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The Art of Procrastination

The Art of Procrastination

"I'll do it tomorrow!" I guess many of us tell this lie every day to either themselves or to someone else. This is the easy way to escape your real duties. All that boring stuff that just needs to be done. To be honest, it is a time thieve.

The Art of Procrastination

The definition to procrastination is easily put by The Free Dictionary:

To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.
v.tr.To postpone or delay needlessly. (See: The Definition)


Sometimes it feels like even the stuff that is really important to you is too hard to deal with at the moment and then you procrastinate it. Do you sometimes feel like you don't know what you wanna do? I think most of us feel this phase at some age in their lives. Maybe we should stop and say "I'll decide tomorrow" and then just wait and see what starts to interest you. That is a good strategy, because usually when you procrastinate things you do the thing you should really own your life to.

The Art of Procrastination

Why are we procrastinating?

Some say people do it out of laziness or just poor time management. They might think it is a mysterious force making us stop working. The real reason behind this behavior is that those people fear or have anxiety about the important task awaiting. Because they feel that negative feeling about it, they want to procrastinate this. So they really just procrastinate the feeling. A video game or some book might make you escape that feeling for a while, but it will come back. Once they face the truth again they feel even more extreme anxiety and shame of the procrastination itself. It can lead to a vicious cycle. There are also people who are more sensitive to procrastination and tend to get to this cycle.

The Art of Procrastination

So it is caused by fear of failure and a bit of perfectionism.

It has been proven that procrastination leads to people thinking more about their futures.

"However, research also suggests that procrastinators might be able to get more in touch with their future selves — a change that could help make them happier in the long term."

(See: Washington Post)

How to stop procrastinating

The Art of Procrastination

First of all, you should stop punishing yourself for the procrastination. When you have procrastinated do not be mad at yourself. Think of it as a small break instead of a bad habit that you ca not let go. Let it go and move on. Guilt and regret are such negative and draining emotions, that you should stop feeling them to not let the cycle continue.

The Art of Procrastination

Secondly, take small bites! Do not push yourself to work till the task is fully completed, you do not need to make it happen right away. Instead put for example a 15 minutes time, or something that feels comfortable for you, to concentrate on it. Then take a five minute break and continue again for 15 minutes.

And last but not least, put a timetable for you. Do one task at a time. And make it in smaller amounts, reward yourself with something that you usually do when you procrastinate.


The Art of Procrastination
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