How To Overcome Procrastination

Procrastination creates a huge obstacle for achieving goals, being successful, and managing your time. This can create numerous problems, both psychological and physiological. This behavior will tend to create higher levels of stress and anxiety which has negative effects on the nervous system and hormone level. It can also create feelings of inadequacy, low confidence, learned helplessness, and impulsiveness. Ultimately, procrastination is a bad habit that can be very hard to break and will create a downward spiral in both your personal and professional life.

 

However, there is a positive side to this seemingly disastrous behavior. This new strategy on how to overcome procrastination is sure to wow you. Laziness and short term thinking were beneficial to the evolution of humans. Laziness developed as a way of preserving energy and time, and the avoidance of labor was necessary for short term survival when food was at a low. Short term thinking is also advantageous when dealing with day-to-day survival, and more developed countries lack pressure on short term survival and rewards long term thinking and strategies.

 

So how do you overcome this habit, or turn it into a useful strategy? Well think about this, why not procrastinate on things that are bad for you?

 

Procrastinate on sitting on the couch and watching t.v., procrastinate on eating that extra donut, on smoking that cigarette.

 

It is up to you to choose on what you procrastinate on, you have the power to change this behavior around and make it beneficial for you. If it is a habit that is deeply rooted in your genes, then all you can do is reframe it and use it to your advantage.

 

So next time you are thinking of putting off that report, that college paper, that important phone call, tell yourself to procrastinate on the thing you would rather do instead. Get used to delayed gratification, you have a choice now make the right one!