Procrastination

One of the biggest enemies I have found of forming habits is procrastination. It is patient, silent and consistent. Putting off something no matter how simple the task is one of the easiest things to do. You can put it off for a minute, then an hour, then a day, then a week.  Then it never gets done or even worse it is done with a rushed, half-hearted attempt with a poor outcome. Another failure at one’s feet due to procrastination.

In thinking about this post, I can see how it has affected me and my habit-forming process. Down to writing this blog it has touched me. I have put off writing this every Sunday for a few times now. I feel like I had legitimate reasons and tried to justify them. But if I am being honest in reality I was just procrastinating. I spent time scrolling YouTube or other time-wasting nonsense. Even just taking a nap on the weekends I felt I needed.  And here I am on an early Sunday morning writing my post trying to make my deadline. I procrastinated. Then sense of frustration with myself is immense. I could write and bemoan myself. Basically, a pity party for poor me. What would that accomplish? Would that write my blog? Would that improve other things I wanted to work on?  Nope, doing that is just another form of procrastination.

Instead, I use productive moments of reflection and adjust. That is what I have found out during this process is keep showing up keep adjusting till something works. Across the internet it’s often said, “You only fail if you quit.” I have decided I will not quit, no matter what happens or how hard it gets.

One of the first things I did was look up the opposite of procrastination. It’s precrastination. I kid you not, it is a word, one I didn’t know of until I wrote this blog. It’s basically the doing of something right away as soon as it comes up. I also found out some psychologists believe this is just as detrimental as procrastination. When someone is in the habit of precastinating they do things right away just to get something done, to get over it, to get it out of their hair so to speak. It can wind up putting a lot of stress and pressure on someone with a constant anxiety to get things done with no real objective other than to get it done.  The sweet spot is somewhere in between, using planning and prioritizing to accomplish that.

Overplanning can be a form of procrastinating. Making the perfect plan that never reaches it’s intention causes one to never start. But there is value in making a basic plan then trying to accomplish that plan. It may require forming habits or systems. Suggestions I have read and I have been trying is writing down the 3 most important things you want to do for that do. I don’t include things that are normal part of life like shower, brush teeth, walk, meal prep etc. I include things that need to be accomplish or at least started today. For example, my list today includes,

1. Writing this blog post
2. Reading for 45 minutes about stock trading
3. Prioritizing my week’s tasks.

Then below it I do a mind dump as they call it. I write other things no matter how small I want to get done. No matter how far out they are just any task I want to get done I write it out. Then when I am looking at top 3 for the day I review those and pick some to add for the daily list. Then I start working on them as early as possible. It actually works pretty good. Writing this post makes me feel good because I feel productive. It’s not 7 am and I feel like I have something done already that gives me that sense of accomplishment. What I have found the earlier in the day you get it done the better you feel. So try to get cracking on your top 3 as early in the day as you can.

I am determined to beat procrastination and not fall into precastination. Through all of this, the set backs, the procrastination I still haven’t lost my resolve. I refuse to fail no matter how small the steps get. So that means I refuse to quit. I’ll keep try, I’ll keep writing and I’ll still keep you all involved.

Until next time friends, lets keep trying let’s keep going, let’s keep showing up. Take care