Do You Procrastinate, or Have You Just Developed Lazy Habits?

Do you procrastinate? Or, are you just guilty of lazy habits? There may be days where you can easily work ten hours without even stopping for a break. But there are other days when you procrastinate the day away and barely put any effort in at all. You probably feel bad about it, too. We all do.

How can we not when society demonizes procrastination? It’s something that we all do, but ultimately, it is a time bandit. That doesn’t mean you’re lazy. It could mean that you have some bad habits, though.

Some people have difficulty managing their time so. If that’s you and you take on extra work and can’t finish it, it looks as though you are lazy. So, you may constantly hear people tell you that you procrastinate or that you’re lazy, and nothing could be further from the truth.

According to a poll of office workers, despite working an 8-hour workday or longer, the average employee is productive for just under three hours a day. So, maybe you’ve convinced yourself that you’re a procrastinator and now you realize that’s not the case. That’s great! However, let’s look at the habits and behaviors of procrastinators.

Productive

It is possible for procrastinators to be highly productive. The secret to getting stuff done is, well, doing it. But here’s the thing. Procrastinators aren’t doing nothing, they’re just doing everything except for what they are supposed to be doing. And so at the end of the day, it’s not that you don’t have anything to show for it, it’s just that you have the wrong things to show

You can do a great deal of work, but how efficient are you if you didn’t do the right work? Or, you brag about your ability to multitask, but really you’re doing low priority tasks and ignoring the urgent and important ones. Procrastinators can get a lot done because they’re avoiding deadlines.

Deadlines

Deadlines can create laser focus in just about anybody. You may have regularly pulled all-nighters and managed to get the grade you needed every time. That’s what procrastination does. You have no other choice but to get your head down and grind out a result. Instead of waiting for that point, plan your work accordingly. Prioritize your days and tackle the biggest tasks first.

Prioritize

If you know that you procrastinate, change your behavior to take advantage of it. You can’t finish your work if it’s because you over-commit and put off priorities too much. So, try this life hack. When your workday ends, write a list (no more than six) of the most important things to tackle the following day.

Prioritize that list appropriately and when your workday beings, focus on the first task. Don’t begin the second task until the first is fully complete and so on. That is something you can apply to your entire life. If there’s anything left on your list at the end of the day, it can go on your list for the following day. Still, no more than six items should feature on your list at any one time.

There may be a deeper issue to your procrastination problem. There’s a good reason that we see it as a negative trait. It slows you down and it can cost you money, too. Procrastination is a conscious effort to not be as efficient as you can be. Sometimes it is a case of being lazy, sometimes it’s because a particular task feels daunting. So just get it done and out of the way, don’t let it hold your day up.

You may procrastinate to cope with your stress; it may be due to finding your work boring; it could be due to depression. Sometimes the only solution is a change of scenery. Procrastinating doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re not being productive, you may be productive in the wrong way.

Whichever type of procrastination that you’re guilty of, you can overcome it by changing habits and behaviors.