The Health Blog

Procrastination is the one thing that will destroy the best-laid plans of time management. Plenty of people procrastinate, and some researchers and psychologists say that procrastination is a learned response that we subconsciously teach ourselves or learn from others. What’s worse is that putting things off and waiting until the last minute has been linked to depression.

There are four themes connected to procrastination. There is the Self-Doubting Procrastinator, who fears he will fail at his task so he second-guesses himself out of taking action. There is the Discomfort Dodger, who avoids activities that cause anxiety or discomfort. There is the Guilt-Driven Person, who feels guilty about putting off important tasks but continues to procrastinate to avoid the pressing guilt. Finally, there is the Habitual Procrastinator, one who has procrastinated so many times that the action has become routine, just a part of the person.

The worst thing about procrastination and how easy it is to continue to develop this habit is that society actually accepts it and unknowingly rewards the behavior. How many times have you apologized for being late and been excused? Or asked for an extension to a deadline and actually gotten one? What about being told ‘good job’ for having put in a burst of last-minute effort to get a project done? Slow and steady progress doesn’t seem to attract as much notice, does it? One issue around procrastination is that once you’ve discovered you do it and want to change, it’s difficult to know how to start correcting the problem, but changing your ways can be done.

The first step toward breaking the procrastination spell is to make a to-do-list. The list doesn’t have to be in order, but it needs to be somewhere visible so that it can serve as a constant reminder of what needs to be done. After you have made a list, it would be great if you could prioritize that list. Anybody who’s run a home-based business understands the importance of this. You could rank your tasks by deadline or what is considered to be most important. You can also invest in a large calendar that can be a constant source for dates and writing notes. You need to put the calendar in a place that is common, so that it can be seen often and not hidden by a closed door and forgotten. If you have a punctuality problem when it comes to time and deadlines, you can up your deadlines by two days and set your clocks ahead by ten minutes. When you mentally think that the new time and deadline are the right ones, you will find yourself relieved that you not only made your deadline, but you did it early and now you have free time.

The bottom line is that no one enjoys procrastinating, and if you are a habitual procrastinator you could jeopardize areas of your life. Procrastinators are generally considered unreliable, unpredictable, and unstable. If you can change and start to be progressive, you will find that you will have more time to spend with your friends and loved ones.