Maximizing Your Productivity by Overcoming Procrastination
We’re all too familiar with the stress of not having enough time to get everything done, but one of the only things worse than that is the guilt of knowing you had the time but procrastinated until it was too late. I don’t know about you, but that feeling ruins my day and sometimes the rest of my week. If I don’t have time for something, that’s not always my fault. But when I use up my time procrastinating, that is my fault. So what do you do about it? Keep reading!
Diagnosing the Problem
Procrastination is any time you unnecessarily put off something that you need to do, but under that umbrella are a lot of nuances. Not all procrastinators procrastinate the same way. There are plenty of books, articles, and videos out there giving you advice on how to stop procrastinating, but if you don’t stop to ask yourself how and why you are procrastinating, then those tips and tricks might not help at all. You already know that procrastination is sabotaging your productivity, but, before you can make a game plan to fight and overcome procrastination, you have to know what you’re fighting against. So here are three questions to ask yourself about your procrastination.
What Do You Procrastinate?
Everybody procrastinates sometimes, but the group of people who do it the most is, not surprisingly, college students. And here’s where we find the first division among procrastinators: some people are procrastinating on tasks that have deadlines, and others are putting off things that can be done any time. College students – at least, the upperclassmen – will often put off writing a paper until a week or even just a few days before it’s due. Many of us remember pulling an all-nighter in high school or college for a particular assignment that somehow got away from us until the night before class. For students, deadlines are a drag, but deadlines are actually a big help to productivity because they force you to at least get around to it eventually. When there is no deadline, there is no hurry. So the first question to ask yourself is, are you putting something off that will inevitably hit a wall sometime? Or are you kicking something down the road that you could just keep kicking forever? These different types of procrastination require different solutions.
How Do You Procrastinate?
The next question to ask yourself in order to diagnose your procrastination is, what do you actually do instead of doing the thing you need to do? Are you a ‘productive procrastinator’ or a ‘play procrastinator’? A productive procrastinator has too much guilt to do something truly fun when they put off something important, so they start doing other (less) important things. Don’t want to work on that project? Vacuum the whole house instead. Can’t bring yourself to respond to those emails yet? Return your Mom’s call from the other day and chat for a while first. The productive procrastinator doesn’t want to do the biggest thing, so they do smaller things instead, giving themselves partial credit. The play procrastinator, on the other hand, is more honest and just does something fun if they’re already putting off their work. They watch some Netflix or take a nap or find a friend who’s also procrastinating and hang out. Determining how you procrastinate is important, because it’ll help you when you’re figuring out how to stop.
Why Do You Procrastinate?
The final diagnostic question to ask yourself about your procrastination style is, why do you procrastinate? This might seem like a useless question, but go with me, because there are usually only two answers. You probably put off an important task either because it simply sounds not fun or because it actually sounds intimidating. If you procrastinate just because you’re not in the mood to do your work, then your strategy to overcome that procrastination will look very different than the strategy of someone who is putting off their work because they’re worried about it. TED-Ed released a video in 2022 called “Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad.” That video has 7.4 million views. Clearly, this is not a rare struggle. The video shares that “Procrastinators often report a high fear of failure, putting things off because they’re afraid their work won’t live up to their high standards.” When the thought of our work is stressful to us, our minds respond as they would to anything else that causes fear, and they try to avoid it. So we distract ourselves with other things, and this trains our brains to do the same thing next time too. These two reasons for procrastination may not seem obvious in the moment, but how you overcome your procrastination will depend on why you procrastinate in the first place.
Prescribing the Solution
Now that we’ve diagnosed what kind of procrastination is getting in the way of your productivity, here are some prescriptions for kicking it.
If you have no deadlines, make your own and stick to them! If you never have to do it, you’re never going to do it. Get a friend to hold you accountable, download an app to remind you, and remember why you’re doing it! Often the goals without deadlines are the things we actually want to be doing, our passion projects or dream start-up, so it’s important that you not let that get set aside every time. You can make it happen if you take it seriously and don’t give up.
If you do have deadlines but still struggle with procrastination, you might need to make your own deadlines too, just more of them! If you don’t like the rushed or half-baked work you get done last minute, then do the same steps as a non-deadline procrastinator listed above. Accountability can be the best motivation, and, if you can get a friend to do it with you, that always helps.
If you procrastinate by being productive OR by just doing something fun, the prescription is the same – you have to take your distractions away and build impulse control. Procrastination is a habit like any other, so it has to be broken or replaced. Practice saying no to yourself when the urge to switch tasks or to pick up your phone hits you. Practice that self-discipline in small ways so that, in the moments when it really counts, you’ll be able to lock in and get your work done.
If you procrastinate because your work doesn’t sound fun, you can find a way to make it fun! Change locations or treat yourself to a nicer coffee as you work, or you can give yourself some motivation to finish by making plans with friends for when you finish. It isn’t childish to use a reward system to beat procrastination. Scientifically, it’s just smart.
If you procrastinate because you’re afraid you’ll fail, then time-management strategies aren’t what you need. At least, that’s not where you should start. You’ll never be able to overcome procrastination until you beat that fear. Ask yourself what it actually is that intimidates you. Maybe try journaling or talking about it with a friend. Your work is never going to be perfect, but you can’t let that stop you from getting it done.
And if you’re wondering what the difference is between procrastination and just taking a break, the next part in this series is about just that! Be sure to check out that post and other blogs like this one in the links below.
