobaza of the University of Chicago calls "psychological guidelines that enhance human initiative and the ability to quickly restore mental and physical health." According to her research in The Hardy Personality, optimistic interpretations of human behavior are often overlooked when it comes to how people cope. Similarly, in Anatomy of an Illness and The Healing Heart, Norman Cousins says that modern medicine actually ignores the life-affirming healing powers that we naturally possess and prefers to focus on disease, while humor, positive emotions, and thoughts have healing properties. .

"If a person is endowed with the ability to be positive and active, then why are we afraid and put off the unpleasant?" you might ask. One explanation comes from Denis Whately, author of The Psychology of Winning and The Joy of Working. He defines procrastination as "a neurotic form of behavior in order to protect the individual," in particular, one's own dignity. That is, we procrastinate when our self-esteem or independence is threatened. We begin to be lazy only when our natural irresistible desire for fruitful activity is endangered or does not get an outlet. "No one procrastinates to feel bad," Whately says. "Just to relieve their deepest inner fears for a while."

What are these deep inner fears that make us look for such unproductive forms of getting rid of them? Dr. Theodore Rubin, in his book Compassion and Self-Hate, suggests that it is the fear of failure, the fear of being imperfect (perfectionism) and the fear of expecting something impossible (when we are overwhelmed with different tasks) that prevent us from working properly or achieving achievable goals, building relations.

Fear of failure means that you are convinced that even the smallest mistake can prove your worthlessness. The fear of being imperfect means that you have a hard time accepting yourself as you are—imperfect and therefore perfectly human—so any criticism, rejection, or judgment from others puts your subtle understanding of what is perfect at risk. The fear of expecting something impossible signals your fear that even after you have worked hard and achieved your goals, your only reward will be more and more and more difficult goals that promise no rest and time to enjoy the fruits of your works.

These fears, according to Dr. Rubin, prevent us from reaching that level of life when we feel compassion for ourselves and respect ourselves here and now - for who we are and where we are at the moment. This self-compassion is essential in overcoming the root causes of procrastination. You need to understand: procrastination does not mean that you have a problem character; rather, it is an attempt - albeit an unimportant one - to cope with the unsettling fear of exposing oneself to universal condemnation.

Fear of judgment is rooted in over-identification with one's work. This fear follows a destructive craving for perfectionism, harsh self-criticism, and the fear that you will have to deprive yourself of free time to please an invisible judge.

The Benefits of Procrastination

After working with thousands of procrastinators, I have come to realize that there is one main reason for procrastination: it provides temporary relief from stress. The main reason we get into a habit, according to Dr. Frederick Kanfer and Dr. Jeanie Phillips in their book Learning Foundations of Behavior Therapy, is that even the worst habit leads to rewards. Procrastination reduces stress by distracting us from what we perceive as a source of pain or threat. The more discomfort expected from work, the more actively you will try to avoid it and try to find salvation in something more pleasant. And the more you feel that endless work robs you of the pleasure you get from your free time, the more actively you will avoid it.

In a sense, we're looking to postponing a task as a way to temporarily reduce the anxiety associated with doing it. If it turns out that the work that we thought was necessary is not really necessary, we feel justified and receive a double reward for procrastination. It turns out that we not only used it to cope with our fears, but also saved our strength.

There are many situations in which procrastination is rewarded and turns out to be a solution to a problem.

A randomly delayed boring task is done by someone else.
If you put off buying something for a long time, then eventually you will wait for a sale or this thing will cease to be fashionable.
Often procrastination goes unpunished: almost everyone in childhood was at least once worried because they were not ready for a test or exam, and all this inhuman stress passed in one second, as soon as they heard the news that the teacher fell ill or for some reason reason not to go to school that day - all this teaches you to procrastinate in the hope that a miracle will happen again.
By taking a break to cool off, you have avoided serious spats with your parents, teachers, bosses, or friends.
Difficult situations sometimes resolve themselves if you wait for additional information or rely on your will happy case, etc.

It is believed that procrastination is more of an independent problem than a symptom of other problems. And, unfortunately, this diagnosis, instead of directing your efforts to break the pressure-fear-procrastination cycle, only makes it worse by blaming you for such a terrible habit. The people around you are saying that "you need to pull yourself together; just do it."

And you try hundreds of different methods, make lists, work out a schedule to force yourself to work hard, but the results are disappointing, because such methods attack procrastination, and along with you as its source, instead of attacking the problems that led to to that.

When we identify our value through work (“I am what I do”), then, naturally, having no protective psychological mechanisms, we are very reluctant to take risks. If you believe that by judging your work, people are actually judging you, then perfectionism, self-criticism, and procrastination become necessary forms of defense. Seeing your indecision preventing you from getting down to business or, conversely, completing what you started, the person controlling you, or family members - often with good intentions - begin to encourage you or, conversely, put pressure on you, or even threaten you. And when there is a conflict between your inner fears of making a mistake or being imperfect and the outer demands of other people, you begin to seek salvation in procrastination. And that can lead to a destructive cycle.

Requirements for an ideal outcome - fear of failure - PROCRASTINATION - self-criticism - anxiety and depression - loss of confidence - even greater fear of failure - PROCRASTINATION...

Procrastination does not give rise to this behavioral stereotype. It is only a reaction to perfectionistic or exorbitant demands, as well as the fear that even small mistakes will cause devastating criticism and cause failure.

There are three main ways you can learn to use procrastination:

as an indirect way to avoid pressure from superiors;
as a way to reduce the fear of failure by justifying one's behavior that is far from perfect;
as a defense mechanism against the fear of success that keeps us from being able to express ourselves.

By looking more deeply at the root causes of procrastination, we will be able to understand which of them reveal the causes of our own problem.

To be continued...

Discussion

We begin to be lazy only when our natural irresistible desire for fruitful activity is endangered or does not get an outlet. "No one procrastinates to feel bad," Whateley says. "Just to temporarily alleviate their deepest inner fears."

Obomov is not in vain RUSSIAN.

Comment on the article "Why are we lazy? How to stop procrastinating and defeat procrastination"

Maybe someone is not too lazy to comment ... Then isolate the MAIN thing and do it. Secondary along the way. Otherwise, I'll forget, skip, mess up, and jitters, inner restlessness begin.

Discussion

I have had this for a long time, although I am only 38, but I feel that my brain somehow works strangely. I forget my bags all the time, especially in the market, like I paid, took the change and went. I can remember at home. Yesterday was the apotheosis. At first I forgot in the clinic, I returned. Then in the bread shop - the seller even ran after me ... And today is the apotheosis, I was going to bake a cottage cheese casserole, kneaded the dough, took out the bowl, buttered it and poured the dough - right into an empty slow cooker ... Now I think it will work or not :-) Plus I study English with my child, so the words that I knew from school are normal, but I can’t remember new ones at all, at least repeat 20 times, I used to remember everything from 1-2 times ... Of course, it annoys me, I went to a neurologist, wrote out injections of ceraxon and midakalm, I’m pricking, but I don’t see any sense so far ... I’ve been on maternity leave for the 10th year, probably completely stupidity has come ...

if there is a financial opportunity. go for xenon therapy. put on a mask, lie down, breathe, 3 sessions every day + a couple more times a week, and after that the surprise goes away that the code from the copier does not fit the intercom))

"- No president will change us. He himself is one of us. He himself knows how he broke through .... Our people are striving for Stockholm (London and so on) only to be surrounded by the Swedes. Everything else is already in Moscow. Or almost there. They don’t leave for that, they change their life, their profession in order to eat something, and not in order to live under the leadership of the Swedish prime minister ... So what should we do? I would say: change to the Swedish side. About this I don't feel like talking because it's easy to talk, but...

I'm an optimist! Concrete, adequate, with the inevitable elements of a realist, BUT! positive realist! And then after all, a realist is often confused with a pessimist. But no, I have no time to engage in whining and self-criticism. I am active purposeful, responsible and in love! I love my life, my family - as the most important part of this life. Sometimes I get tired, and, yes - "There are days when you give up, and there are no words, no music, no strength ..." (C). But we must remember that in reality everything is not so sad at all and ...

The newfangled philosophy of “childfree”, that is, the voluntary refusal to have children, is gaining more and more fans today. Among the childfree there are both women who prefer personal freedom and self-realization to motherhood, and men who consciously refuse fatherhood. Arguments “procreation…”, “a glass of water in old age…” for these people is an empty phrase. It should be noted that not everyone consciously refuses to have a child. But every time there are "reasonable ...

02/07/2018 19:26:18, Hel-la

12 I'm too lazy to put on and then wash all sorts of bibs. Therefore, while eating, my child sits naked and stains his belly. I think that later it will not be lazy for mom to feed the child in intensive care through the probe.

Every day he looks more and more like his future corpse. Jean Paul Sartre Each of us must have seen and experienced warm feelings and even admiration for the heroes of films who, finding themselves on the verge of death, suddenly began to find themselves. Such a feeling, probably, would be experienced by a person who would reliably know about the approaching end of the world. They began to learn foreign languages, learn to sing, play musical instruments, dance, love passionately, in the end. There are many great examples...

Several methods to combat laziness. 1. To stop being lazy, you have to do nothing! Try doing nothing at all, stand in the middle of the room and freeze. You stand like this for 15 minutes at the most. Then you want to move, walk. Try not to get out of bed all day, just lie still. You will not be able to do this either, after a while you will want to eat, do all your needs. After such procedures, you will perceive all your affairs with delight! 2. Set a goal, decide on tasks ...

He is ready to live there. His eyes are burning, the child is just changing. He is there like a fish in water. I tried to play on this - first lessons, then a circle. You just need to teach him not to be lazy. And to do even what seems unnecessary and disgusting at this particular moment in time.

Discussion

What does he do because he has to? Not interested, do not want, namely NECESSARY?
What does he know about you from what you do regularly on the basis of "like-dislike chew my beauty"?
About other people from the same?
This is what I mean, motivation is great, it allows you to do it with pleasure. But discipline is more important, what needs to be done still has to be done. And whoever does not know how to motivate himself is to blame, then he will do it without pleasure. But it will still be. Make. All you need. On time.
IMHO, the child simply has not formed an idea of discipline and the fulfillment of one's duty as an integral part of life from which no one has gone anywhere and cannot be avoided.

tell him you'll give him his favorite thing if he does whatever you say

11/28/2015 13:14:47, Ivan Samarin

Our very first masseuse came every day for the first 100 sessions and worked only with the neck and back, and only then did she start the arms and legs, crawling and so on. Sveta, do not be too lazy to come to the seminar on Doman. something, but you will solve breathing problems. all...

Discussion

what does your cardiologist say about shortness of breath? ... does any doctor have an idea of the general list of medications you take? If you're still taking Convulex, valproate slows down the metabolism of some (quite a few) medications. maybe you overdosed on something? ... sleep during the day 3 times for 2 hours can be from aeps. Is there a correlation in time between taking and falling asleep?

What do doctors say why the child does not hold his head? You do not have any strong muscle pathology, even if the child does not have cerebral palsy. In order to crawl at least in a plastunsky way or roll over, you need to understand cause-and-effect things, have motivation for this, use and coordinate a large muscle group, but this is not necessary to hold your head. First of all, it is necessary to make an x-ray of the cervical region, if there are no displacements there, then perhaps the head is too heavy due to hydrocephalus, or the child was too slowed down by AEDs. Another possible reason is that you are trying to work on the whole body of the child at once, and the brain cannot compensate for everything at once. Our very first masseuse came every day for the first 100 sessions and worked only with the neck and back, and only then did she start the arms and legs, crawling and so on.

04/02/2008 22:10:20, vtta

It will pass :)) Chesslovo! And then it starts, put out the light. Now it’s just staring at me - we have changed the furniture, and we are choosing a car (all sorts of test drives), the child of the eldest I’m just stupidly lazy - with the full understanding that finally something is not lazy.

Discussion

And I did not wait for the covering of enthusiasm. As I fell apart at the beginning of pregnancy, I still can’t put myself together. No, of course I do something, for example, my apartment is already shining - I scrub and scrub it. Who the hell needs this?! And the things that REALLY need to be done lie to myself, collapsed behind a box, and I write in a conf, or read everything in a row about children, pregnant women, even about travel (yesterday I accidentally brought it to the website of a tour company, so I spent 8 hours there all dreams). Fool house. Well, how do you force yourself to do something, eh?

It will pass :)) Chesslovo! And then it starts, put out the light. Now it’s just staring at me - we changed the furniture, and we choose a car (all sorts of test drives), the child of the eldest was medically examined, I go to driving courses, every day I am drawn to culinary and bureaucratic exploits (such as registering my husband and getting a tax deduction), etc. d. She's in shock! And this is with the eldest, who is 1.1 and a 28-week belly ... Mdya ...

I spoke at school, then I realized that it was not just useless, but very harmful, and I even stopped going to meetings. I agree with you that it is necessary to help, but we don’t know this specific situation, maybe it’s not laziness at all here.

Discussion

My child is now finishing the 1st year of Moscow State University, he entered without tutors, but there were a lot of absenteeism at school. The reasons are strained relations with teachers. I spoke at school, then I realized that it was not just useless, but very harmful, and I even stopped going to meetings. She sat with her son to teach unloved lessons, and asked, persuaded. Yes, we sat together with a 17-year-old guy and read essays on Onegin before the exam! I was very afraid that I would break, there psychologically it went to this. By the way, I was not alone with the child. My friend also read literature books with her daughter. Try to understand the child and take his side. Either it’s hard for him to study in general, or in individual subjects, or there “the cat ran across the road” and found “a scythe on a stone”. Is it better to change schools? If laziness - they correctly wrote about the belt and the grave mound. If the principles - it's quite another matter. At the age of 15, a person would rather leave school and do stupid things than step over all this.

“I think that you should tell everything frankly, tell a good story about the army, vocational schools, in short, about your future life. Ask: “What are you going to live on, baby? Do you want to dissect and work by car, sitting on the fifth point? ". You should not explain "what is good and what is bad", but you need to make him understand that life beats with terrible force for mistakes and for such naked irresponsibility in the future expects only three things: a vocational school with a beggarly salary, a prisoner with convicts, or a small grave in a Chechen village.We must put everything in this light: parents don’t care deeply, even if it’s on their ears, but in the future he won’t receive a penny from the aforementioned parents, but then he apparently decided that childhood is too good to fall out of it; you look, he hangs his legs from your neck and will sit like that until old age and beat the buckets. they won’t be able to support a child forever, and until he realizes this, it makes no sense to fight: only he can cope with this UNIVERSAL EVIL.The only thing you can do in this situation is to take a tough stance: everyone is happy life items (TV, computer, etc.) etc.) the end has come. It IS NECESSARY to state directly that after the army, as he wants, he will fool around and it doesn’t bother you. Finally, you can practice an old method that effectively pushes the child's thought processes - the father's belt. As one philosopher used to say, "bodily suffering strengthens the spirit." I myself am a pacifist and do not recognize violence, but in the fight against UNIVERSAL EVIL, also called LAZINESS, all methods are good. Yes, to be honest, I'm also lazy, we are all lazy to some extent, but some struggle with laziness and drive Mercedes, while others do not fight and become homeless. If it finally dawns on him that he belongs to the last, then maybe all is not lost for you, "- Merry Anonymous, 15 years old.

How everything is running for you. Yours, not your daughter's. Excuse me. Your daughter is a person, and an equal one, and not an object of control.
Habits are instilled by the example of parents and personal motivation, IMHO. Invite her friends. She may become ashamed of the mess in the room. Let her go to visit, see how it is cleaned. Although, IMHO, it's still early.
And as for mistakes and her own opinion, it’s so wonderful that she has it! I would explain the consequences (falling off the chair) and let them act. She fell, we don’t pay attention, or we kiss, if it hurts and NOT A WORD about what WE SAID, AND YOU ... She will understand everything herself. Did she do it again after the fall? Not? You see, the conclusion is made.
Violence (moral) can lead to closeness and unnecessary protests at a later age, IMHO, do you need it? Let them take responsibility for their choices now.

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.

People of the second type constantly put off important things until tomorrow, and as a result, many tasks remain unfinished. This is sometimes explained by laziness, but in psychology there is a special term for this state - “procrastination”.

Learn how to overcome procrastination clinical psychologist Elena Kharitontseva.

The word "procrastination" (from the Latin pro - "instead of", "ahead" and crastinus - "tomorrow") means a tendency to constantly put off important or unpleasant things for later. Because of it, students begin to study the subject the night before the exam, and start writing the thesis a week before the defense. Procrastination prevents employees from doing work, submitting projects and reports on time. This condition negatively affects the ability to make important decisions. Procrastination damages customer relationships and ruins companies.

Or maybe it's just laziness?

The problem of procrastination is much more serious than it seems at first glance. The habit of putting off important things for later is quite dangerous. It starts with one-time delays, but over time it turns into a pattern of behavior. The burden of unfinished business causes a persistent feeling of guilt in the procrastinator. This state is often called laziness, but there are a number of differences between a lazy person and a procrastinator.

First difference. Lazy people do not want to do anything at all and are bleak about new tasks. Procrastinators enthusiastically take on new projects, take on a mountain of tasks, but they cannot cope with them effectively or on time. Most often due to the fact that they are distracted by some other business.

Second difference. If the task is not completed on time, lazy people take it easy: if you don’t do it, it’s okay. For procrastinators, self-flagellation and self-deprecation begin.

Third difference. A task completed on time causes great elation in procrastinators, they are very proud of the result and are pleased with themselves. Lazy people in this case react more calmly, even indifferently.

Fourth difference. An important feature of procrastinators is imaginary optimism, especially when assessing the risk of not completing a certain task.

Who is a procrastinator

Procrastinators are usually people with low self-esteem. Most often they were raised by domineering parents. If adults force children to do everything strictly according to the schedule and control their every step, then by the beginning of adulthood, the child does not develop the skill of independent planning of his affairs and fulfilling the plans without a clear external stimulus (for example, rigidly set deadlines or given promises). In this case, a person always transfers his affairs to tomorrow, to the day after tomorrow. He tells himself that he will do this when he gets more sleep, when he has more time, etc. Soon, the lack of results begins to interfere with work, and a person develops a lack of confidence in his abilities and his professionalism.

Procrastinators are not just playing for time - they replace the completion of the task with other things. For example, they watch news on the Internet or videos on YouTube. Another important feature of procrastinators is their low resistance to disease. In psychology, there is a term “care for the disease”, when, from the unwillingness to do an important thing, a person has real symptoms of the disease: pressure jumps, his head and stomach hurt.

Systematics of cases

To solve the problem of procrastination, a very interesting model was invented by a Canadian system development specialist. Brian Tracy. He proposes to divide all postponed cases into three large groups.

The first group: deeds-"elephants"

These are big things or large-scale projects that require a lot of time and effort to complete. Such cases cause subconscious fear in people: it is not clear where to start and how to start such a big deal. Indeed, you cannot "eat" an elephant in one sitting. It is necessary to divide it into separate pieces and start with the most “tasty” (interesting). Then the person is gradually drawn into the work, and soon the other parts of the “elephant” also turn out to be “eaten”.

Russian psychologists propose to use personal motivation to accomplish great things. For a procrastinator, a good financial reward for work or a promise made to someone that you don’t want to break can be a strong incentive.

The second group: deeds - "frogs"

In the Tracy system, these are not very big, but unpleasant things that weigh heavily on the soul and cause remorse. Such a “frog” is a strong irritant: it constantly croaks (reminds of itself). In reality, it can be non-urgent unpleasant phone calls, letters, or a meeting that you don’t want to go to. It is better to do such things without delay (“swallow” this nasty “frog”, so that later you can forget about it forever).

However, if a person begins to successfully perform unpleasant “frog” deeds, a problem may appear. When the need arises at work to perform such tasks (for example, an impartial conversation with a person or an uninteresting task that no one wants to do), they can be constantly assigned to the person who knows how to do them: “You are good at this.” But in psychological and moral terms, doing unpleasant things for a person is a very costly task, so you need to build your own line of behavior so that such tasks do not become the main part of the work.

The third group: cases - "oranges"

This is how Tracy calls small relatively simple cases of equal importance and volume. So that they do not accumulate and are not a reproach to the procrastinator, “oranges” should be done regularly. It is better to make it a rule to do, for example, two such cases daily, so that they do not accumulate.

We solve the problem

The following rules will help you learn how to complete all the planned tasks on time and without haste.

1st rule: immediately make a list of accumulated cases (current and future).

2nd rule: prioritize and break big things into parts. Make a list of tasks in this order - first the most important, then less urgent, and at the very end those tasks that have already lost their relevance or were not important or mandatory from the very beginning. Large-scale projects and “elephant” cases need to be divided into separate stages and a specific deadline for their implementation should be determined.

3rd rule: start the mechanism of rationalization, i.e. create elementary conditions for the fulfillment of the tasks set. If you're at work, block yourself from accessing email or social media (it's best to turn off the Internet altogether for a while). If you work from home, turn off the TV and warn loved ones not to be distracted for a certain amount of time (for example, three hours).

4th rule: organize a replacement mechanism. To take a break from work, you need to switch to another type of activity. If you work at a computer, then switching to chatting on the Internet, reading books or watching TV does not count as a change in activity. For relaxation, you can do exercises, go to the store.

The change of activity should be cardinal, while any semi-useful work will be better than pseudo-useful.

Rule 5: Be positive. Things not done on time cause a feeling of guilt, and to overcome it, great mental and emotional costs are required. Therefore, you can’t call yourself a loser: you need to step by step build your actions that will help change the situation, and start acting immediately - at least by compiling a to-do list.

Rule 6: Optimize the order in which things are done. The most unpleasant thing on the list is best done right away (swallowing these "frogs" so that they no longer croak). Then you can proceed to the most pleasant and interesting things, and only then switch to the less interesting ones.

7th rule: set time limits. For example, if you have two tasks scheduled for the day, you need to take 2-3 hours to complete them, and then please yourself with something pleasant. But you need to do these things every day. With this approach, you can decompose a huge "elephant" into small things - "oranges" - and the work will successfully move forward.

Hidden Barriers

Sometimes a person has some personal reasons for procrastination that prevent them from starting work. For example, he lacks some knowledge or needs someone's advice. Among the reasons for procrastination may be the fear of failure or the fear of getting into trouble. Even the fear of success can become a brake - the fear that they will begin to entrust more complex and responsible tasks.

All of the above applies to normal and psychologically healthy people who have serious motivation, but lack organization, self-discipline or the ability to plan and distribute their affairs. But failing to pull yourself together and procrastinate can be a sign of an anxiety disorder or severe depression. In this case, the person needs the help of a psychotherapist or psychiatrist.

Life must be lived now, it cannot be put off forever.

Irvin Yalom.

Don't put off your life for tomorrow
Tomorrow may not come.
Every hour, every day irrevocable,
Hurry up to live as the last.

Alla Kelina

Don't put off your life
What then only the sky knows.
You dream of something big
Acting dishonestly from today.

Tatiana Lakotosh

Postponement as a personality trait - a tendency to put off life and happiness for later; postponing solving problems and doing important things for later; postpone their implementation to a later date.

When my wife died, forty days after the funeral, I began to inspect her belongings. She never wore most of the dresses, blouses, fur coats, shoes. She lived with thoughts about the future, put off life for later, as if she was going to live for two hundred years. Save everything until a special occasion. She saved and saved everything. I didn’t understand how it is possible to live in the “here and now” mode, I didn’t want to accept the idea that every day is a small life, that it is this special occasion.

Now he lies in a coffin, and it hurts and bitterly at the thought that I could not wean my half from the bad, vicious habit of postponing life for later. I often think: “What would she do if she knew that she would die so suddenly and tragically?” Probably, I would no longer know why to save the Madonna service. Instead, I would use it every day. In a word, I would not postpone for later, what brings comfort, joy and happiness to life.

Do not postpone happiness indefinitely, “for later. Live today to the fullest, breathe deeply. Do not create for yourself the trap of the illusion that a real, wonderful life will come later. People are accustomed to putting off life for later - for a year, for a decade, but life goes somewhere in the past and goes away forever, irrevocably. And it becomes sad, because you can only mentally touch the past, but nothing can be changed ...

Don't put off life for later
Maybe "later" will not come ...
Kohl was born - live, the moment will come
And then you leave your home...
Don't put off your life.
Postponing solving problems and doing important things for later.

I found a cool article "How to stop putting things off until later." Saved. I'll read tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. Maximum next week.

Unlike the mind, our mind is aimed at obtaining pleasure, therefore it requires doing what it likes, which can become pleasant or at least not completely unpleasant. Having fallen into the captivity of a chaotic, lustful mind, a person cannot force himself to solve the main problem and leave the minor issues that do not solve anything alone. The mind, if something needs to be done, chooses the pleasant and postpones the unpleasant. The main task may turn out to be unpleasant, and secondary assignments may be pleasant. If you do not force your absurd mind to right action, you can quickly slide into the swamp of ignorance and degradation. The mind of a person is arranged in such a way that if he feels coercion somewhere, instead of pleasure, pleasure and happiness, he runs from there like the devil from incense.
The mind is full of flexibility and rudeness,
when he is in a fight with his conscience,
we don't lie to anyone so often
and as well as yourself.
I. Huberman
A person who puts off solving important problems for later, does not know how to prioritize, is not able to show organization.

For many people, it will be a discovery that 80% of the results require only 20% of the effort, and the remaining 80% of the effort (time spent) gives 20% of the results. A sane, organized person will naturally figure out those 20% of cases that give the maximum result, and start with them. Think about it, 4/5 of our time and effort has almost nothing to do with what we planned to do. This rule of thumb was introduced by sociologist Vilfredo Pareto and has had a huge impact on successful, prosperous people.

A person who knows how to prioritize, that is, an organized person, having realized this principle, optimally solves many life tasks. For example, he reads, first of all, books that are important to him, because 20% of the books have 80% of the value. It is these books that develop the mind, "plow" the soul, provide personal growth. Low-grade "defects" - "Deadly Murder", "Dead Don't Sweat", romance novels - "Love Love", "Volupious Impotent", do not provide food for the mind and only take away precious time.

A person who knows how to prioritize will make a list of useless contacts, actions and get rid of them. Arriving at work, he will draw up a work plan for the day, focus on important matters that give maximum results, and cross out petty, secondary, distracting issues. If a person who knows how to prioritize is engaged in business, he understands that he needs to focus on 20% of the sources of income that provide 80% of the profits.

A disorganized person misses the knowledge of where the main influx of profit comes from, and will waste time on trifles, that is, on passive sources of income, and the really important issues will be postponed until later.

An organized person always has everything at hand before starting work. From this arises the right psychological attitude. Brian Tracy writes: “Start by tidying up your desk or workspace, making sure that everything that doesn't relate to the one task you're working on is cleared away. Now surround yourself with all the necessary supplies you will need. Make sure that everything is at hand and you do not have to get up, leave the room, etc. to obtain the required material.

In a word, a person who knows how to set priorities knows how to clearly distinguish between what is of paramount importance and what may lose its significance depending on the development of the situation. A person who does not know how to prioritize gives preference to decisions on minor minor issues, but on important, crucial issues for the organization, he hesitates, postpones their decision until later, pulls the “cat by the tail” in the hope that everything will be decided without him.

In other words, postponing things for tomorrow is choosing some things over others. This is a choice of easy and comfortable actions instead of hard (get up and run) or uncomfortable (uncomfortable conversation with the boss). Don't leave yourself this choice.

It is important to understand that any postponement of problems only takes away strength from a person. Every day it takes more and more strength, over time it is very difficult for a person to take on a solution to a serious problem.

The most successful defeat strategy is procrastination, putting off until later what needs to be done immediately. Anyone who likes to put things off until later shows irresponsibility. Irresponsibility owes its birth to a person's tendency to put things off indefinitely, for later.

The propensity to procrastinate is instilled where looseness feels at ease. The essence of hesitancy lies precisely in postponing important matters for later and procrastination. That is, a person tends to procrastinate, hesitate, think about the upcoming decision for a long time and slowly, postpone the implementation of an important matter, finding more urgent tasks.

At the same time, efficiency does not get along with the tendency to postpone the solution of the most important problems until later. Efficiency as a personality trait is the ability to correctly, quickly and efficiently carry out certain practical tasks; solve the main tasks immediately, without putting it off indefinitely, for later.

Sometimes postponing is like death. The one who acts immediately gets chances and opportunities, the one who procrastinates, procrastinating, often robs himself of his chances of survival. The person hesitates, does not go to the doctor, then hears the verdict: - You have cancer of the fourth degree. You can't do anything anymore. Nobody will help. He knew, after all, that it was necessary to go to the doctors, but he put everything off for later, pulled, he hesitated ...

Petr Kovalev 2018