Procrastination is a very natural thing for most if not everyone. Sometimes we simply just do not want to do work at the moment and push it off leaving it for future us.

But as all things do at some point it comes back and you are faced with a dilemma that is for the most part created by you. So why exactly do we procrastinate if it only ends in stress and rushed deadlines?

Well, according to an article from Solving Procrastination titled, “Why People Procrastinate: The Psychology and Causes of Procrastination” written by Itamar Shatz it is very simple. Shatz described it as an imbalance between our drives of delay and action that commonly leads to procrastination.¹

While throughout the article he listed various causes of procrastination this was the root of most. Shatz had explained it as a drive in his article but a better way to see it is to instead visualize the scales of justice.

On one side is your delay and on the other is your action. So let's say you get an assignment and you feel a bit demotivated or something has you in a bad mood, this incites more of a reason to delay completing the work instead of acting on it right then.

While this scenario implies other factors are at play, the core root of it is in our willingness to act in the present depending on how we feel. However, if procrastination is most commonly caused by what we are feeling at any given moment, is there even any way to correct this detrimental habit?

Just as most bad habits are correctable, procrastination is no different. An article from Lifehack titled, “How to Stop Procrastinating: 14 Practical Ways for Procrastinators” written by Celestine Chua puts it into 14 realistic and practical ways.

However, to make it simpler I chose three of the methods she wrote about that I thought would be the most effective ways to begin ending serial procrastination. Chua in her article described that some of the most practical ways to stop procrastination were to break down your workload, to not overcomplicate the task, and to find someone to be motivated with.²

I do think that these are great strategies to start out with as they are not necessarily complicated in concept. To start breaking down your work into smaller parts is probably something you already do for other parts of your life like cleaning.

This strategy is meant to help you complete a task without feeling overwhelmed or stuck by taking it slow. If you give yourself enough time, quality work is likely almost guaranteed due to your approach to the task.

This is also correlated with the next strategy which was to keep the task as simple as possible. Similarly, it is meant to help ease any stress or concern you may have with actually doing a task.

By keeping it more or less straightforward it eliminates most worries and overthinking allowing for there to be no reason to delay completing it. However, there are some moments when we can’t muster any motivation to complete the work.

Well, that's where Chua's third strategy comes into play. We can’t always rely on ourselves so sometimes it's necessary to find someone to help us become motivated.

While this motivation buddy should not be relied on it is a great way to start finding ways to be motivated and eventually you will find your own reasons to motivate yourself. It also creates a sort of accountability aspect as this person can be the one to call you out when you are procrastinating.

Though procrastination may seem like the easier way out of doing your work at that very moment, it does eventually catch up to you. This is why it is important to recognize that it is a problem if it negatively affects you and your work.

Cited Sources:
1- https://solvingprocrastination.com/why-people-procrastinate/
“Why People Procrastinate: The Psychology and Causes of Procrastination” written by Itamar Shatz
Solving Procrastination
2- https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/11-practical-ways-to-stop-procrastination.html
“How to Stop Procrastinating: 14 Practical Ways for Procrastinators” written by Celestine Chua
lifehack.org