To Stop Procrastinating, First Learn Why We Procrastinate - The 4 simple reasons

To Stop Procrastinating, First Learn Why We Procrastinate - The 4 simple reasons by Khoj Badami

There are many reasons why people procrastinate. Here, we will try to explain them to you. The idea is that once you understand the reasons behind procrastination, you will be able to identify it the next time you start to procrastinate!If you are able to identify it, you should easily be able to overcome it!

First, the 4 simple reasons

When something is difficult:
When you believe that a particular task is difficult to do, you to try to convince your self not to do it. You try to do another more easier task instead. This is one of the most common reasons why people procrastinate. Look out for this! Next time you come across some difficult task look at how your mind tries to convince you that you should do something else.

Do not fall for these mind games. Get the difficult task over there and then! When it is over, take pride in completing the difficult task. Stop for a few seconds and think about how well you have done that difficult task without procrastinating. This is called “positive re-enforcement”. It will help you form the habit of doing things without procrastinating!

When something is time consuming:
When you feel that a particular task is time consuming or will take up a huge block of time, you will try to procrastinate this kind of task. You will avoid ever starting! You will convince your self that you must do something else.

Recognize when you do this. To overcome this, one trick is to tell your mind that you will work on the task for only 10 mins and not more. The idea is to break down the task into small parts and do one at a time. However, the effect is quite different. You see, once you actually get yourself to begin working on the task, you will probably continue even after 10 mins are over! Try it out!

When you feel that you lack the knowledge or skills required:
When there is particular task and you feel that you do not have the required knowledge or skills to complete the task, you procrastinate it. This could be because you do not want to make mistakes. So, you convince your-self that you must learn before beginning the task.

Well, the best way to get your-self to do this kind of task is to tell your self that, “This task is easy! I can do it! How hard can it be?”, something on those lines.

When you are afraid:
Generally, when you are afraid of failure in a particular task and you do not want everyone to know that you failed or blame you for failing. So, to avoid all this, you procrastinate that task. You somehow or the other keep postponing the task. Recognize when you are doing this.

To get your self on the task, you will again have to convince your self that, “The task is easy! You can do it!” Etc.

In the above paragraphs, we keep saying that “you will have to convince yourself” to get over your procrastination. You might be wondering, “Will I have to lie to my self to overcome my procrastination?” The answer: YES!

After all, when ever you procrastinate, what you are really doing is lying to your self, right? For example: If you face a difficult problem, you “convince yourself” that you “must” do something else. So, you end up postponing the difficult task. So, to overcome the procrastination, you have to lie to your self once again! So the asnwer is: YES! Lie to your self.

Now, the WORST thing about procrastination is that it is self-rewarding and so it is very hard to get out of the habit. For example: If you postpone something till the last minute and then you get it done last minute in hurry and you somehow still manage to get it done properly, you start to feel good about your self. You start to convince your self that you can work only under pressure when time is short.

Next time, when some task is to be completed, you will tell your self, “Let the last minute come, when there is pressure, I will sit down and get myself to do it! Anyways, I work much better under pressure, don’t I?..” This way, you habit of procrastination keeps building up and you start to procrastinate more and more. Sooner or later you will start to procrastinate everything!

What we have explained above are just some of the simple reasons why people procrastinate. There are more complicated reasons and we shall explain those to you in the next section. But, the reasons do not matter! What is MOST important is that you know when you are procrastinating. You must be able to understand that you are procrastinating.

Remember, that if you are a procrastinator, it is likely that you procrastinate in each and every thing that you do. You probably procrastinate in big things and small things. Observe how your mind plays games on you and convinces you postpone things. Once you are aware of this, you will be able to solve your problems….

What we have explained on this page are just the “simple reasons” behind procrastination. There are more “complicated reasons” because of which some people procrastinate. You might be procrastinating because of one of these and not even knowing it. It would be good for you to understand these reasons to…

Stop Procrastinating Now - Here's How! Discover the guaranteed methods that will immediately eliminate procrastination from your life.