How Procrastination Harms Your Life

It has often been said the procrastination is the grave of opportunity. Indeed, procrastinate today and you lose countless opportunities that could have blossomed had you not procrastinated. Procrastination is a bad habit, with many negative effects on your job, relationships and mental health.

However, with enough perseverance and determination, you can kick the bad habit of procrastination. Not only will this leave you a happier and more responsible individual, you will find yourself healthier and wealthier for it. Here are some harmful effects that procrastination can have on your life, so don’t become a victim of procrastination!

Harmful Effect #1: Lost Opportunities

Whether at work or in school, by pushing off the work that should have been done today you are losing out on opportunities that could get you ahead in life. A piece of work consistently well done, and a reputation for being stable and dependable could well get you the promotion that you have been eyeing but were procrastinating too much to actually achieve. Likewise, an individual who always hands in work late or incomplete and below the expected standards will not get far ahead in life, assuming he doest not lose his job.

Harmful Effect #2: Your Health

You promised yourself to visit the gym faithfully when you signed up for membership, but all that you’ve seen of exercise is standing up to walk to the pantry. By procrastinating and delaying what you’ve promised yourself to achieve, you are compromising on your own health. Needless to say, your mental health is not free from the adverse effects of procrastination either. The amount of negative emotion and thoughts regarding your inadequacies that you are harbouring will eventually cause you to sink into depression and guilt. Worse yet, the work that is still piled on your desk marked urgent will cause your stress levels to spiral out of control.

Harmful Effect #3: Your Relationships

A chronic procrastinator soon finds himself procrastinating even the simplest things that he has promised, simply because he did not mean to or sincerely want to finish the task. You find yourself promising your wife to fix up the shelves that she needs in the pantry, or to do your share of household chores. And yet you procrastinate till she has to call someone in to fix it, or do it herself. She nags, and you’re irritated. She gets upset, and so do you. Procrastination can wreck havoc on your relationships. Not just your wife, but your children and your friends. Promised your kids you will teach them to play baseball? Or your friends that contact for a job interview, and never got round to doing it? You will soon find yourself earning the distaste of the people around you.

Don’t let procrastination ruin your life! Above are just 3 out of the many other harmful and negative effects that it can have. Take action today and work towards becoming procrastination-free.

Stop Procrastination and Take Action

Procrastination is a bad habit that can turn into a rapidly downward spiralling journey. It starts of innocently as an avoidance of tasks and responsibilities that need to be fulfilled, but if allowed to develop can turn into a nasty habit. There are many negative and harmful effects of procrastination, and it is vital that you learn to recognize the signs and take action to stop procrastinating.

If you have acknowledged that you have a problem, its time you sat up and did something about it. Don’t let procrastination ruin your life, relationships and job. Here are some suggestions that we have to encourage you to stop procrastinating.

Tip #1: Positive thinking

There is no such vocabulary as “cannot be done”. Your responsibilities can be done, no matter how daunting and challenging they may seem initially. Tell yourself that you can do it, and that you choose to do so. Recognize the fact that procrastinating is bad for you, and that you choose to overcome it, either by speaking to someone you trust to guide you, or by other self help means. The key here is that you want to overcome your habit of procrastinating, and that you choose to take positive action to do so.

Tip #2: Be Well Equipped

Part of getting any task done is having the right tools to do it. Make sure that you are well equipped mentally as well as physically. If it is an assignment that is due, make sure that you have done your research, or spoken to the tutors or superiors that you should have spoken to. Draw up a schedule to help you plan out what needs to be done, and what you have to do to accomplish your task.

Tip #3: Be Realistic

It is impossible to suddenly quite being procrastinating. Understand that it is as much a bad habit similar to smoking or drugs, and you need time to overcome this problem. Set yourself realistic goals, and draw up a chart to show yourself improving. Give yourself rewards for finishing tasks on time and before deadlines. With regards to your responsibilities, make realistic plans on how to go about doing them. Do not expect yourself to finish a 10,000 word assignment in a day, but space out your preparation and actual work over a reasonable amount of time.

Tip #4: Prioritise

You have a dozen tasks to complete, but you need to pick one. And that’s where you first started procrastinating, by choosing the easiest and least consequential task. Draw up a to-do list, and mark each item as urgent, important and unimportant. Do the tasks that are urgent and important first. Plan your time wisely and allow for breaks, which are just as important for you to unwind and relax your mind so that you don’t get too stressed.

Tip #5: Take Small Steps

It is no point to set yourself the task of scaling Mount Everest, when you have trouble climbing up two flights of stairs. You are overcoming the bad habit of procrastinating, do not expect miracles to happen just because you have decided to act and stop procrastinating. For each task that may seem Herculean, break it down into small components and parts that can be accomplished separately. Set about completing these small parts, instead of attempting to conquer the entire project in one go. You will find it more manageable and less daunting, and succeeding at each step will motivate you to give yourself a pat on the back.

It is possible to overcome procrastination, you just need to put your back into it and persevere. Use these 5 tips to stop procrastination and take action today.

Get Over Procrastination and Start Living Your Life

So you have recognized that you have a problem, finally. Procrastination has taken over your life, and you want it back. As difficult and impossible as it may seem, it is achievable. Approach a counsellor or a therapist for help, and don’t forget that the best person to help you is yourself.

First, you need to identify the cause of your procrastination. Is there a reason why you are not turning in your assignments on time? Or perhaps there is a reason why you are always late for work, and your projects are always not as good as they could have been? More often than not, people procrastinate not because they are lazy, but because of some other reasons. For example, a student could be afraid to work hard because they failed an assignment they slogged a month for. This could lead to the fear that they are simply not good enough, and they reason that if they don’t put in the effort, they will not find out if they are dumb. Similarly you could be dreading work due to emotions of anger. Perhaps your previous project was well done, but your manager stole the credit for it completely. This could lead to feelings of resentment and unwillingness to put in your best effort.

Once you have identified the reasons behind your bad habit, you have to confront these fears before you can overcome them. Speaking to a counsellor or a therapist can help you to uncover the underlying reasons for your procrastination, and help you to improve your self confidence. They can also provide you with the best suited method or possible pitfalls you may face to help you overcome procrastination and gett on with your life.

Secondly, you need to take action. It is not enough to recognize you have a problem, and identify what it is. Now that you know, you have to take steps. If you find yourself often forgetting appointments and deadlines, get a notebook or a diary and jot down all the important dates and tasks as they take place everyday. Make this a permanent habit, and ensure that you check it everyday to ensure that you are well on schedule to completing your work in time.

Do not give in to the temptation to place the responsibility on the diary or planner. It is there to help you remember, it is not a cure all. In other words, owning a diary is not going to help you suddenly remember or complete your task. The onus is on you. Avoid buying multiple notebooks or planners, as this will cause you unnecessary confusion. It is also a good excuse to “forget” because you looked in the wrong planner.

There are many reasons why people start to procrastinate, and once you have identified the cause, you should work with your counsellor to draw up a reasonable plan to overcome your problem. If your issue is with poor time management, learn to plan your day realistically to complete tasks. If on the other hand you issue is with prioritization, or the lack thereof, that is not going to help you. You will need to segregate your tasks based on their level of importance and do what is important first.

Be realistic with your expectations and your solutions, and persevere! Just like habit takes time to build up, it also takes time to overcome.