Understanding what procrastination is can help you deal with it effectively.
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What is procrastination and why is it so easy to do!
Procrastination
Procrastination is the dream killer.
It is insidious.
Instead of pursuing your dreams, you waste time by procrastinating.
Our lives are short.
We don’t have time for to procrastinate.
What does procrastination mean?
The word procrastinate comes from Latin from the verb procrastinare, which is derived from “pro-” meaning “forward” and “crastinus” meaning “belonging to tomorrow”.
It means “defer till tomorrow”.
Many languages have an equivalent, with the best known being the Spanish “mañana”.
Procrastination is about putting off what you could do today until tomorrow.
The problem is that eventually tomorrow never comes.
Why Do You Procrastinate?
There are many reasons for procrastination.
You may procrastinate to avoid a stressful task.
This could be something that you dislike, or it might be something that you are worried or uncomfortable about.
Instead, you do something easier.
You might procrastinate because the task is tough or complex or requires energy and effort.
Maybe your task doesn’t seem pressing, so you procrastinate because it has no deadline.
Every Moment Is A Choice
We choose to do what we do in each and every moment of our time.
By procrastinating you are making a choice – whether to invest your time in something else, even if that “something else” is doing nothing.
It’s estimated that we make an incredible 35,000 decisions a day – that’s a decision every 2 seconds.
Most of these are unconscious and automatic, though some are conscious and require willpower.
According to social psychologist, Roy Baumeister, we have a limited reservoir of willpower.
Each decision depletes this reservoir, in a similar way to how using a muscle consumes its reserves of energy.
Baumeister calls this “ego depletion“.
Procrastination – particularly when it influences our internal dialogue and we start debating with ourselves about whether we should do something – rapidly depletes this reservoir of willpower.
Make decisions quickly, because this leaves you with more willpower, which enables you to make better decisions.
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