Time Management and Procrastination

What is Procrastination?

Time management and procrastination - is procrastination all about the inability to effectively manage our time?

Many of us squirm when we hear the word "procrastination". Most likely we are all guilty of it to some extent – procrastination, or putting off some task (= often in plural) to a future time.

The word “procrastination” is derived from the Latin verb procrastinare — to put off until tomorrow. It is also related to ancient Greek word akrasia — which means doing something against our better judgment. Add these together and you get deliberately pushing an important task to the future.

Read that again: against our better judgement. You push a task into the future fully knowing this might cause you trouble in the future - and yet you do it. Why on earth?

It is like you cannot control that action. You feel guilty about it and dislike yourself for doing so, and try to forget your guilt by concentrating on anything else that brings you gratification. Dabbling with tasks that are of lesser importance. Doing busy work.  Which will just put the dreaded task further into the future. And there the dreade deadline awaits for you like the childhood monster under the bed while you try to tell yourself it isn't there.

You may be so used to being a procrastinator that you don’t even pay much attention to the unpleasant feeling it gives you. Like any unpleasant thing that has continued for an extended period of time, you start taking the unpleasant feeling as normal. You don't pay attention to the effect it has on your mind - and body. Yes, procrastination can affect your health. Procrastination increases stress, and prolonged stress can cause all sorts of ailments in the body.

Time Management and Procrastination:
Are You Simply Lazy?

No. Procrastination is not the same as being lazy, no matter what you have been taught to believe in the past. Instead it is an active process - you voluntarily push doing something into the future, and choose to do something else instead, even if you know full well this act may harm you.

Procrastination really is about emotions, believe it or not.

Read more by clicking here.

Deadlines and “I work best under pressure”

And then you find yourself in that moment when there is no pushing the task further into the future -  you just have to start working on it.

You work like crazy, hating every moment, time runs out, and your work can be substandard because the old lie “I work best under pressure” just isn’t true in that sense that this pressure would produce good results. It may be effective in that sense that it forces you finally to do something about the task, but this isn't the same as doing good work.

And as we have started to brag with words, here’s another chapter on word origins:

Have you ever thought about the word deadline? A bit gloomy, isn’t it? But it actually had nothing to do with death. Instead it is an old term used in printing press. The deadline is the line on the actual bed of the printing press - any words that went beyond this line were not printed. Deadline was actually a guideline for good work. You should also  start looking at the deadline as a tool you can work with.

If you don't find a way to start taking the deadline seriously, and you push your task into the future, the opportunity for good work you could have done if you had started in time, is forever lost.

Reasons for Procrastination

There are many reasons for procrastination:

• fear of the task 
• perfectionism 
• lacking time management skills 
• a mile-long to-do-list 
• the task feels too difficult or boring 
• something necessary is missing 
• you are lacking support 
• the project feels intimidating 
• work environment isn't supportive  
• being stuck in research 
• lacking accountability or deadline 
• overestimating the time needed for the task
• underestimating the time needed for the task

Read more about these reasons for procrastinating by clicking here. (coming soon)

Procrastinator Types

There are many types of procrastinators: 

• perfectionist 
• task-hoarder
• dreamer 
• worrier 
• loner 
• busy-bee ("I work best under pressure") 
• avoider 
• and of course the chronic procrastinator. 

Click here to read more about these procrastinator types (coming soon). You most likely find that you are a combination of several types.

So, how to beat procrastination and smooth those negative emotions that stop you from working on your tasks?

Click here to read more about the ways to stop procrastinating.

There are plenty of things that may trigger procrastination, many of which you may not have thought about before, or which you may have recognised as bad habits, but haven't connected with procrastination  in the first place.

Let's see how we can work with time management and procrastination.

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