The real reason for procrastination and a surefire way to stop procrastinating

Procrastination can seriously ruin your career and life, and simple advice to “pull yourself together and get started” does not help to cope with it in the least. Why do we procrastinate and how do we break this terrible habit?

Have you ever sat down at your laptop to finish an important assignment, and then suddenly found yourself doing the dishes or reading an article about the Chernobyl disaster? Or you suddenly realized that you need to feed the dog, answer an email, clean the ceiling fan, have a snack, although it is 11 o'clock in the morning ... And then it was evening, and your important task has not yet been completed.

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For many people, procrastination is a powerful and incomprehensible force that keeps them from completing urgent and important tasks. It is a potentially dangerous force that brings bad grades in school, problems at work, and postpones needed treatment.

But the reasons why people procrastinate are still unclear. Some researchers associate procrastination with a lack of self-control and equate it with overeating, love of gambling or shopping.

Others believe that the urge to procrastinate is not due to laziness and inability to manage their time, as many smart and successful procrastinators can attest.

It is said that procrastination can be related to the way our brains work and our perception of time and ourselves.

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Procrastination often happens when people are worried about important tasks ahead of them. To get rid of negative emotions, people procrastinate: they turn on a video or open Pinterest. This makes them feel better, but, unfortunately, reality does not go anywhere, and in the end they face their problem again.

When deadlines start to run out, procrastinators feel intense guilt and shame. But for avid procrastinators, these feelings can become a new reason to postpone the task, and this creates a vicious circle of self-destruction.

There are different types of procrastinators. Someone procrastinates, doing useless things, for example, looking for cool gifs with cats. Others do seemingly necessary things - they clean the apartment, work at a boring job, but they never do what they really want.

Procrastination habit is destructive, because the road to the procrastinator's dream - to realizing his potential, expanding his horizons and a job that he is truly proud of - runs through square 2. Squares 1 and 3 can come in handy when people survive, and square 2 for those who grow and prosper.

What else can we do to avoid procrastination ? “Just stop doing useless things and get to work” sounds ridiculous.

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Yes, it won't be easy, but there are several ways that can help.

The best ways to get rid of procrastination is to forgive yourself for it. It is believed that works because procrastination is associated with negative feelings. By forgiving yourself, you reduce guilt, which means there are fewer reasons to postpone everything.

But the best thing is to realize that you don't need a certain mood to complete tasks: just ignore your feelings and get started.

Most of us believe that the emotional state should be appropriate for the task, but it is not. You can very rarely feel a working spirit, and this is not a reason to put things off.

Instead of focusing on your feelings, think about your next actions. Break the task down into many smaller pieces. For example, if you were going to write a letter of recommendation, the first thing you need to do is create a document, title it, and date it.

Even if these steps seem minor, they are quite important. When you start a task, you feel better, raise your self-esteem a little, and this helps to cope with procrastination.

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The parents and teachers should teach children how to cope with procrastination at an early age: When children start to procrastinate , many teachers think they have a problem with time management. They don't really have a problem organizing time, they have a problem organizing emotions. The child should realize that not all tasks will be interesting to him, and come to terms with it.

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