Procrastination: How Do We Change?
Our whole week was a rush. Alongside our work lives, we're also in the thesis stage of our master's degrees. What this means at this point: time off work to go to school, intercity travel, the rush to catch our supervisor in their office, submitting documents, institute approval, the ethics committee, and the worry that something might be missing… Luckily, we haven't reached the sleepless nights part yet :) But in the middle of all this rush, the moment we come home exhausted and throw ourselves onto the sofa, the urge to do nothing else clashes with the urge to watch one more episode of the series we put on while eating! So much so that there have been many evenings when we did nothing at all, with the anxiety of the piece we had to submit to our supervisor weighing on us. So what happened when we put it off? We felt short-term relief and prioritized not-so-important tasks, telling ourselves 'I'll do it after this' and 'I'll definitely start after that'.
In general, procrastination affects our health, our energy during the day, our success and our sleep patterns. Tasks put off until the last night and rushed through without sleep can be followed by sleep problems. After that come problems with attention, concentration and decision-making. Naturally, success at work, at school and in family relationships is affected too.
Studies have found that people who complete their tasks by putting them off perceive themselves as more inadequate and negative, and experience intense stress.
Procrastination is something we all do from time to time, but it isn't a very healthy behaviour. So how can we do what we need to do on time, without putting off our thesis work, leaving assignments past their deadline, letting the vegetables in the fridge go bad or getting a warning from our boss about work, and enjoy a worry-free, sound sleep?
Break the task you need to do into small pieces. When you look at the task in front of you as a whole, it can seem bigger than it is. By breaking it into small pieces, you can plan where and how to start. After that, taking the first step will be much easier.
Decide to start. When we don't know how to start a task, we keep putting it off. Make the task concrete and write down the steps of what you need to do.
Create a space for yourself. Where can you best do the work you need to do? Prepare a physically comfortable space. For our work, we chose the big table in the living room! Besides that, we also need to create our own mental workspace. It's very hard to work while constantly refreshing your Instagram feed or replying to WhatsApp messages :)
Set alarms and reminders. When we avoid a task, it's just as easy to forget it. But when we set an alarm, the reminder makes us more likely to do it. Don't forget that at this point your brain will try to trick you by saying '5 more minutes'. At such a moment, it will be more helpful to make completing the task your priority.
Share what you need to do with others. Sharing a task you plan to do with at least one other person makes us feel bad when that person asks 'why didn't you do it?' if we haven't done it. You could call this a trap we set for ourselves :) Who wants to be embarrassed in front of someone else! Besides that, by writing down the tasks we need to do on a piece of paper and checking them off, we can also ask ourselves 'why didn't you do it?'
Reward yourself. Reward yourself with the positive feeling of completing something. This will increase your motivation. But be careful that these rewards aren't distracting 'rewards' like computer games or browsing the internet. Of course, diet-breaking junk food can also be counted on the list of risky rewards.
Accept that change is hard. Changing our behaviour is hard. Accepting that it's difficult and takes effort strengthens our determination to change. You have things to do and you're stuck on Instagram or Facebook. Remind yourself why you don't want to put off your real work, and that you need to put the phone down now to feel better in the long run.
When we procrastinate, we think about and focus on how enjoyable and important whatever we're doing instead is. But we shouldn't forget that the feeling of finishing and accomplishing a task is much more intense and positive than the feeling of finishing an episode of a series. Apply the points above, and when you complete something, focus on how you feel. You'll really love that feeling.
We've already started putting this list into practice!
Some of the sources we used:
