To everyone that has put off an important task, by let’s say clean the house or prepare a 3-course meal for your whole family, you know it wouldn’t be fair to describe yourself as a lazy person.

After all, cooking and reading recipes requires attention and effort,- and hey let’s face it you maybe even when the extra mile and decided to organize your herbs and ingredients in your drawers by alphabetical order. This isn’t called laziness or bad time management. This is Procrastination!

Etymologically, “procrastination” is derived from the Latin verb procrastinare — to put off until tomorrow. But it’s more than just voluntarily delaying. Procrastination is also derived from the ancient Greek word akrasia — doing something against our better judgment.- NY Times

Being self-aware is getting one step closer to dealing with procrastination. However, sometimes we are even aware of the fact we are procrastinating, yet we still do it, by intentionally harming ourselves.

Dr. Fuschia Sirois said that “People engage in this irrational cycle of chronic procrastination because of an inability to manage negative moods around a task.”

What? So, you are saying that we procrastinate because of a bad mood?

In a sense it is, because it provokes negative feelings related to the task, such as self-doubt, low self-esteem, anxiety or insecurity. Starting your average day of work as an financial analyst, a marketing specialist or any other job that requires thinking, you might find it hard to get inspired and motivated to complete a task. The main issue for some people is their fear of failure, as they create all these scenarios in their heads leading them to believe that they are not enough and that they are not doing a good job.

This is basically pushing people to procrastinate.

Here are some general tips on how to stay productive and forget about procrastination:

1.    Treat Your Body Well.

2.    Unplug Social Media.

3.    Write a To-Do List.

4.    Break Big Tasks into Small Ones.

5.    Take Breaks.

6.    Keep Things Neat.

7.    Kick the Multitasking Habit.

8.    Practice Optimism.

Now go organize your drawers before they become your next procrastination mission.

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