Procrastination is to delay something, put it off and perhaps not get round to doing it at all. Often we justify the delay and do not recognise that we are procrastinating at all! In order to address the issue, we need to recognise that we are doing it in the first place! Most of us do it from time to time; some people much of the time!
Procrastination can be caused by laziness, lack of motivation, having the wrong goals, not wanting to do a particular task for whatever reason, a lack of clarity on what we have to do or not understanding how to make the task more manageable by breaking it down.
The reasons for the procrastination are often down to our mind-set. For example:
- We may not be comfortable or confident in what we need to do so we do nothing!
- We may not be sure how to start.
- We may be reluctant to get out of our comfort-zone if it is something unfamiliar!
- We may be reluctant to ask for help or clarification on what we need to do.
- We may be fearful of our ability to achieve a successful outcome.
- We may actually fear achieving a successful outcome as we may have to do something further if that is the case!
To overcome procrastination we need to look at the reasons for our procrastination. If it is to do with mind-set issues we may need help in getting rid of these ‘mental barriers’. We can work on these alone, but we are more likely to succeed if we have some kind of support network around us such as encouraging friends or family members, groups where we can work on our personal development or professionals who are used to helping people overcome their self-limiting beliefs.
For more information on beating procrastination, please feel free to come along to our free no-obligation taster session