Why people procrastinate and simple ways to stop it

Everyone procrastinates but some could admit to more than others.

Although the occasional put-off errand might not have an immediate impact, chronic procrastination can cause serious problems in one’s personal and professional life.
According to the Wall Street Journal, studies show that procrastination is, at its heart, an emotional issue.

Procrastinators voluntarily delay, even when they know there could be and probably will be negative consequences.

Studies show procrastinators delay to feel better, even though they will feel worse as time goes on. This behavior is related to impulsiveness, rather than perfectionism or anxiety.

Piers Steel, an organizational-behavior professor at the University of Calgary, says that highly impulsive people have a hard time experiencing strong emotion and they shut down when they feel anxiety. By comparison, people low in impulsiveness see anxiety as a cue to get going.

In other cases, the problem is that some people have a hard time picturing their future self and understanding how putting off something today can hurt them down the road. Scientists call this temporal myopia, and not having the benefit of this emotional connection to the future self keeps the focus on more immediate concerns.

Solving the issue
Becoming less of a procrastinator should incorporate two separate strategies: time management and addressing the emotional aspect.

According to the productivity influencer Michael Hyatt, these time management strategies are key:
– Tackle the most difficult task first
– Divide the task into smaller tasks
– Set a mid-day alarm
– Dedicate yourself for a short period of time
– Schedule your tasks on the calendar

You can also address the emotional aspects of procrastination:
– Forgive yourself for previous procrastination
– Set up mini-goals and reward yourself for accomplishing them.
– Set up micro-costs for things that distract you like requiring a password before surfing the web