Procrastination.

19/12/2018

Have you ever felt in your life that you are somehow getting down day by day as compared to others? Have you ever felt that you are not able to approach your goals/aims in life? If yes, then have you tried to note down the points which brings you down? If, not then you should do it as soon as possible as you are the one who can have control on your own self.

Recently a survey claimed that maximum people nowadays are unable to achieve the goals they aim, though having the capacity. There were many reasons found out with the help of surveys including lack of determination, motivation etc. But one of the major reason behind this was found out to be procrastination. Let me first explain you what is basically procrastination in brief.

Procrastination is referred to an act of delaying or postponing a task or set of tasks. So, in short we can say that it is the force that prevents you from following through on what you set out to do.

Ok , definitions are great and all, but do we procrastinate? What is going on in brain that causes us to avoid the things we know we should be doing?

Here we need to bring some science in our discussion.

Behavioural psychology  research has revealed a phenomenon called “time inconsistency,” which helps explain why procrastination seems to pull us in despite our good intentions. Time inconsistency refers to the tendency of human brain to value immediate rewards more highly than future rewards.

Researchers have found out that when you think about your future self , it is quite easy for your brain to see the value in taking actions with the long term benefits.

The Future Self values long-term rewards. However, while the Future Self can set goals, only the Present Self can take action. When the time comes to make a decision, you are no longer making a choice for your Future Self. Now you are in the present moment, and your brain is thinking about the Present Self. Researchers have discovered that the Present Self really likes instant gratification, not long-term payoff.So, the Present Self and the Future Self are often at odds with one another. This is one reason why you might go to bed feeling motivated to make a change in your life, but when you wake up you find yourself falling back into old patterns. Your brain values long-term benefits when they are in the future (tomorrow), but it values immediate gratification when it comes to the present moment (today).

Now the question arises that how to stop procrastinating?

Recently I read the “The Ivy Lee method”  which may help you out to get out of this :

1. At the end of each work day, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks.

2. Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance.

3. When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.

4. Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.

5. Repeat this process every working day.

This method is found out to be most simplest method to for increasing the productivity. Hence, it would help you out with procrastination.

-Parth Thakkar.