Procrastination

Hi there!

I believe it is very natural to want to procrastinate; after all it's an action that has to do with both pain and pleasure. It's all about putting off the pain of completing the task for short term pleasure of not doing it now.

Here is the thing though, the longer we put the task off the less pleasure we receive, and in most cases, have to go through the pain of completing the task anyway. I tend to be a procrastinator myself, the best advice I've ever received was in a book by Anthony Robbins.

The problem with procrastination is the way we tend to visualize the task in our mind. Take two tasks, an enjoyable one and an un-enjoyable one. If we don't like going to the gym (like most people) we tend to represent that task in our minds with a lot of little tasks which seems like a lot of work; pack the gym bag, get your water bottle, drive to the gym...etc. However if visualize something fun like going to the beach, we tend to represent that in our mind only as one little, easy to complete task.

Sometimes I think another reason we procrastinate is because we are confused about what we have to do, and when that happens we tend to stop and get distracted. Another solution to procrastination is to gain clarity on what needs to be done to complete the task.

So next time you find yourself procrastinating, try to visualize the task as one task instead of a whole bunch of tasks you have to complete. Also remember that the pain of completing the task is often much less than the pain of putting it off and having to stress about it.