Etymologically, the term «procrastination» comes from the Latin ¨procrastinare¨ – leave a matter for tomorrow- ¨postpone», pro «forward» and crastinus «referring to tomorrow, to the future”. Procrastinating consists on the difficulty in initiating activities, and committing to them, despite being important to the person, carrying out tasks other than those originally proposed.
Root causes for procrastination speak about deficits in our self control, self discipline and psychological and emotional maturity. Psychology has identified elements as perfectionism, self confidence, lack of motivation and lack of structure of the personality. Research has come to the conclusion that procrastination is linked to negative thoughts and rumination.
Procrastinators, are often perfectionists that prefer to avoid a job than face the possibility of not doing it perfect. Deliberately they will search for distractions to avoid tasks that are consider for them as ¨difficult. Procrastination will protect the person from the fear of failure, judgement and self condemnation.
Unfortunately, procrastination Its a pernicious habit that in the medium-long term entails undesirable consequences in different spheres of life, with your couple, family, social relations and academic and work life. In the same way, several studies affirm there is a correlation between procrastination and depression, as this two elements share some of their symptoms. It not only affects the time and efficiency of doing our daily tasks but also can affect negatively the decision making of important and crucial elements for their life or others. In addition, procrastination can affect also our physical health as it encourage us to putt off medical examinations and check ups, exercise and physical activity and self care routines that are relevant to prevent diseases or improve the concept of them.
But how to stop procrastinating?
- Understand the root cause of procrastination. Is it fear? Loneliness? Depression? Laziness?
- Work in your self discipline by aligning it with your life goals.
- Create a Self Care plan based in your needs
- Adopt timelines that are partially flexible in terms possible delays. Set a date, and how many days you can reschedule the final result.
- Go out from your confort zone and routines and challenge yourself to explore new activities that motivates you.
- Limit your access to social media, TV, news or other elements that can affect attention and focus for prolonged times.
- Develop empathy for your future self and create solutions to fight laziness.
- Seek for support in our process to a psychotherapist.
Remember you don’t need to be alone in your self growth path! If you want to work on yourself to avoid and leave behind procrastination or any other element that you feel is impacting negatively your life, do not hesitate to send a message and I can answer all your questions or book an appointment to start living your life to your 100% potential.
Maria Alejandra Vasquez
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