From Tomorrow To Today : Defeating The Procrastination Paradox

Most of the time, we find ourselves in trouble in completing our tasks within the deadline . If I tell you one of my personal experiences that I recently got , I faced a lot of trouble to get ready for my mathematics project .I got seven days for preparation but I was waiting for the last day. And that eventually took me under a lot of pressure the day before submission .

Procrastination means delaying or postponing tasks or activities intentionally . Often it is seen that people avoid tasks that need the most attention , effort or focus .They just try to delay this while doing the less important tasks . Though we know that these habits will cause a lot of pressure in future , still we cannot control ourselves from doing this .

In my opinion , procrastination is not just about delaying important tasks. I personally think that it happens because of fear of failure , poor time management and lack of motivation.

Shifting the focus : Tomorrow from Today : Imagine ,you are doing time travel and your future self is waiting for your present self to make the right choice .By thinking about yourself in future , you can only imagine what work should be prioritized. Only then you can imagine what will lead you to the best future self . Here comes the term , we have to shift our focus and make our brain prepared to work today , not tomorrow. 

Procrastination Paradox : The act of avoiding work may create short-term relief , but it creates long-term trouble .It’s a cycle of delaying tasks where our brain chooses easy work over hard work .But it leads to increase of stress, lower quality of work and a long time spent on this work .

Forms Of Procrastination : 

• Choosing instant pleasure : Our brain always wants to work less. It means , we choose short-term pleasure over long term benefits . For example , as I got 7 days to complete my project , I watched movies and series for 6 days instead of working on a project  .

• Time Mismanagement : Though we understand the importance of the task , we lead to last minute rushes .

•  Want For Perfection : We cannot finish our assigned tasks in fear of making mistakes and wasting our time on silly things .

• Inability to Prioritize : Lack of choosing ability about work takes us into the procrastination paradox .

Ways to Overcome Procrastination : 

• Small & Affective Goals : We have to make small and effective goals and break them down into smaller parts . We have to try to do this small portion each day .

• Forget About Perfection : You know , it’s impossible to make any work perfect . It depends on others how they judge our work. So, instead of working on flawless results , we have to focus on progress.

• The Pomodoro Technique : Working on intervals such as- 25 minutes focused work and then  5 minutes break .

• Work with Partner : Working with groups or pair work sometimes helps to keep us on track .

• Visualize Results : Imagine the negative effects of procrastination and visualization of success motivate us to do work before time .

• Reward Yourself : Making a small to-do list and rewarding yourself after small achievements can help to overcome procrastination .

Procrastination can be luring at the first moment , but it can be dangerous in future .It can increase tension , decrease our quality at work and overall can take a lot of time to complete the task. To overcome procrastination ,firstly we need to prioritize what work is more important and we have to be careful about time management . That’s how maybe we can hope to come out from this procrastination paradox by turning our tasks from tomorrow to today .