Why Do We Procrastinate? Why Is It Deeper Than You Think?

Written by: Gi Dhanoa

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Learn about the Ps of what we call the primary characteristics of ‘P Syndrome’, are you Procrastinating, Pretending or Punishing yourself? Let’s overturn the misconception of procrastination and its relationship with laziness or can’t be bothered attitude. Instead, we should understand what is really going on with your thought process and acknowledge what you have been ignoring!

What is P Syndrome? From working with our clients we began to realise a pattern emerging of the signs and characteristics related to making that tough decision or taking the necessary action in order to move forward toward success. There is no bias of who, when and how procrastination strikes. Even when working with very driven individuals and teams of senior level, there is always something that tends to hold us back, let's discuss these behaviours in a bit more detail below.

Procrastination

Procrastination can be summarised into delaying making a choice, decision or more importantly taking action. We want to explore a bit deeper what makes a decision tough or taking the first step of action challenging for you?

Let’s take a moment to reflect on a time we procrastinated last and which of the below would relate with your past behaviour and thoughts?

• Was it because the choices available were so misaligned with your values?

• Was the situation or subject making you feel stressed and overwhelmed?

• Or was it simply because you were afraid of getting it wrong?

Still not sure if you are a procrastinator? Why not take a procrastination quiz that can be found on Mind Tools website.

Top Tip – To break the cycle of procrastination firstly limit the options down. Secondly, list or pick your top two choices that you are most likely to move forward with and will feel proud of your accomplishment.

Pretending

Pretending is where we avoid altogether that we need to take responsibility and ownership on something that requires our attention. Denial or pretending about your involvement in a decision or action to be taken can be temporarily soothing. Avoidance often takes place when we feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar with a situation.

When you begin to pretend to yourself that your priorities are secondary, we tend to fill that key time with unimportant activities such as…

• Easy tasks on our success list of the day

• Social media browsing

• Netflix’s binge

• Engage in conversation or communication that could have waited

Top Tips – Positively challenge yourself to put your best early efforts to tackle the issues, pending decisions or actions from the start of your day.

Changing your approach to something and seeing it as an opportunity of growth, as opposed to an obstacle is a great way to strengthen your mindset.

Punishing

Punishing ourselves for a decision that we made or potentially did not make can become mental torture, where you begin to replay the scenario in your head with alternative outcomes. We would encourage you to stop punishing yourself with retrospective reflections of a choice you did or did not make. Instead, embrace where you are right now with it and go forth if there were learnings to be had from the decision.

‘There is value in every decision we make, more so when things don’t go according to plan’ - ublossom.weblossom

Top Tip – When retrospective reflections take over, grab a notebook and take a moment to express it all out via scribing them down. Before you close that notebook write down two things you are grateful for from the situation that has transpired.

Moving forward with Progress

The most important P of all is Progress! Striving for perfection can be detrimental in breaking momentum and an unrealistic milestone at times. Progress is often frowned upon or underestimated, as it is too slow in feeling and experience that success or accomplishment you want.

However, moving forward in a step-by-step approach is the one that serves us well in the long term. The best progress of all is acknowledgment and being honest with yourself when you are feeling stuck, overwhelmed or stressed with a task or situation.

Some questions to support you in making a quicker decision!

• Have you done your best and it’s time to move on and appreciate what you have achieved?

• Is it time to call in the one who can help excel it much more quickly?

• Are you struggling as it just doesn’t excite you?

• Is your environment and lack of inspiration part of why you are not feeling the right energy?

• Are you simply being too hard on yourself?

Learn more about how ublossom.weblossom can help you with overcoming procrastination and any characteristics featured in this article by reading our feature article from last month.