What is procrastination? Why do people procrastinate? Procrastination is voluntarily delaying doing an activity even when you know this will bring you negative consequences. People procrastinate for many reasons. When people procrastinate, they build anxiety. To deal with this anxiety, people like to distract themselves with other things. This helps for the time being to feel better. However, when people come back to the task that they originally put off, they realize that their anxiety has doubled or tripled which makes them feel terrible. So, if procrastinating has such detrimental consequences, why do we keep on doing it? Here are a few reasons why procrastinating might be so enticing and how to combat this awful habit.  

One of the reasons why we procrastinate might be because the task is too complicated or requires hard work to get it completed. There are many things in this life that are complicated. One of the things that comes to mind is going back to school and getting a degree. When you think about all the time, effort, and money needed, it is easy to feel tempted to put it off as long as possible. Not because the steps will get easier in the future, but because the person doesn’t really want to bother with it right now. It is important to ask yourself, why do I want to do this project? How is this going to help me? How is this going to hurt me? Also, if you are waiting for the right time, it might never come.  

Another reason why you might be procrastinating on getting your project done is because of fear of success or failure. If you procrastinate on your project, you don’t know if it will give you the expected results. Sometimes people are too scared to take that step, so their dream just stays a dream. Always wondering, what would have happened if they had risked it? Don’t let fear paralyze you. It is better to try and know, than to wonder for the rest of your life.  

The last reason why people might procrastinate is because there is some type of emotion tied to the action that prevents them from completing the task. For example, when you know you need to call or visit someone, you might prefer to just put it off as long as possible. Every time you go to pick up the phone or plan to visit, the anxiety is so high that you prefer to just procrastinate another day. Then another day becomes another month, and another month becomes a year and so on. It is important to decide if this task is important to you or not. Will you have any regrets if something happens? If something is important to you, you will find a way to get it done. If not, you will find a really good excuse. 

We all have things that we procrastinate on. It is up to us to get those things done. Putting it off will not make the task or project go away. Instead, you will build anxiety around that task that will get bigger with time. Remember that nothing changes if nothing changes. Find a way to get things done while also keeping it fun. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you do need to get it started if you want to complete it. If you are still having problems with putting things off, look for a therapist that can help you uncover the real reasons why procrastination continues to be a problem. There are always professionals who are ready to help.