The Causes of Procrastination and How to Overcome It

What is procrastination? Defined, it is: delaying, deferring, or putting off an action until a later date. This may seem innocuous and even justified in some cases, but it is really one of the biggest traps you will encounter on your path towards personal development and achievement. Procrastination is one of the worst habits to have, because when you procrastinate you are in effect saying “no” to the present moment. The present moment is truly all there is, so when you reject it where do you end up? Chasing an Ideal The answer is “nowhere.” By procrastinating and saying, “Oh, I don’t want to do that right now.” you are implying that you’d rather be doing something else instead of embracing what is currently in your life. This leads to the chasing of an ideal; there is always something else you’d much rather be doing, or much rather have, or somewhere you’d much rather be, and the only thing this kind of thinking breeds is unhappiness and discontent. Overcoming procrastination is an important, empowering decision you can make and enact in order to improve your happiness overall efficacy as a person. Overcoming Procrastination It’s obviously not ideal, so how does one change from being a procrastinator? More importantly, what are the alternatives? A procrastinator can be seen as anyone who “puts off” anything ever, or in the more common sense as someone who does so habitually and consistently. In the latter case, a true chronic procrastinator may seek to lessen the number of things that they put off so that they essentially fall into the first category, while the first group might seek a more “Yes Man”-esque approach wherein they “say yes” to whatever situation arises. This is the ideal way to be, as embodied in the life and teachings of the famous Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, a Zen master renowned for his energy and enthusiasm for life, and for tackling whatever task happened to arise right there on the spot. Tips for Doing Things Now A lot of the time, procrastinators will put things off without having a clear intention of what they will do instead. Typically this will default to some mindless activity like watching TV or playing with Facebook, or something else that is designed to feed the senses and drown the mind temporarily. The only way to overcome this is with perfectly candid personal assessment: if you’re going to assign more importance to something as frivolous and essentially meaningless as Facebook than you do to the living of your own life, then that is your decision and there’s no “miracle remedy” for that kind of thinking. Procrastination is also common for small, simple tasks that can be accomplished relatively quickly. A great example of this is when I had to clean the cat’s litter box when I was younger. I’d put it off forever, until I was harangued and cajoled into doing it, which on average took under a minute. In thinking back to the weekly childhood chores I dreaded so much, I realize now that I could’ve easily completed them all with under an hour of concentrated effort; the same goes for schoolwork. It’s amazing the things that we give so much power over us. While procrastination can be powerful in the havoc it wreaks on our lives and well-being, it’s important to understand that the simple idea of it truly has no power of its own. Once you recognize and are upfront with yourself about the silliness of putting off easy tasks, then that initial impulse to “wait until later” (whenever that is) simply fades away.