Procrastination

It seems that the world is obsessed with productivity these days. Getting things done is the name of the game. There are almost as many productivity systems prevalent these days as there are stars in the sky. And, there is one hurdle that all of these systems tackle invariably, and that is procrastination. Today, let’s try to understand the psychology and get to the root cause of this facet of an unproductive life.

I am a person who works well under pressure. In fact, I work so well under pressure that at times, I will procrastinate in order to create this pressure.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Working from home for the past year has been interesting to say the least. There is a big time argument that says it has been a more productive time due to a lot of time from commuting, dressing up or even showering (I shower everyday, FYI) is channeled in to work. There are a lot of people who have the capacity to stretch their work hours much longer than they did while they were going to offices.

This creep of office hours in to our lives leads to a lot of pile ups in every other facet of our lives. Don’t get me wrong, I love working from home myself, it gives me a lot of flexibility and comfort. Working from home is just an anchor I am employing. The point I’m trying to drive towards is that there is potential in anything and everything to eat up substantial portions of our lives, leaving us oblivious to other aspects.

Interestingly, we forget while we say yes to one thing, we are unconsciously saying no to everything else.

Let’s take a couple of “for instances”. They’re going to be a little abstract, but bear with me, and hopefully they will make sense by the end.

• An elder brother, who is too engrossed with work becomes unmindful towards his younger sister, who looks forward all day long to spend a couple of hours with him. The brother, however, is too busy thinking, reading and watching about how to be a better professional.
• A young adult, who has just joined the workforce, is so busy staking his claim to his position in the society, he forgets to invest in his future. He does not keep money aside for the times when he would be in dire need of it.

Now, let’s talk about a fascinating and curious detail of the human mind. If we have put something off for a long time, we feel it is completely alright doing so for many future instances as well. This detail, affectionately referred to as procrastination, is such a nice detail that we give in hours and hours to it everyday.

A live example, I had been putting writing this article off for the past 3 weeks. Not hours, not days, WEEKS!

While me postponing writing this article does not have a lot of dire consequences, let’s try and take a look at the potential futures of the “for instances” we talked about a second ago.

• The brother and the sister drift apart, foregoing a life long bond of solidarity and support, depriving both the people involved.
• Compounding not on his side, when the young man starts saving, he reaches nowhere close to what he would have needed, causing him a lot of discomfort given the lifestyle he had built for himself to attain a respectable social standing.

The outcomes to the examples we used are very grim. Not everything will have such bleak outcomes, but there is hardly anything positive to come out of putting things off for a long time.

The next, logical question would be, how can I stop myself from procrastinating?

Before we talk about the how to, let’s talk about the why. And this was one, uncomfortable reckoning to me.

Procrastination does not result from laziness alone, but also from fear. The fear of not doing well enough, not being perfect as soon as we start.

Let me explain. Once we finally shift focus to the areas that we had been putting off earlier, recovery seems such a herculean task that it seems easier to just put things off continually than to think about solving the problems.

The solution? It is key to start before you feel is ready.

Oh, physics! Will you ever stop being a pain in my rear end? I spent 4 years away from you only to find myself referencing one of your principles in a philosophical article that I am writing, myself. Anyway, ever heard about inertia? Unless you’ve been living under a rock till now, I think I can safely assume you have. Just as it takes time to retard, it takes time to grow. Most of the times we give up before we get better.

Let’s take another for instance. You’re asked to write with your non-dominant hand for a month straight, while your dominant hand will be tied behind your back every time you have to write. The first time you write, it would look like a dead ants parade on paper. Let’s say you don’t give in to the illegibility of your handwriting the first time, and continue to write 10 more times. There will be a bit of familiarity, a certain amount of comfort while using the non-dominant hand. Continue doing it for over a hundred times, you won’t know the difference between both your hands.

Time and patience have hardly ever failed anyone.

And even if they have, I highly doubt they’ll fail you and me. Like they say, laughter is the best medicine, time and patience have the potential to solve every single problem in our lives. Not as catchy, I know. But a hundred percent correct.

Thanks for reading!