Procrastination is one of the things we all have in common.
It lies deep within us. And comes whenever we’re about to start working on something important, something big, that may make us a little more successful, a bit more experienced, but that also takes a certain amount of time and energy.
And that scares us.
And, again, we find ourselves putting off a task and switching to easier, simpler and quicker things to do that won’t make us that anxious or stressed.
But the more we put things off, the worse it gets. We become stressed and overburdened with thoughts about the task. And even though we’re doing something more enjoyable now, our mind is still focused on it.
Solving that problem starts by understanding what causes it.
And fear is mostly what lies behind us not doing the task right away.
Here is what scares us the most when it comes down to being productive and working on important stuff:
- We’re not familiar with the task.
That makes us feel insecure, we don’t know what to do and where to start.
- It causes discomfort.
It feels so much easier to open the browser and read some articles, check notifications or go to the other room and start doing something else now, rather than facing the task.
It’s easier to put it off and do something that you actually enjoy and won’t bring you so much stress or make you upset.
But as it turns out, that’s not an easier solution. Because anxiety increases and you don’t stop thinking about what needs to be done. You do that much more, actually - you fear the task, try hard to think of a way to finish it quickly. You can’t relax, not to mention to enjoy any other activity.
- You worry about not finishing it in time.
Ironically, you don’t even start any time soon. You just waste time on imagining the result and play the worst turnout of events.
But you can never know how that will end until you actually work on it and complete it. So without giving it a try, there’s no need for worries. It may be easier and quicker than you expected.
- You may fail.
Of course. That’s true for everything in life. But does it mean we should just stay at home and not try anything?
No. It means that we try. And if we fail, we just think of another way that may work better.
- It will take a lot of time.
Many times that’s why we don’t start in the first place.
And yes. Things take time. Especially the things we need to do in order to improve ourselves and our lifestyle.
But they don’t need to be dreadful. And you can always break them into smaller, manageable tasks. You can even make them so tiny that each part of the big project will be ridiculously simple and quick to do.
There are many other fears we come up with when we face our to-do list.
And all of them are the excuses our mind makes when it wants to escape from obligation and turn to something easier.
But the easier stuff causes you worries in the future. So you never actually escape.
We fear the task because we might fail, then we’ll feel bad about ourselves, others will see that, we may fail at other things too because of it, will get to nowhere, etc.
But if you think about it, all these are illusions. You will never know what can happen. And the only way to understand is to give it a try and just start working on the most important thing for the day.
Choose just one.
Start now.
Start small.
Leave everything else behind for now and focus on the task. It’s the only thing that’s essential now. And nothing else matters but starting.
Lidiya K. is a writer and blogger in the fields of self-improvement, life hacking, human potential and minimalism. She's the creator of Let's Reach Success , where her mission is to motivate and inspire and think of creative and unusual ways to overcome fear, procrastination, insecurity, clutter, failure, overthinking, discontent and much more.
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