Procrastination
Even if you are a high achiever with a strong desire to succeed, you may have a procrastination problem. You may find yourself completing a slew of insignificant and time-consuming jobs rather than the one action that is critical or necessary, but has a negative component (or even lacks a positive one). This could be due to a lack of decision-making capacity (‘decision-paralysis’), a lack of time awareness (either under-estimating how long tasks will take or over-estimating the amount of time you have available to accomplish a task), or just leaving the task until the last minute.
Procrastination on a long-term basis
Procrastination can develop chronic as a result of an unwillingness to deal with or move over bad moods or ideas associated with specific chores. Negative self-talk about procrastination transferring to be associated with the activity can exacerbate this. Furthermore, negative self-perception can have a severe impact on one’s overall mental and physical health, raising chronic stress, lowering life satisfaction, and intensifying depression and anxiety. Procrastinators frequently express high stress levels and poor self-compassion, as well as a lack of resources to use as a buffer against unfavorable situations.
Factors that cause procrastination
Insufficient motivation
Lack of drive (particularly intrinsic motivation) to perform certain critical activities is one of the most prominent causes of procrastination. There can be less dopamine (a pleasure neurotransmitter connected with the ability to think and plan) and lower performance in thinking-related and creative tasks when someone has ‘extrinsic motivation,’ which is focused on rewards and consequences. Similarly, when equivalent tasks are completed with goal-focused motivation, less dopamine is created. Intriguingly, personality type influences this as well, with introverts preferring more regular ‘wins’ to extraverts preferring less regular but larger wins. Intrinsic motivation, or doing something for the sake of doing it, is the most effective way to overcome procrastination. This can contribute to longer-term satisfaction, especially when a journey to a goal or conclusion is involved rather than a single work.
Perfectionism causes procrastination.
The perfectionist procrastinator is often at odds with themselves and enjoys the strain of a crisis. They avoid starting the task and postpone it until there is limited time to finish it. The reduction in available time, however, does not satisfy their perfectionist tendencies, putting pressure on the quality of the outcome and frequently resulting in failure to achieve their own high standards. Alternatively, perfectionists may continue to put off the activity until they believe they have enough time to complete it completely, thus satisfying their perfectionist requirements – but, this time may never come. Time management tactics work effectively for this type of procrastinator.
Procrastination commitments that are excessive
Fear of the unknown, change, and/or doing things incorrectly can all contribute to a reluctance to engage in particular jobs. The busy-busy procrastinator takes on numerous duties and relies on being overburdened or overcommitted to avoid certain tasks. If you’re a procrastinator like this, think about what you’re actually trying to avoid. Furthermore. Gaining a sense of time passing and its importance, as well as good planning tactics, can be beneficial.
Distracted easily
This type of procrastinator allows the next sparkling or glittering object to distract them from the task at hand (literally or symbolically). This can happen at any point during the task, from before it begins to right before it is completed. If you’re a procrastinator like this, keeping a running list of things you want to do can help. Each new topic is added to the list, which may then be evaluated once all of the tasks have been done.