I felt compelled to blog this topic for a few reasons. I’ve felt and noticed not being solo in the circumstances of procrastinating. Yesterday having a conversation with my little sister we were discussing “procraftination”. The art of procrastinating utilizing crafting to take away from other responsibilities at hand. Well that’s been the case as well was not the case for me…. So it made me want to dig deeper to a more rooted issue to why people procrastinate and the negative effects it has on us. I’ve noticed falling into a pattern and want to change for the highest good of all.
IF YOU ARE A PROCRASTINATOR-Read on!!!
What is procrastination?
pro·cras·ti·na·tion
/prəˌkrastəˈnāSH(ə)n/
- the action of delaying or postponing something.”your first tip is to avoid procrastination”
Are you self aware, yet stuck in the pattern?
That self-awareness is a key part of why procrastinating makes us feel so rotten. When we procrastinate, we’re not only aware that we’re avoiding the task in question, but also that doing so is probably a bad idea. And yet, we do it anyway. “This is why we say that procrastination is essentially irrational,”
A constant misconception that Procrastinators are lazy! Are they?
Procrastinators tend to not be lazy
What is interesting, is that many procrastinators are actually very driven individuals and anything but lazy. Procrastinators often have very high standards for themselves and ambitious goals they want to achieve. They just get stuck in this fight or flight stage. It found that the brains of procrastinators have a larger amygdala, which is part of the limbic system known for fight or flight. “What’s happening is what we call the ‘amygdala hijack,’” says a psychologist. “The procrastinators are reacting emotionally, and the emotion-focused coping response is to escape.
Procrastination affects us negatively in ways that affect our mental health, our well being, our drive to our day to days. “Where our mind goes, energy flows”. Squirrel?
Negative ways procrastinating affects your life.
1. Poor decision making is one of the worst effects of procrastination. When you procrastinate, you make decisions based on criteria that most likely wouldn’t be there if you didn’t procrastinate, like pressure to finally make a decision because time is running out. Emotions heavily influence the decisions we make, and procrastination increases negative emotions, which can push us into making decisions that don’t serve us in the long run. Instead of rushing through decisions while procrastinating, write out all the possibilities and find a calm moment to analyze the pros and cons of each.
2. Ruining your reputation. When you keep saying you will do something and you don’t, your reputation gets tarnished, as nobody wants empty promises. Besides damaging your own reputation, you are damaging your self-esteem and self-confidence. You will find that it gets easier to procrastinate each time because you are not surprising yourself anymore. People could stop depending on you and hold back on offering you opportunities because they could be worried that you will simply procrastinate, leaving them to clean up the mess. Therefore ruins relationships.
3. Could affect your health & well being. Among the effects of procrastination are mental health problems like stress and anxiety, and these in turn are linked to health issues. If your procrastination leads to feelings of depression, this will start to affect other areas of your life. If you procrastinate too much with something, it will most likely start to stress you out and cause anxiety, especially when other people or things are involved, and all of this can lead to poor health outcomes.
4. Ruining your career! The way you work directly affects your results, how much you achieve, and how well you perform, so the effects of procrastination can end up being detrimental to your career. Procrastination may prevent you from meeting deadlines or achieving your monthly targets. What consequence will this eventually have on your career? You might miss out on promotions or even be at risk of losing your job. You can try to hide it for a while, but don’t doubt that long-term procrastination at work will almost certainly
5. Lowering your self esteem. This is one of the vicious circles you might find yourself in. We tend to procrastinate because low self-esteem makes us feel that we won’t be able to get a task or project done the right way. Unfortunately, procrastinating only increases feelings of low self-esteem, making us doubt ourselves even more. One study involving 426 college students found that “academic procrastination was negatively predicted by self-esteem, and self-control”.
WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR PROCRASTINATOR TENDENCIES
- Create time blocks
- Make practical lists
- Change your environment or people not serving your highest good
- Reduce the number of decisions you need to make throughout the day
- Eliminate your procrastination pit stops
- Set practical goals and time limits, check them off
- Stop complicating things
- JUST DO IT!!!!!! Stop thinking you have to do it, need to do it, JUST FUCKING DO IT!!!
Look, we all have tendencies to be a procrastinator at some point in our lives however it really does not look good on us right?! At the end of the day it ends with us and I don’t know about you! But I do know when I procrastinate on things I don’t feel good in my mind set, I’m hard on myself, then I worry and am concerned for my productivity, or that I’m not dependable and I don’t like to feel as if I’m inadequate of making the decision to just do or risking my reputation and the ability to be counted on. I know I’ve sat in the funk of what it’s felt like and how many things I could pat myself on the back for regarding tasks at hand and the weight it feels when it’s lifted of accomplishment so I’m going to hold on to that feeling & try harder.
Happy Hump Day & I hope you found this helpful, motivating & if you’re procrastinating today… just effing do your dang thang already!
Come 𝓔𝓁𝑒𝓋𝒶𝓉𝑒 with me! 