How procrastinating could actually be affecting your mental well-being as well as your productivity.

Procrastination … We all do it don’t we? We all put off doing things we don’t like, things we don’t want to really do. We all procrastinate!

Sometimes our procrastination is driven by more than just not wanting to do stuff though, sometimes the real root of procrastination is our fear of the repercussions of doing something, or perhaps we even fear judgement from others if we do something that may seem unpopular.

Whether it’s tasks at work or in business, difficult situations that need dealing with, ignoring illness symptoms, avoiding difficult conversations, putting off life decisions (big and small) changing habits we know would make a difference, the list could go on.

There is absolutely no doubt procrastination is a bugger, and it’s more common than you might think.

Now here’s the kicker … we procrastinate to avoid something, whether that’s the physical doing or the feeling the doing might bring but then we kick ourselves! We berate ourselves, we regret the time wasted through procrastinating, and many of us even start to panic as deadlines loom, or worse yet we risk losing opportunities altogether.

Procrastination can have a huge impact on not just our productivity, but our actual life and our self esteem  

Now, if you want some motivation on kicking that procrastination habit, consider some of these:

Your time is precious

Ever stopped to think about how much time you waste procrastinating? How many times have you said life is too short and yet how many times have you put life off?

The thing with procrastination is that, while you are doing it, nothing is changing, but time is still moving. And then all you get is the feeling of regret. 

There is nothing worse than feeling frustrated at yourself, knowing that things could have been different if only you had taken a step.

Opportunities missed?

What about those opportunities you didn’t take advantage of or missed because you were procrastinating about whether you could or should?

What if one of those opportunities could have been life changing. Opportunities are the world’s way of giving you more, so do yourself a favour and grab them with both hands as soon as they present themselves.

Do you have goals in life?

Procrastination comes in all its glory when we have goals to change or we want to achieve something. We set goals because we want to better ourselves but so often procrastination means we don’t take the first step, we don’t move forward, we don’t achieve all we hope for … and then we tell ourselves we can’t, we’ll never be able to, and we chip away at our self confidence and our belief in our dreams for our better life.

The impact on your self esteem

The vicious circle of procrastination is that with every task, goal, or action we don’t move forward on, our self-esteem takes a knock.

But low self-esteem makes us feel that we won’t be able to get a task, project or goal done in the right way, so we procrastinate, leading us to doubt ourselves more.

When our self-esteem is low, we hold ourselves back, we feel unworthy, we begin to self-sabotage.

Procrastination eats away at our self-confidence slowly but surely and so the vicious circle is in full speed.

Does procrastinating affect your mental health?

It is increasingly believed that among the effects of procrastination are mental health problems such as stress and anxiety, which can in turn link to physical health issues and affect other areas of your life.

Procrastination can absolutely stress you out, especially when you can see it and the effect it is having but don’t know what to do about it. 

The effects of procrastination may not seem all that bad at first, but over time, those effects can build, leading to further stress, anxiety, broken dreams, and low self-esteem. Instead of letting procrastination take hold, take the time to develop time management techniques to help you deal with it when it appears.

Of course, on the surface it seems so simple to fix procrastination. Ultimately you just have to do the thing. Oh, if only it were that simple!

The reasons we procrastinate vary from person to person and situation to situation. Some psychology studies suggest procrastination runs in families; some suggest it’s a lifelong trait.

But like anything in life if you have an awareness of a behaviour or trait that is not serving you well, you can learn to manage it. You can learn tactics that help you move forward.

Here are the most common reasons I hear and see for why we procrastinate, and simple tips on how to deal with it:

1. The task itself isn’t actually urgent.

There is always so much to do, and then something else comes along and adds itself to the to do / should do list!

But truthfully that task isn’t that urgent … or perhaps just isn’t that important to you after all.

But other stuff is. There’s things happening right in front of us. There can be so much noise that it can be hard to prioritise what is or isn’t truly urgent.

We all have things we never get around to, so then other stuff sits at the bottom of the list forever …. Whether it’s important or not? 

The present is right here in our face, and truthfully the present is all that really matters.

So, take a moment to look at the bigger picture, if there is something on your list that you simply keep procrastinating on, step back and ask yourself… 

What would it mean for your life if you made this happen? How important is it to you?

Identify whether it is or isn’t urgent and if it isn’t .. and it’s also not important, don’t procrastinate further, free yourself with a choice not to complete the task.

If it is important, find motivation in the importance and the difference it will make and make a decision to get it done.

2. We don’t know where to start or what to do next.

Often we can find ourselves procrastinating because we simply don’t know what to do first to make progress. We feel overwhelmed, confused, disorganised and can’t quite see the wood for the trees so we avoid.

This is more about avoiding the emotion that those feelings are creating for us than the task itself. Who likes to feel overwhelmed or confused? 

No one likes to feel incompetent, unable, silly, so we simply divert attention elsewhere and do something else.

Perhaps we are looking for divine inspiration. This is actually called productive procrastination and its more common than you might realise.

Firstly, acknowledge it’s ok to feel overwhelmed, don’t fight that feeling. It happens to the best of us, but the way to move past overwhelm is to break the task down, ask for help from someone you trust or respect or perhaps even know has worked through something similar.

Do what gets you going … be that the fun bit or the worst bit so it’s done, gather some momentum, it can make a heck of a difference.

Truthfully the most common reason we procrastinate is because we are afraid of failure.

So many of us have been conditioned, in the most correct of intentions, to always give our best, that failing is a bad thing and we should not let it happen. It’s just not true.

Perfection and procrastination are intrinsically linked and are a dangerous combination!

Fear of what others might think if we don’t deliver perfectly or aren’t up to scratch can, and does, hold so many in a state of paralysis. We can find ourselves in a cycle of ‘nothing is good enough’ and most of us would rather simply not step forward than face the perceived consequences of ‘failing.’

Somewhere along the line we have inherited beliefs that our self-worth is tied to performance. In particular perfect performance.

Stop and take time to remember the difference between who you are and what you achieve. You are so much more than your accomplishments.

We are all works in progress, learning all the time, and the best way to learn in life is to ‘fail.’ 

See setbacks as an opportunity to review, learn, grow and evolve. Ask yourself what one thing you can learn from your mistake, your setback, and then get going in some small way.

It can be so tempting to sit in the feeling of failing, not being good enough and do nothing, but the best way to convince yourself that you have not failed, is to show yourself proof of what you can do, take one small step forward, this can work wonders for your positive attitude and your confidence and pushes that procrastination back to the side.

Procrastination is a tough one to solve, it takes time, awareness, and a true desire to want to overcome it. But if you’re willing to truly acknowledge why you are procrastinating, you can put simple actions in place and with a little bit of consistent effort you can absolutely overcome your procrastinations and take great steps forward.

Shelley Bosworth is a qualified Personal Performance Life Coach specialising in Women’s Mindset coaching.

She works with women who are ready to take action and no longer feel stuck, overwhelmed, and disillusioned but instead want to reclaim control of their lives, regain their confidence and take confident, guilt free action towards their goals for a better life.

See here for more info on Shelley’s services.