A Post About Procrastination and How to Stop It

I metaphorically squeezed my entire brain trying to come up with a topic for today’s blog. It was only then that I realized I have been putting it off for too long since Saturday. And now, it’s Tuesday. And I can’t make a fair excuse because, even though I’m good at making excuses, doing them doesn’t make me more of the person I want myself to be.

So I want to talk about procrastination. Cause I realized that I have been doing that for these past few days.

Procrastination is doing other seemingly unimportant things to postpone or delay doing the important things you should be doing. And I really do procrastinate a lot.

There are two parts in your brain, I think, the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex, that are battling out on convincing which thing you should choose to do first. In the limbic system, your thoughts are specifically more on doing things that could give you immediate satisfaction, whereas in the prefrontal cortex, thoughts are basically more on the important stuff that could take you more time to get that satisfaction you wanted.

It’s not an easy task because the limbic system always wins since it is closer to the pleasure center of our brain as compared to the prefrontal cortex. That’s why people tend to procrastinate a lot and we shouldn’t blame ourselves for that because there’s always a scientific explanation.

I have my own methods of procrastination whenever I want something of great significance to get done. I usually sleep but I don’t think it counts as one. Then, there’s watching movies/video clips/series that I’ve already watched (I don’t know, maybe I’m just weird like that). I also tend to do the groceries, but it’s mostly about the food. And also eating after I’m done with my groceries. There’s also doing the laundry very thoroughly. And, sometimes, cleaning the house (which has now become an impossibility because I’m lazy like that).

Each of us has different methods of procrastination but how do we stop them?

Unless we can remove our limbic system or rearrange the parts of our brain, we can only prevent procrastination by an unflinching and unwavering determination (which is hard to come by, I swear). We need to instill on our minds that even though we don’t enjoy finishing the task we should finish (“bibo kids” are an exception though), we know we would gain something beneficial in the end. For example, completing your deliverables at work on time. You either get your boss’ positive recognition (unless the work you’ve done is wrong) or you get to spend more time with yourself or with your friends. It’s quite challenging but it’s what’s productive. Find yourself a good break to do the things your limbic system craves to do by not overstepping the important stuff.

Back when I was just studying, I always had this goal that whenever I’d finish reading ten pages or a chapter of the book, I could get to enjoy checking the updates on Twitter for a mere five minutes. It was hard but, hey, I survived.

Another way to stop procrastinating is to identify all the kinds/methods of procrastination you specifically have and reduce their tangibility (i.e., turning off your internet connection just so you could finish your work rather than wasting time browsing on social media sites).

So that’s it, I guess. That’s what procrastination really is and how you can stop it, if not, be able to reduce the amount of time you procrastinate. But I think some of you have already failed, eh? Because you’re reading this post when you’re meant to be working (winks).

Over and out.