{"id":4936,"date":"2022-04-23T12:36:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-23T07:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.ultrahuman.com\/blog\/?p=4936"},"modified":"2022-12-12T22:30:42","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T17:00:42","slug":"recognise-and-tackle-procrastination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.ultrahuman.com\/blog\/recognise-and-tackle-procrastination\/","title":{"rendered":"Procrastination and How To Think Yourself Into a Productive Mode"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you encountered days where procrastination has been your best companion? Encouraging you to put off all your tasks away, only to leave you in a tight spot when those deadlines are hounding you and you are scrambling to get the work done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have all fallen into the trap of procrastination more often than we would like to admit – and most of the time, moderate procrastination is okay and even encouraged as research says that people who are given a task and then procrastinate while having the task in the back of their minds can approach it with divergent ideas and hence perform the task with greater creativity, history is riddled with such moderate procrastinators who put off work only to have hit a goldmine in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there is a fine line between moderate procrastination and good old fashioned procrastination, while the former is a boon in terms of fostering creativity, the latter is a bane to productivity, where you start putting off essential tasks for hours regularly, which leads to stress, anxiety and soon enough it becomes a vicious cycle of procrastination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a deep dive and understand what procrastination is, how to recognize procrastination and finally, how to use the power of our minds to overcome it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is procrastination?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To procrastinate is, by definition, to \u201cdelay or postpone action; put off doing something either intentionally or habitually\u201d. It is commonly mistaken for laziness. The main difference between procrastination and laziness is that laziness implies an unwillingness to complete a certain task, while procrastination usually implies a desire to complete a certain task but lacking the motivation to start or putting it off for easier, more doable activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What most people don\u2019t know is that our brains are wired to procrastinate. It\u2019s a struggle of power between our limbic system and the prefrontal cortex. Our limbic system automatically tells us to avoid unpleasant situations – and our prefrontal cortex, which aids us in complex decision-making and normally counters bad decisions is the newer, and slightly weaker part of our brain that develops later in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other part of our brain that we need to understand to tackle procrastination, is our neurons. When we start an activity we weren\u2019t looking forward to, our neurons fire as though we\u2019re in physical pain, blowing the negative aspects of the task out of proportion. However, this feeling only lasts about five minutes, after which we can focus well on our tasks. Curiously, studies show that people are aware of this fact and yet become victims of procrastination – those agonising five minutes have bested more than a few.<\/p>\n\n\n

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How do we recognise procrastination?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are a few simple ways to recognise if procrastination is a regular occurrence for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n