Most of us procrastinate. We generally think I will do it in the evening. I will study from tomorrow. I still have little time left. I will begin this project next week. I will exercise from tomorrow. We generally make even simple tasks big mountain climb by indulging in procrastination. Procrastination is the intended delay of an action which we are supposed to take but we keep on delaying that action.
Let us suppose that one is a student and he decides to study from 7 o’clock. When it’s 7 o’clock he defers to start studying from 8 o’clock. He knows it very important for him to start studying and it continues on and on. Let’s take another example; a person decides to start exercising from 5.00 A.M. in the morning. He wants to do it and puts an alarm to wake up at 5.00 in the morning. In the morning when the alarm rings he hits the snooze button and postpones it for next morning. Similarly, Leonardo da Vinci, the great painter was also a great procrastinator. It took him 16 years to build the painting of Mona Lisa.
Knowledge is power, we all know. Let’s understand about procrastination in order to avoid doing it. We need to understand our mind because it’s the key source for all the actions which we take or do not take. Our mind can be divided into two parts. One is the feel good mind and the other is doable mind. It is important to understand the characteristics of both of these minds.
Let’s first understand the feel good mind. It is short sighted. It doesn’t think about the long term effects. It is impulsive and gets distracted easily. It tries to avoid pain at all costs. The feel good mind doesn’t like failures and embarrassments. It doesn’t like to panic. This mind focuses only on experiencing pleasure in the moment. has many allies such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, internet, movies etc. It believes in instant gratification.
The doable mind is visionary. It thinks on long term. It creates your goals for the future. It also has allies such as focus, willpower and goals. These two minds are always at conflict. Whichever mind is fed more is more powerful. Whichever mind exerts more pressure powerful wins.
Procrastination is habit .Habits are not easy to change. Like other habits if you want to control it, you need to make conscious efforts. You need to identify your area of procrastination. It may be areas like work, household, school or colleges, finances or relationship. You should assess consequences of procrastination. Consequences may be internal or external. Consequences mean the price you pay as a result of procrastination. You should identify the reasons or excuses you give when you procrastinate. You need to feed your doable mind to make it powerful to break this monster of procrastination. You need to use your willpower and focus to break free from procrastination.
– Admin, Wealthio
