It’s OK To Procrastinate

A lot of times people don’t procrastinate  because they are lazy or unproductive. It’s possibly because the work they are doing does not align with their ultimate goals and values. When people don’t get enough motivation from the tasks they’re doing, procrastination is more likely to occur. This is a good time to check if you are doing the right thing for you.

To tackle the lack-of-motivation issue, you might want to rethink the reasons why you do certain things and carefully consider the outcomes if you continue procrastinating. Do you procrastinate because you have more important things that you need to do? If it’s the case, you might need to figure out a new schedule to help yourself out.

Vacuuming the floor, sending a package, or making an appointment, all of these are trivial tasks that take up little time and effort but might be accumulated for a long time. If you find it hard to do the work at hand, try to finish those chores that you constantly excuse or forget to finish. Doing chores is refreshing and might energize you to get back to previous work with more confidence.

One of the biggest reasons that many people procrastinate is people’s high expectations of their abilities to finish the work. Having too much concern about outcomes might cause you to be less active in the process. Think about writing an essay. You are barely halfway through the literature review and you start worrying about if you can get a 4.0. Worrying about the incidents that haven’t happened does not help at all in focusing on the current work. Set a lower expectation to destress yourself when you try to finish a big project — chances are that you’re doing better than you think.

Try to embrace your procrastination. You’re a human being. Even machines that work 24/7 can undergo breakdowns. You should allow yourself to be messy occasionally. Researchers already found that people who essentially let go of their guilt about having procrastinated in the past would do better next time by improving their time-management skills.

Lastly, try talking to someone you trust and telling them your uneasiness. Don’t be afraid to reveal your conflicts and depressions. Sometimes you are procrastinating simply because you are having a hard time. Building emotional ties can end up being really beneficial in releasing pressure.