While we often equate procrastination with ‘laziness’, it really couldn’t be further from the truth. Laziness is an avoidance of effort – a strong reluctance to do something because you think it’s “too hard”. Procrastination, on the other hand, is a division of focus. Rather than avoiding the effort altogether, you channel that energy and motivation into other tasks instead of the one at hand.

What might start off as a nonchalant “I’ll do this instead” can quickly spiral out of control into an ever-increasing backlog of new and incomplete tasks - spanning a matter of weeks, months, or even longer - until eventually – it’s too late. You find yourself sitting the day before the deadline with a barely – if at all – started task wondering why you didn’t start sooner.

So how do we get past this ever-imposing obstacle?

Ultimately, the most important thing in beating procrastination is self-discipline – knowing exactly what you need to do and planning accordingly. This may seem overtly obvious and quite daunting, but by identifying a few simple, key steps in the process, it becomes ridiculously easy.

1. Distance yourself from distraction

The first step towards avoiding procrastination is to distance yourself from any and all potential distractions around you. The mere presence of non-essential items – technology, in particular – steals our attention away from important tasks, and is quite often the root cause of unwanted delays. Clearing the space you’ll be working in allows us to keep our focus on the task at hand, and minimise distraction.

2. Identify your time sinks

A clear workspace doesn’t always mean a clear mind. Often, after we've emptied the space around us, we find ourselves endlessly occupied with "time sinks" - tasks that end up taking up most of our time with very little return. This traps us in the illusion of being productive, causing us to lower our guard towards upcoming deadlines and leaving us in a panicked flurry towards the end.

While time sinks vary greatly among individuals, some of the most common ones include: checking emails, social media, long bathroom breaks, etc. One extremely common time sink that is often overlooked is multitasking. While the act of multitasking in and of itself can, a lot of the time, be a good thing, focusing on too many things at once spreads your focus thin and can quickly become overwhelming. It is important to focus on tasks individually and to completion to avoid getting stuck.

3. Have a clear schedule/plan

Another reason we find ourselves sinking into procrastination is because we sometimes struggle with knowing what exactly to do. A lack of a clear plan can leave us with the seemingly irreconcilable dilemma of where to start, eating away at our time and often causing us to actively seek out distractions.

It's important to stick to a schedule. Start by defining your timeframe, picking a clear beginning and end date, then fill the schedule with regular milestones. Schedules should be consistent - the effort required of each milestone should be fairly similar to establish a clear pattern of work that you can fall into and to avoid the possibility of being suddenly overwhelmed by an unexpectedly heavy load.

4. Starting small

Always make sure to start small. A very frequently seen mistake is trying to do too much all at once. Time and time again you will find that the seemingly insurmountable tasks are often easily conquered once broken down into smaller components. By breaking down these larger tasks into small steps and systematically taking them on one at a time, we end up spending our time doing a large amount of very simple problems, rather than a single impossible one.

At its core, procrastination is nothing more than a state of mind. By keeping ourselves clear of distractions and following a concrete schedule of small steps with tangible results, we can make sure we stay out of our own heads and ultimately stay productive.

Published 4 April 2021