Procrastination is a dangerous condition nearly all of us struggle with. Sometimes it seems more like a curse than anything else because it basically dooms you to doom yourself. Allow me to illustrate one of the many forms of procrastination:
You wake up on a Saturday morning, ready to tackle the day. You gave yourself a homework-free Friday to do whatever you wanted, and now you feel refreshed and ready to tackle that 5 page paper you have to write for class on Monday.
You roll out of bed, get dressed, and get your breakfast ready. And then you think, “Hey, what’s the harm in watching an episode of Hawaii Five-O while I eat breakfast?” Your answer comes quickly and without reservations: “Ehh, one episode won’t hurt anything. I’ll just watch one episode and then the rest of the day I’ll work on my paper.”
Two hours later you’ve finished breakfast and you’re still watching Netflix.
You’re starting to feel a little bit antsy. You know that you need to start working on that paper if you don’t want to end up writing the whole thing on Sunday night, and you know that you still have other homework assignments that you need to do. But you can’t seem to stop. It’s like Netflix has some sort of hold over you and you can’t break free.
You finish the third episode of your show and you put your foot down. “No,” you think, “I will not be starting the next episode in 7 more seconds, thank-you-very-much!” You exit out of Netflix, open up your rough draft on Word, and begin to slowly work your way through your essay.
Now, I’d like to note that this is only one example of procrastination. Procrastination comes in many forms, and it strikes without warning. You may have the best intentions to get to work on your homework, but then a thought will slither its way into your head, insinuating itself in your mind until you can’t let it go: “Ugh. This room’s a mess. I should really clean it.” So you start cleaning, and 2 hours later your room is spotless. And you still haven’t started your homework.
Or maybe you suddenly remember that you have an errand to run, or that the last chapter of your book was a cliffhanger and you really want to see what happens next. The point is that procrastination is powerful, and that if you think you’ve never procrastinated, well, you have (or at least I refuse to believe that you haven’t).
Now that we have covered the signs of recognizing procrastination, we can go over how to overcome procrastination.
1. Recognize the problem
Before you can begin to fight against your procrastination curse, you must recognize that you are the one who cursed yourself. I hate to say it (because I myself am a professional procrastinator), but it’s true. If you want to stop procrastinating and get a move on, you have to own up to the fact that you got yourself into it, and now you need to get yourself out of it.
2. Take Action
Take a deep breath, and stop doing whatever you are doing to procrastinate (watching Netflix, reading, cleaning, etc.). Just stop it, whatever it is. If it’s a book, then put it away. If it’s Netflix, then close the tab. If you’re cleaning, then drop the sponge. You may have to pull yourself away from whatever it is you are doing, but you have to do it. That is the only way to break the spell.
3. Begin the Necessary Task
I know it’s hard (really, I do), but the only way to break your spell of procrastination is to completely remove it from the equation. You just have to blast it right out of the water. Take another deep breath if you need to, and just get started with whatever it is you need to do. Tell that annoying little voice nagging at you in your head that you are done with the shenanigans and it’s time to get down to business (“I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul--just like William Ernest Henley, gosh darn it!”). It may be really hard at first--actually, it will be hard at first--but it will get easier as you go along, and eventually you will lose the urge to procrastinate.
I wish you the best of luck in breaking your spell of procrastination. And yes, I did use writing this article as an excuse for breaking my own spell of procrastination. That makes me a pro, right?
