Are you a procrastinator? Always? Sometimes?
I am sometimes. I keep rolling the unwanted task from week to week or month to month until I finally do it or give up attempting to do it. I have analyzed why I procrastinate with some things, and it boils down to feeling pressure to do something where I am unsure (often around technology) and resent having to change or learn something new. I’m basically resisting myself. When I finally push myself myself to face an unwanted task, I make myself do it first–before I do anything else. That way, the resentful feeling is replaced by one of relief when it’s over and done. I often wonder why I waited so long.
Writer Sue Shellenbarger offered her take on procrastination in the January 8, 2014 edition of the Wall Street Journal: To End Procrastination, Look to the Science of Mood Repair. “Often, procrastinators attempt to avoid the anxiety or worry aroused by a tough task with activities aimed at repairing their mood,” she writes. “Increasingly, psychologists and time-management consultants are focusing on a new strategy: helping procrastinators see how attempts at mood repair are sabotaging their efforts and learn to regulate their emotions in more productive ways.”
When you procrastinate, what’s your solution?
