By: Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Sr. Associate Editor, ICN Group
(In the past few articles, we knew about prioritisation. From today, we will discuss about one of the most deadly time killers – ‘Procrastination’.)
Procrastination
Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.
-Christopher Parker
Procrastination is simply according a low priority to any particular activity or work, knowingly or unknowingly and simply postponing the things that you should be doing. It happens to all of us, only the degree is different. Your ability to recognise procrastination and to overcome your tendency to postpone important things to future may bring you success in every walk of your life.
If you are in a habit of postponing important works for someday in future, you are not alone. All of us are habitual of procrastinating; more or less is a different issue. Bad part of procrastination is that if somebody is so badly affected by procrastination, it may block his progress in life.
Procrastination often brings you unwanted circumstances and causes unnecessary avoidable nuances and embarrassments. Psychologists say that behind procrastination, there is some fear or inner conflict to continue postponing the things for a later date.
Procrastination is according a low priority to any particular activity or work, knowingly or unknowingly and simply postponing the things that you should be doing.
If you procrastinate deliberately and plan some things to do later as part of your strategic planning, it is fine; but if the procrastination has become part of your life and you unwillingly tend to postpone the urgent things for tomorrow, sooner or later, you are going to face trouble. However, the good news is that if you use GOPTA, prioritisation will start prevailing over procrastination.
Bad affects of procrastination
- Starting work on important assignments too late, leaving very little time before the deadline arrives, thus affecting the quality.
- Even not trying to get rid of bad habits such as smoking, excessive drinking, not taking care of body by delaying starting morning walks or exercise, may adversely affect your health.
- Postponing unpleasant tasks like cleaning your home or sorting out clutter of never-ending papers etc. leave you unorganised and you have to spend extra time later.
When do we procrastinate?
People procrastinate due to various reasons, such as:-
- Putting off unpleasant tasks to some another day
- Waiting for the right mood to attend any particular task
- Fear of failure
- Fear of success, as people think that extra responsibilities will come with success and extra efforts have to be done for maintaining the success
- Not doing any efforts to remove bad habits such as excessive drinking, smoking etc.
- Postponing exercise schedules
- Having too many items of low priority tasks in the To Do list
- Staying in a job in which they are not satisfied
- Postponing the tasks to the future due to ‘someday I will get time to do this’ syndrome
- Doing unimportant or less important tasks at the cost of important tasks
- Avoiding a confrontation or delaying patch up with a family member or friend or boss
If one or more sounds familiar, you are a procrastinator. But don’t worry; almost every person living on this earth is a procrastinator, only the degrees and willingness to overcome procrastination are different.
(In the next article, I will share about the factors behind procrastination. I believe that you are enjoying the journey towards the future of your dreams with me. If yes, please stay tuned. Happy G.O.P.T.A.)
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Creator & copyright holder of the concept G.O.P.T.A.© is an Author, Certified NLP Lifestyle Trainer, Strategic Interventionist, Corporate Trainer & Motivational Speaker ( http://bit.ly/Signature-Workshops-Sanjay-Kumar-Agarwal ) and recipient of Honorary Doctorate of Excellence (Management) by prestigious Young Scientist University, California, USA. He is Founder of ‘International GOPTA NLP Academy’ and is popularly known among his fans & followers across the globe as ‘Time and Goal Guru’.
