Procrastination… Probably the worst enemy of productivity

Posted By Pankaj on December 3, 2007
Filed Under Productivity

…And I think everyone gets victimized by this habit of procrastination from time to time. What is it and why people end up doing it? As I understand, procrastination is keep postponing or putting off the work which needs to be done now. Why we procrastinate? Reasons could be anything but some of the prominent reasons which I can think from top of my head could be …

- Not many ideas of doing the work hence not able to decide how to go about it
- Too many ideas of doing the same work and not able to decided which way to go about it.
- Waiting for the right mood or right time to arrive
- Too many distractions or other type of attractions around you
- Trying to be a perfectionist (Trying to do the work in the most perfect way and hence not completing it)
- Too busy in doing things which are not so important
- Task is too big that is can not be done in given time
- Task is too small and can be done anytime
- Not enough skills to do the job
- Not motivated enough to do the task

There could be many more and probably different reasons for different persons. For me, number 5 (Perfectionism) is the biggest culprit but other contributes (in negativity, of-course) as well.

How do we overcome this habbit of ours? I would say that the most important thing in overcoming the procrastination is the realization of its existence. Once that done, you could find the reason of it and then take appropriate steps to fight it out. For example, break down the big tasks in smaller ones, acquire skills to do the job, make a list of all tasks needing attention and prioritize them in sequence of their importance, finish the job first and then later worry about making it perfect, take a break and get away with distractions (attractions elsewhere) and the list goes on and on…

Feel free to share your experiences by posting comments….

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