Postpone The Important Things

Many people have the ability and capacities to succeed in any area of ​​life, however, they do not achieve success because they leave “everything for later.” They are an unfinished symphony, like Schubert’s (worth the comparison). Due to the simple or complex fact of postponing things day after day, the goals are not reached in a timely manner.

About 20% of workers today acknowledge that they are always behind in their tasks for various reasons, including lack of energy or motivation or interruptions of all kinds. Another large percentage indicates that they prefer to leave everything to the last minute because they act better under pressure and there are also those who trust themselves to be able to finish the task five minutes before delivery, without taking into account the unforeseen events that this may cause.

Procrastinating (delaying tasks) is not synonymous with not doing, but with doing other activities (which are not always more important) instead. Whether at work, at home, or at university, the urgent is postponed quite a bit and the irrelevant is given space. From playing with the mobile phone to watching television, to checking email to drinking coffee several times a day, there are many things we do to, worth the redundancy, not “do” what we should.

It is therefore necessary to make a list with the tasks and as if it were a “ranking”, write down the most urgent to the least important (from 1 to 10 for example) with a number. For those who suffer from procrastination, doing tasks that are irrelevant or that do not “add up” to the goal is the same as not finishing or even starting with what is due.

Laziness is not beneficial to health. And the problem is that it is present in all areas, not only professionally. For example, someone who waits until the last day to pay an invoice even though they have the money for a week or someone who has to do a paperwork and arrives at the office five minutes before it closes. In some sectors it has greater incidents, although it mostly brings problems with the environment, especially if you have someone proactive, organized and who never leaves anything for later.

Delaying tasks in the to-do column creates more amounts of stress. In addition, these people are very likely to engage in arguments or fights with the wife, parents, co-workers, the boss, friends, etc. Stress, as we already know, affects our health and its consequences. In the case of laziness, it increases because the person is more sleepy, has a headache, does not have the energy to work, etc.

If you usually tell some (or all) of these lies, it is because you have a procrastination problem:

-You overestimate the motivation you will have the next day or next week, when you think that task will be done
– You overestimate the time you have left to do certain tasks
-You underestimate the hours you need to complete an activity
– You mistakenly think that the Success depends on being willing or willing to do things –
You incorrectly believe that work is not optimal when you are not motivated

The good news is that procrastination can be modified, even if it is a deeply ingrained habit, that is, for a long time. If you have a tendency to delay commitments or leave everything to the last minute, remember that you were not born that way. There may be certain behaviors in the family that have allowed you to shape your personality in that way, but nothing that cannot be “redone” or “undone.” You have the ability to learn new patterns of behavior.

Keep in mind that this habit will not be eliminated overnight, it will require practice and above all, commitment. Some interesting strategies:

* Make a list of daily tasks
* Write a statement of intentions, with the premise of “just for today”
* Be realistic in your objectives
* Divide tasks and goals to do them more efficiently
* Promise a reward for accomplishing
* Determine the just or more exact time possible that you need to do the homework.

Photo courtesy of Soloviova Liudmyla