We all procrastinate.
In fact, Darius Foroux conducted a survey of 2200 of his newsletter readers and found that 88% of professional workers procrastinate at least one hour per day. You can read all his findings here.
There are many reasons we give ourselves for avoiding the work.
These can range from “it’s not due yet” to “I don’t know where to start”. However, at the core, the reasons are things like feeling overwhelmed, perfectionism, distractions, lack of motivation, lack of organization, and even anxiety.
Solving procrastination can be a challenge. For those who don’t know where to start, you could begin with just one minute of work and seeing if that gets you over the hump of starting.
For those who are overwhelmed, taking some time prioritizing with a framework like the Eisenhower Matrix could work.
Before moving to solutions, understanding the “why” behind your procrastination will help you which techniques would work best for you.
My Story – Making the Simple Complex
For me, I procrastinate activities that on the surface are “easy”.
Things like calling to make an appointment (doctor, hair, dentist, etc.) and responding to emails.
Somewhere in my brain, these seemingly easy tasks become hard and time consuming.
I spend far more time worrying and reminding myself these things need to be done than the time it takes to do them. When I think about why I avoid them, the two situations have different reasons.
With the appointment scheduling, it is a combination of no deadline when the scheduling needs to happen combined with my perception that the task will take longer than it actually does.
With emails, the cause has more to do with my need to think. I don’t want to send a response too quickly that might not be well thought out. However, if I wait, the response tends to fall down the importance list because of new priorities arriving.
Your Turn
What are the activities you tend to procrastinate?
Are they big projects or little tasks?
Can you pinpoint the reasons behind your procrastination?
The solution starts with identifying the why.