Family mentoring week 8: “I’ll do it tomorrow” and other excuses for putting things off!

Week 8 for Martin and Liz saw them tackling one of their biggest challenges yet! PROCRASTINATION! Yes it sounds like a condition that you should seek medical attention for, but it is in fact defined as-

PROCRASTINATION: putting off or delaying or deferring an action to a later time.

Sounding familiar to you? If I were a betting woman I would put money on the fact that you have all done this at some point, with some tasks or conversations that you don’t want to tackle! But I would also put money on the fact that, like Martin and Liz, you have no understanding of why you are doing this or how to stop doing this. And only after the fact, when you have done it (stressed, pushed for time and in the wrong mindset) do you look and see the impact that this procrastination has on your life and on your whole family!!

Generally when people put something off we brand them as lazy or unable to manage their time!! WRONG!! Many people who procrastinate are busy people who are more than capable of creating and using a to-do-list while working, running a home, maintaining relationships and bringing up children – exactly like Martin, Liz and many of you reading this! The most common causes of procrastination are fear of the unknown, fear of a negative outcome, perfectionism, and even rebellion but combined with all of this it is often that the delayed tasks are ones that people perceive to be unpleasant.So the key to understanding why people procrastinate is:

FEAR + THINKING THE TASK WILL BE UNPLEASANT = PROCRASTINATION!!

And the more you do it, the better you become at justifying these things to yourselves and so it becomes a HABIT! (it’s amazing how many of our behaviours, positive and negative, all come back to HABIT!!!)

SO to stop procrastinating you need to break this habit (behaviour) and create new habits (behaviours)! Whether this is in starting fitness or healthy eating, changing jobs, speaking your mind, DIY, relationship issues or any of the other tasks in life that it is so easy to say “I will do it tomorrow” about! So here’s our top 5 tips to stop procrastinating

• Set a Schedule. It’s easy to forget to do something, or to avoid doing something if you’re not holding yourself responsible at the end of the day.

• Break your Tasks Apart. Sometimes you’ll find yourself procrastinating because the task at hand seems too large. Smaller tasks quickly become more manageable!!

• Just Do It. (because the advert was actually right!!) When it comes to little tasks, take the “do it now” mindset. Little things quickly mount up to big things! Stop allowing yourself to save things for later.

• Set Yourself a Deadline. When you have one particular task that you need to get done, don’t leave anything up in the air. Set a firm deadline that you must stick to and be responsible for meeting it.

• Set Achievable Goals. If you try to pack too much into one day, your body and mind will fight it with procrastination! On your journey to overcoming procrastination make sure you schedule in time for you to relax too, you don’t want to burn out!!

Just think how much more time you will have in life when you give up putting off the things you find unpleasant and how this extra time will impact on you, your family, your health and your stress levels! So stop thinking “I will do it tomorrow” and start thinking “Tomorrow I am looking forward to.....................” Enjoy your extra time!!

4 Comments

Posted by Benny Howe on 13 October 2011

Hey Kate, Great post! Procrastination affects us all, and anyone who denies it is probably fibbing lol Love it! :)

Posted by Tommy on 10 October 2011

Tomorrow is always Tomorrow and Never TODAY !!. I was guilty of this putting off strategy and your right Kate "Just Do It" because they small tasks do become large ones by the end of the week.....

Posted by Ross on 10 October 2011

Fantastic blog Kate, yes we all put things tomorrow but before we know it the small things that we put forward turn into a massive to do list which means our lives are all over the place, but here at KDS we deal with everything as it comes so we can get through our days as smoothly as possible!!

Posted by Alison Gilbert on 10 October 2011

Love the Five Top Tips and lessons to take in board.A great time management tool.

Add your comment