Procrastination - A Hindrance To Success?

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by Anusha2917, May 22, 2021.

  1. Anusha2917

    Anusha2917 IL Hall of Fame

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    This is general discussion thread on procrastination.
    Reason I am posting is I find myself procrastinating a lot. Not something which is recent but from a few years (3 4 years I can say, increased multifold after I quit job and decided to take a break and concentrate on my fertility treatment). Now I find this as my enemy. Maybe I was like this from my child hood (because I remember instances where I used to do the HW just before going to school , but studies I always studied before hand and never rushed through ,anyway that's the childhood and it's the past)but now I believe it's never too late to improvise and be a better version of Myself..
    All this Googling on this topic hasn't helped me. So looking for your experiences on this topic.
    Few questions :
    1) Have you procrastinated any time? If yes have you figured out why you do that?
    2) Was it short term procrastination or long term? What changes you did to change that habit?
    3) do you have a routine? Do you follow that routine? Has that routine bored you? Has tweaking the routine helped you?
    4) how do you set boundaries like say mobile usage? And what motivated you to stick to that?

    Just some questions which came to my mind.
    You don't have to answer all questions.
    But what I'm looking for is generic tips to overcome procrastination.
     
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  2. amulya2020

    amulya2020 Silver IL'ite

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    Yes, most of the times. All I can say is I feel more better by
    1)preparing a to do list daily basis, nowadays I’m trying for weekly or monthly depending on my interest.

    2) prioritizing things - working on things based on priority

    3) starting with accomplishing the smaller portion of goals or completing smaller part of bigger task.
     
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  3. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN A DAY.
    SOME WORK Has TO BE DONE ON WAR FOOTING LIKE VACCINATION OF ENTIRE GLOBAL POPULATION. Here procrastination is a disaster. But then you see how world nations move ahead. A set of people constantly criticise brooding over past lapses will not deter in determination of those in charge battling against.

    TRICK IS TO DIVIDE THE WORK INTO SMALLER FRAGMENTS AND ATTEND TO IT A LITTLE NOTWITHSTANDING AN IOTA OF PROGRESS.


    DAILY MAKE A LITTLE PROGRESS A BEAUTIFUL SYMMETRY CONSTRUCTED IN TWENTY YEARS - THE WORLD FAMOUS TAJ DREAM COME TRUE - a burial place for MUMTAZ.

    Many a times, person tend to procrastinate for various reasons.
    It could be out of anxiety neurosis. It could be due to enormity of the size of work. It may even be fear of failure!

    It could be too much to do in too short a time .

    A Mind filled with crisis simply goes blank foreclose planning- says GTH* & prefers to sit idle in comfort zone. But largely it is out of sheer inertia or call laziness or sloth.

    A leaf must be taken out of Multi-tasking-mothers who should be observed sharp. There is a learning from working mothers who ride two horses simultaneously with ease without showing any sign of tiredness. Some are born indefatigable.

    But then there are success stories granting credit to the habit of procrastination.

    Since lock down began, it was expected absence of maid and cook. House Lady was famished. She was postponing the cooking. But husband began preliminaries. And lo few hours later, both cook & maid turned up simultaneously. They said they got vaccinated and that ensued delay and arrived for task late. House lady was happy for procrastinating. Quite a lot of her energy & efforts stands saved. Only lunch delayed by a couple of hours.

    During World War Two, two brothers elder A & younger B. A was drafted to army to fight the enemy. Hard working taking good care of elders. B filled to brim with inertia never took to studies seriously. Dad told B “ see because of your elder brother A, we are able to eke out. You are boozing all the time and accumulating house full of empty bottles. B in response told that one day he would be very rich and would protect every member of the family. War was in full swing. A was injured and legs amputated.

    As (ILL) luck would have it, there was great demand for glass bottles in army factories for making certain type of bombs for which glass splinters needed. B had over ten thousand beer & Whiskey bottles and got huge amounts for it in black. Overnight he turned rich and could fulfil his promise to dad!


    *GTH = Go To Hell
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2021
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  4. Needtobestrong

    Needtobestrong Platinum IL'ite

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    Yes, I’ve faced issues due to procrastination.
    Mostly it’s due to a lack of free time and no proper routine since past year and a half since lockdown., and depression due to personal issues..hope to keep my mind focused soon.
    There are many motivational videos on YouTube where successful people explain how they’re able to concentrate for many hours to study and achieve their goals.
     
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  5. Anusha2917

    Anusha2917 IL Hall of Fame

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    Thank you.
    I'm a to do list person. But not finishing the tasks/carry forward the tasks to next day is kind of stressing me out or demotivating entirely to write the to do list.
    I have never tried a to do list monthly and weekly. Will try that.
    Priorities confuses me I guess. Sometimes taking too much on my plate could be the reason to not finish the tasks on a daily basis. If I go back and assess my to do lists I still feel it's doable .
    Your point number 3 , I need to adopt that..

    Thank you for the pointers:)
     
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  6. Anusha2917

    Anusha2917 IL Hall of Fame

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    Thank you Sir. The story in the last para brought a smile on my face.. :)
     
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  7. amulya2020

    amulya2020 Silver IL'ite

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    Yes that happens with me too, missing /not completing a task sometimes might give a sense of discomfort or demotivation.

    May be we should be too hard on ourselves and May be it’s better to give a break once in a while. Unless if the task is too important or going to have any major impact.

    Regarding prioritizing, we can’t generalize and majorly depends on situations and we have to make decisions accordingly. But categorizing things like important and urgent, important but not urgent, not important nor urgent might help.
     
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  8. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    Both in domestic arena and in office, there is a need to continuously prioritise and reprioritise as more and more task are added to the existing functions.
    One has to do ABC analysis & SWOT and attend to work accordingly. There is a need to know when to delegate and what to delegate among the available help in terms of manhours. Goal setting & determination might help to overcome procrastination.

    A friend of mine was told to meet minister X on a day and time which slightly overlapped with inauspicious zone of the day. It was Friday. Being orthodox, dad advised him to leave the house to meet him after the Rahukalam. Accordingly friend left home immediately after 12 noon and when reached minister’s home, the watchman at gates told him that minister Sir was all along at home waiting for rahukalam to end and then left for another city for a meeting.

    A reason for procrastination!
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2021
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  9. Anusha2917

    Anusha2917 IL Hall of Fame

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    Lol. This is funny. Honestly we should not see all this unless it's an important function like one's wedding or something like that.
    But here elders do that. I have become villain many times as I have challenged their decision of seeing auspicious time.
     
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  10. Srama

    Srama Finest Post Winner

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    Hey Anusha,

    I just finished reading a book
    "Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
    Book by James Clear" that speaks of how to change our habits - a quick read or listen and some chapters are more useful than others. If I recall something like 7,8 and 12.....I found the book quite interesting.
    I think it might be worth giving it a try!
     

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