Dealing with Procrastination
Procrastination has been a challenging behavior to deal with at times. A more critical behavior that I feel could help me out is deciding on the duties to undertake based on their importance rather than the degree of pleasure in doing them. Most of the times people tend to confuse procrastination with laziness, but I am convinced that I am not lazy. Procrastination is related to choosing to do a more pleasant thing at the expense of a more boring but essential task. For example, I always find myself choosing to visit my relatives at the expense of doing my study revisions, which include assignments and class tasks. I need to change my behavior to complete my studies first, and I have set out a plan on how to deal with the problem with the hope that my plan will work.
Acceptance
The first step is accepting that I have been procrastinating. The importance of acceptance is to be able to forgive me from past procrastination and avoiding similar ones in future (Eerde, 2015). Accepting that procrastination has affected me involves finding out the excuses I had against completing my intended task.
Reasons for Procrastination
After accepting and recognizing that indeed I am procrastinating and that I am not lazy, the next step is to identify the specific reasons why I could be procrastinating. For example, I will check whether I am avoiding doing some tasks because they are unpleasant. Also, I will assess myself in terms of organization since poor organization could be crucial in leading to procrastination (Mann, 2016). The other bit is to check on my level of confidence and its impact on getting easily overwhelmed by some tasks. Finally, I am going to check on my level of perfectionism. Perfection and fear of failure could have impacts on my level of procrastination.
Anti-Procrastination Strategies
After knowing the reasons for procrastination, the next step is taking a step in dealing with the behavior. The first step in dealing with procrastination is self-forgiveness to ensure a fresh start in the transformation procedure. Writing a schedule for the activities to undertake at a particular time with similar timelines could help in setting deadlines for specific tasks. Also, I will decide on a particular way of rewarding myself for achieving particular tasks (Nábělková & Ratkovská, 2015). Another strategy that could appear helpful is to choose an individual to always check up on me. The individual to check on me should have an authority to command me into undertaking tasks.
The plan to stop procrastination will not work efficiently if I do not minimize distractions. Therefore, I will identify the distractions that have been affecting my performance and looking for ways to avoid them. The last step is to decide on the ranking of tasks according to priorities. The less pleasant tasks will be dealt with first before undertaking the more pleasant tasks.
Rewards and Punishments
As a motivation to achieve a given goal, a reward plays a significant role. The reward could involve treating oneself to a recreational facility such as a hotel. Also, specifying some punishments for failing to achieve some set goals could also serve well to deal with procrastination. Some punishments that could be given could be restricting oneself from going to some recreational activity on a weekend because you did not achieve the goals of the week.
Procrastination needs to be differentiated from laziness. Individuals who procrastinate could be hardworking individuals, but the outcomes of the activities they do could be used to judge them as being lazy. Therefore, procrastination should be handled seriously to obtain the best from hardworking individuals.