Why Do We Procrastinate and How Do We Stop it

Posted on March 01, 2013 by Erin Yates, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

The dreaded procrastination, the polar opposite to the more desirable motivation, a state of being that eliminates our effectiveness and then we feel guilty about doing it. Everyone has, at one time or another, aimlessly squandered their time in order to avoid completing some sort of task or to skirt an issue that needs to be addressed. Instead of berating yourself about not doing what you are supposed to; why not turn inward to investigate why you are ignoring what you feel you should be accomplishing in the first place. We procrastinate because what we are holding off on doing is tied to some sort of negative belief either about the action that should occur or about ourselves. The fact that you don’t want to wash the dishes shouldn’t come as a surprise, as it is not a particularly enjoyable task for most people, and instead you are window shopping on the internet to waste time. On the flip side, motivation comes from aligning what you want and your internal beliefs about what you desire. Is having a very tidy living space important to you or is it a task you have assigned yourself due it is a self-imposed rule?
Next time your find yourself procrastinating on a project, examine why. Is this action that I am hesitating on something that I need to do as a step to accomplish a larger goal? Is reaching the end result truly important to me? For example, you are desperately unhappy at your current place of employment and you promised yourself that you must start the job search immediately. The resume gets updated as does the cover letter, yet when it comes time to actually search job postings and submit your resume you drag your feet and watch trashy television shows for several hours (we’ve all been guilty of that). Could this procrastination be tied to your beliefs that you won’t be able to obtain a better job or the fear of putting yourself out there and not succeeding? Our subconscious beliefs are very powerful and can effect our conscious thoughts and actions. These buried fears and unresolved feelings create amotivation or lack of direction which leads to procrastination.

Putting a mental framework as to why we are procrastinating is a strategy to be more forgiving for the our actions (or in this instance, inactions) as well as getting to the root of the issue. Once the cause has been identified, the belief then can be corrected, direction can be clarified, and a decrease in procrastination behaviors will follow. As you become more adept at drilling down and figuring out the source of your actions, the easier and generally faster you get to create what you want. When you are creating what you truly want those feelings of self-condemnation diminish. Just make sure you still allow yourself some time for mindless television viewing.