Procrastination has caused serious troubles in many lives. You should take a moment to congratulate yourself for reaching a stage where you will start arming yourself to confront this devil. But it would be wise to first understand the problem in depth and then move forward to finding ways to address it. I’m attaching a link to another one of my articles which walks you through various scientific reasons for procrastination.
Now that we’ve covered some of the major reasons for procrastinating, let’s delve straight into ways to prevent it. Joseph Ferrari of DePaul University says, “Merely telling a procrastinator to ‘just do it’ is like telling a clinically depressed person to cheer up. It won’t work.”
1.
Have you ever seen a miniature painting? Observe the fine details in it. That’s how our plans should be. I like to refer to this concept as “Miniature Planning.” When you intend to do something but don’t have a proper clarity about what your intensions are, it has null motivating power. Philosopher Sarah Stroud of McGIll University has termed them “Anemic Intentions.” Peter Gollwitzer, Psychology Professor at New York University, and his colleagues have demonstrated that specific intentions in the form of “when… then…” (called “Implementation Intentions”) can bring about a paradigm shift in our success. The focus here is: “What’s the next action?”. For example, clearly stating your intentions like “When I complete reading 7 articles from The Economist, then I will work on the report that need to be submitted to my boss today” will help you get the work done as the intentions are crystal clear. Our main obstacle is picking up the gauntlet and getting to work. But once we start working, even getting little work done motivates us to work more and more.
2.
Now, let us assume you want to do the mammoth task of cleaning your room. Pondering “Where do I put this year book from last year?” or “The next time I walk into my room, do I want my bed to be empty so that I can just fall down on it?” motivate you to start cleaning. The first question befuddles you and makes you want to give up, whereas the answer to the 2nd question roars out of your mouth as a big fat YES. So the trick is to frame questions that compel you to say yes and get started.
3.
The next trick has worked for many people I’ve known. Go out and find someone who is in the same boat as you (trust me it won’t be that difficult as we are all battling with procrastination). Now shake hands on a deadline by which you’ll both complete your assignment and agree on the reward you’ll give each other. But the catch here is that even if one of you doesn’t complete the assignment, neither gets the reward.
4.
The previous strategy will seem like a bed of roses after reading the next one. Crime writer Raymond Chandler have thought up of more cunning twists on the human psyche. He observed that a procrastinator rarely sits idle, but rather has a tendency of getting engaged into useful but less urgent work like vacuuming behind the bed. This way tend to cheat themselves into experiencing satisfaction and a sense of productivity. Chandler proposes that we must set aside some time in which we would either be absolutely inactive and sit still or work on the task at hand. Sitting still, rips us from the feelings of pseudo-satisfaction and after a few minutes, we start experiencing boredom and monotony starts nudging us. This becomes intolerable soon and we feel propelled to begin doing the task.
5.
Career Counsellor Amy Sykes suggests that by embracing peer pressure, we can improve our productivity. And if it still doesn’t work, turn yourself into an exceptional salesperson. Sell the work to yourself in ways that pique your interest. Finally, if nothing works, combine it with a promise to reward yourself for tolerating the agony of doing that task. It doesn’t need to be something huge. ‘Pancakes, a hot bath or an episode of your favourite show could all do the trick.’
6.
John Perry, a professor of philosophy and a big time procrastinator, has developed his own way of coping with procrastination. His method is based on the same foundation as Chandler. “If a procrastinator needs to finish an assignment before 8 o’clock the following morning, for instance, he is likely to find himself sharpening pencils instead. But if all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils,” Perry observes, “no force on Earth could get him to do it.” John suggest that we should first rank our priorities and then drop the most urgent tasks a little down the list and fill up the top place with ‘potentially daunting and important sounding projects,’ which aren’t that essential. By convincing ourselves that we must complete that think old novel that we have just read 10 pages of or completely re-organise our email box, we can suddenly become far more willing to get started on our work.
7.
Lastly, since procrastination is an emotion-management issue, emotion-regulation would be the obvious solution. It comprises skills like our ability to be aware of our emotions, identify and accept them, tolerate and/or modify according to the need be, and astutely navigate through the experience of negative emotions. Discussing strategies for emotion-regulation is beyond the scope of this article but just a simple Google search will open up the golden gate for you!
There is nothing pro in procrastinating so adopt the strategy that works for you and enjoy your jailbreak!
Let’s procrastinate procrastination.
Kashvi Gandhi 
Loved this post awaiting more such write-ups!
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