THE COST OF PROCRASTINATION

PROCRASTINATION

Procrastination is something that most of us experience at one time or another. Sometimes we might procrastinate because we overestimate the amount of time we actually have left to complete a task. For some tasks, we might think that we will be more motivated to do something at a later time than we are right now.  So, we wait for that time to come, although it may never happen! Sometimes we underestimate how long something will take to do so we put it off to do other things until the last minute. Perfectionism is another big cause of procrastination. This leads us to put things off until we know exactly the way it should be done. Or until we have every piece in place to do it just right. There are many reasons why we might procrastinate. But, if we allow it to become a major part of our daily lives it can cost us time and money.

LOST OPPORTUNITIES

When you put off important tasks you could potentially miss out on opportunities that would have been good for you. For example, if you procrastinate on a work assignment you may miss an opportunity to show how valuable you are at your job. If you procrastinate on purchasing tickets to an event you may miss out on a great time with friends or family.

INCREASED STRESS

Procrastination can lead to stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety is not only increased due to tasks being completed at the last minute coupled with a potentially tight deadline. But, just the fact of having a list of tasks piling up can cause stress when you are not working on them. It doesn’t feel good to keep thinking to yourself “I really have to do that” about a bunch of things you are putting off. It is difficult to be at peace when you constantly have things running through your head that you know you really should be getting done.

LOWER QUALITY WORK

When you rush to get something done because you waited too long to start, the quality of your work may be impacted. If you are procrastinating at work, this could impact your career. If you are procrastinating on personal tasks, it could lead to disappointment, knowing that you could have done a much better job if you had allowed yourself the right amount of time.

MISSED DEADLINES

Procrastination can cause you to miss important deadlines. This can definitely have serious consequences in your professional life. But, it can have an impact on your personal life too. Procrastinating on booking a hotel by a certain time or making a special dinner reservation can cause you to miss out on enjoyable activities.

FINANCIAL COSTS

Procrastination can lead to financial costs as well. This could be in the form of late fees for not getting a bill paid on time. Or it could be a lost opportunity from something such as delaying starting or increasing contributions to your retirement savings.

CAN WE REDUCE HOW OFTEN WE PROCRASTINATE

We will all procrastinate on some things at certain times. But to help avoid some of the costs associated with making it a habit we can take steps to avoid it as much as possible. There are many different things you can do to help reduce the amount of times you procrastinate on a task.

STOP CATASTROPHIZING

Procrastination is often caused when we make things much harder, complicated, boring, or any other slew of things that would be associated with something we would not want to do. Most often when we actually take action and complete the task we wonder why we waited so long to do it. We can often spend more time building things up in our heads than it actually takes to get them done. If something needs to be done, it’s best to just jump in and get it done.

SET SMALL GOALS

Sometimes it can be difficult to start a large task because it seems overwhelming. This can cause us to keep pushing it aside. If you can break your large task down into smaller tasks you can make a little bit of progress over time until it is done. This will help you see progress being made and help keep you motivated to get the task completed.

ORGANIZE YOUR TASKS

We can often focus on quick easy tasks so that we feel like we are getting things done. If those things we are getting done are not the most important tasks, we are not really making the best use of our time. If you are having trouble making sure you stick to what is most important, try making a list of all the tasks you need to complete. Then prioritize them based on their importance and when they need to be completed by.

FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION

While we often want to try to get many things done at once, certain tasks require focus to complete. If you have something that really needs to get done, try to block out a specific time to work on it, and don’t allow anything else to get in your way if at all possible. Time blocking works well for this.  Block out a specific time when you will focus on your task that way you don’t have to think about when you will have time to get to it.

REMOVE DISTRACTIONS

Distractions can cause us to procrastinate by taking away time from what we really need to get done. How many times have you meant to spend time doing something, but got distracted by something else? When this happens we might decide we no longer have enough time to do what we wanted to do, so we put it off until another time once again. So if you know the things that often distract you, be sure to remove them first so that you can get your task completed.

FORGIVE YOURSELF

If you have missed a deadline or didn’t do as good of a job as you wish you had done, don’t be too hard on yourself. We all procrastinate at times. Just make a promise to yourself to do better next time. Maybe make a plan to get something else off of your list that you have been putting off.

LET GO OVER PERFECTIONISM

Letting go of perfectionism is so important if we really want to get things done. It often prevents us from starting or completing a project because we feel like we cannot do it perfectly. Done is better than perfect.

ALLOW YOURSELF TIME TO MAKE CHANGES SLOWLY

Whether you really struggle with procrastination or would just like to improve your ability to get things done more timely give yourself time to implement changes. New habits stick better when we develop and improve them over time. Trying to make drastic changes is often exciting and then wears off pretty quickly. Maybe try to pick one method of avoiding procrastination to get some things done and see how it works for you. You can continuously make improvements over time

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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