Lately, we have been talking a lot about procrastination. Both in the office and during online consultations, you share how difficult it is for you to carry out your tasks or projects right away. The problem intensifies when you have too much on your mind and, additionally, less and less time. Unfortunately, the pandemic and the return to online working mode do not make studying or planning any easier. Remember that everything can be changed, and you can work on every tendency and habit to improve your studying, work, and everyday life, because that is what it is all about after all! You can take a breather and forgive yourself – procrastination usually affects hardworking and ambitious people. And it is certainly not laziness. Do not give in to this nomenclature, it is harmful and wrong. You probably do not know this, but Leonardo Da Vinci was considered in his time to be a man who never finished projects on time! What is more, painting the famous Mona Lisa took him as long as 16 years! In turn, the fresco The Last Supper was only finished by him because his patron threatened to cut off his livelihood.
We usually put projects off until later because... we are afraid we will not make it in time. It is a paradox, but that is how it is. We put things off because we are afraid of failure. We are afraid that it will not work out, that we will do something completely hopeless, so why bother doing it at all.
So what chance do we give ourselves to achieve our goal and results?
Minimal.
Poor:)
How does this affect our sense of self-worth and competence?
Poor:)
It has to be ideal, perfect. The best.
It does not have to be. Sometimes it is worth letting go of 100%.
80-90% can also be top-tier for the moment and bring satisfaction.
Below I have a few quick tips for you to help you achieve your goals – both the ones you want to achieve and the ones you have to. I hope they will be useful to you at many stages of your studies:
Consider whether what you have been putting off for so long is truly important to you. Give yourself a few minutes for this. Often we put off projects and tasks that we never really wanted to tackle in the first place, but somewhere along the way we lacked honest reflection. How much do you want to achieve this, to what extent does it need to happen right now. Cross off your list the things you are not convinced about, do not torture yourself with them, and when planning strategically – listen to your thoughts about what you want most.
If, however, this is a project you have to do, or simply want to accomplish, then:
describe specifically what it is supposed to be. Remember that we push away in time what is an indefinite dream, a cloud of associations, something vaguely defined. Concretization gives shape to action.
Put it into words, goals, parameters. It is very hard to tackle something vaguely defined. In such a situation, you do not know the next step to take.
Break what you are going to do into smaller parts
Sometimes we have literally a moment to fulfill a desire, wish, dream, or actually a credit project "after hours", alongside ordinary life. That moment arrives, you have, for example, only 1 hour of complete peace for it – and... you do not know what to tackle!
Break down a big thing into smaller steps, stages, time periods.
Every project task begins with one simple action. One. This is the so-called first step.
First write them down, and only then
Find time dedicated solely and exclusively to this. Only. Without getting distracted by anything else. Once you carve out this time – hold onto it, mark it, outline it, color it in your notebook, and during that short moment do not do anything else!
A daily + weekly + monthly plan does the job. It is worth taking a calendar and listing goals for the week and the month. Then, treating hours as "from-to" blocks, try to stick to the time for performing planned activities, e.g.:
8.00-9.00 breakfast
9.00 – 14.00 classes
14.00 – 16.00 break between classes (what can I do here, e.g., plan a project, go to the library, do shopping, etc.)
17.00 – 18.00 exercises
19.00 -22.00 studying + working on the project.
23.00 sleep
The next day can be planned completely differently, but seeing it in the calendar you know what awaits you and you are able to anticipate the time and consequences of your actions. This is very helpful and motivating.
Approach a project that has already been started cyclically.
It can be slowly, but rhythmically.
Mobilize yourself to return to the topic once a day / once a week (just as you mobilize yourself to brush your teeth, go shopping, pay bills).
When inspiration is lacking, on autopilot, simply – sit down at your desk and take a step forward.
Work expands to fill the time available for its completion
To combat this, set yourself an "artificial" shorter deadline to complete the task. Imagine that the deadline is moved two days earlier than it actually is.
Put away your socials.
All social media are built in such a way that you cannot leave them. You click on one article, photo, status, only for another and another to appear immediately. These tools amazingly promote procrastination. When you have an hour or two to complete a project – put them out of your sight or close the tab on your monitor.
after each hour of work, you can reward yourself with 5 to 10 minutes on social media channels. Combining business with pleasure, but do not bend the time.
PERSEVERANCE is now a CRUCIAL issue.
Remember that once you start, once you see the first results – it is much easier to keep going.
That is the whole journey,
Give it a try.
Fingers crossed!
Sonia Ziemba Domańska
Academic Psychologist
