Procrastination -
   THE INDISCIPLINE OF TIME, MONEY OR RELATIONSHIPS.
     
         By Mrs Olubola Adeleye.
                               💦

Procrastination. Pronounced as:
[proh-kras-tuh-ney-shuh n, pruh‐]

Dictionary defined it as, the act or habit of procrastinating, or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention:

A Procrastinator is someone who delays or puts off doing something for tomorrow.
When you delay in doing something, you are procrastinating.

Who procrastinates!  I think everyone is guilt of this. Many people have a problem of procrastination at home, work, business and school.

I procrastinate as well sometimes. I will show you how to identify procrastination by giving you examples.

I will tell you the reasons why people procrastinate in their lives.

Finally, I'm going to teach you strategies I use, to conquer procrastination.

You need to know that, procrastination will cost you something. So you have a choice to either to stop procrastinating or keep losing money, time, relationships from your procrastination.

I am sharing some EXAMPLES OF PROCRASTINATION so that, you can stop:

1) When you have to leave home at 7am to get to work at 8am. And you leave at 7.30am. You have procrastinated for 30minutes and that will you to get to work late or make you lose your job if your boss has given you several warnings.

2) As a student, when you submit your coursework or assignment late to your lecturer all the time.

3) When you do not organise things or write down your daily tasks or tick it as you are achieving your goals for the day.

Instead of doing the important tasks or high priority tasks for the day, that you know that, you must do. You will lie to yourself that, it does not need to be down right now but it will be done tomorrow.
 
So, you use your time on low priority tasks that will not allow you to achieve your goals for the day.

4) When you set a task of calling 30 customers today to get more sales. You then decide to watch a movie or talk with a friend.

5) When you know you have to take your shower every night because your husband likes it. Put you prefer to go to bed smelling.

6) When you set a daily goal to read for 1hour every night to increase your business knowledge. But, you prospone to another day by choosing to watch a movie with your family every night instead.

7) When you know you have to read your Bible when you wake up in the morning and you prefer to grab your mobile phone instead of your bible.

8) When you know that, you have to wash your clothes every Saturday but you opted to go out and have fun with friends.

9) When your boss tells you to call a customer and you forgot to write it down in your diary immediately.  Knowing that you will forget if you don't write it down, you won't call.

10) When you know you have to take your wife out on a date every month and you do not.

11) When you know you have to eat fruits and vegetables daily but you promise yourself that you will buy minerals/fizzy drinks today and eat healthy tomorrow.

12) When you promise your children that you will visit on their visiting day. But you prosponed the visit to next month without caring about your children's feelings.

There are many examples. Please take time to identify areas you procrastinate and adjust and stop immediately. So, why do we procrastinate!

REASONS WHY YOU PROCRASTINATE!
1) Tiredness or Fatigue.
2) Other important things that come to your mind.
3) You are not motivated to do the task.
4) Lazy to do it at that moment.
5) I'm scared of the work. Fear of failure. Fear of rejection or fear of looking like a fool.
6) You are overwhelmed by the task.
We look at the task that, you have to do and you feel that, you are not good enough or competent enough or the task is too complicated for your little self.

7) It is not emotionally important to you.
8) You don't want to do it at that time.
9) Distractions from people.
10) You lack focus.
11) Hungry.

12) You do not know how to start. How do you begin the task or where should you start from.
13) I’m not yet prepared to do the task.


REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD STOP PROCRASTINATING!
1) To change
2) Time will not wait for you
3) It is better to do it at that moment
4) It won't bother you
5) Peace of mind
6) Be more productive
7)  Be Successful
8) Be more efficient in your work
9) Be a Person of Integrity

Please note that, procrastination is a killer of time, energy, success, efficiency or integrity. It will stop you from meeting your life goals. You have a choice to stop procrastinating.

You know that you are procrastinating, you will say these words to yourself:

"I will do it later".
"There's no point in it".
"I will do it tomorrow".

Guess what!  Tomorrow never comes for a procrastinator.

Procrastinating will make you a liar in front of people or family. You won't be able to do what you promised to do.
It makes your character flawed.

For example, if you promise your child that, you will come and pick them from school twice a week. Then, you get busy in your office or shop and you know that, you have to leave at 2pm on the dot if you don't want to get to the school late. But, you keep moving the pickup time to 2.15pm, then 2.30pm, then,  3pm. You are a Procrastinator.

This will make your child sad and unhappy. It will also make you to be someone that your child cannot trust to keep their words.

It is so easy to procrastinate. But, it is so difficult to mend the people you have let down by not keeping your words.

Don't give in to procrastination. The silent thief of your integrity.

We procrastinate when we prospone LEARNING A NEW TRADE OR SKILL.
You can stop giving yourself the excuse that, you don't have time or your children are small or you can't learn. I went to learn Coreldraw in Oct 2016  I had to leave my busy office for 2weeks. I absolutely love the new digital marketing skill I acquired.
You can take time out to learn something new.

WHEN IT IS TIME TO SLEEP, GO TO BED:
Another way, we procrastinate is through Sleep. Sleep of Procrastination happens when you are tired and your eyes are closing. And you force yourself to stay awake to watch that movie.

PERFECT TIME DOES NOT EXIST:
Whatever you want to do, do it now.  Don't wait for the perfect time to do it. Stop using excuse like, "I will wait when I have learnt more skills before I start my business". Or "I will wait before I do it".

I hope that, you have realised that, you have to get rid of the Bad Habit of Procrastination. Identify and Know why you procrastinate and take time to write down many ways of how to move forward, you can get rid and conquer procrastination.


HOW TO CONQUER PROCRASTINATION!

1) Do not put off doing things. Do it now.

2) You cannot concentrate when you are tired.  So I advise you to go to bed at 10pm at night and have 8 hours sleep.

3) Write down your daily goals in a diary.

4) Break all your daily tasks or responsibilities down so that it does not overwhelm you.

5) Reward yourself by buying something for yourself for getting the task done now instead of later.

6) Use words of Affirmation like, "I love doing my tasks now". "I hate procrastinating". I am reliable. I am punctual. I am a person of integrity.

7). Take the complicated task and break it down to its small parts and then, deal with each small part, one at a time until you finish the task.

8) Find a quiet space where you can focus on the task you have to finish.
 I lock yourself in my study. It allows me to be at peace, quiet and all by yourself.

9) I remove all distractions like, TV or mobile phones or people. Identify what or who distracts you the most! Learn how to ignore distractions.

10) Keep the end result of accomplishing the task in your mind and start doing the task.

11) You can take tea breaks as a reward for completing smaller sub-tasks.

Thank you for your time. Be blessed. Mrs Olubola Adeleye