How To Avoid Procrastination - Knowing Why We Love To Procrastinate Is The Key

We love to put things off. The key to figuring out how to avoid procrastination lies in the reason why we love to do it so much.

I took an online journey in search of answers from the good old Google and came across some great articles on the subject. There was definitely a common theme.

While there are millions of things we can procrastinate about, the reasons why we do it all boil down to the same few fundamentals. I've listed 3 major ones below. Read on to see if any resonate with you, and then you'll be able to snuff out that procrastination as easily as a 6-year old blows out birthday candles.

Let's do this!

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Why Do We Love To Procrastinate?

How To Avoid Procrastination
Because...who runs towards danger?

Or pain? Or fear? Or discomfort? Or unpleasantness of any kind? No one. No one wants to purposefully put themselves in harm's way, but on the other hand...

You don't become a dragon slayer by staring at the dragon and wishing it to die, do you? #heroesdontprocrastinate

No. You charge that devil with a sword and take it on. Otherwise, it'll be waiting for you tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.

According to Greatist.com, we retreat to our comfort zones to avoid pain of any kind and that is the root of procrastination. However, the price we pay for that comfort is time...arguably our most precious asset.

The secret to overcoming procrastination is learning to move through fear. Read more about how to do this on Greatist.com.

How To Avoid Procrastination
Because...now is now. I'll deal with later, later.

Said everyone, at least once in their lives. I'm pretty sure that every human on the planet has used this reasoning before, and it's one of the things that feeds the procrastination monster.

Pleasing your current self might be detrimental to your future self, but who cares about that right now? Exactly.

WaitButWhy.com calls this the instant gratification monkey. Such a creature doesn't learn from the past and surely doesn't care about the future. He is only interested in the pleasure that can be had in the present, and that usually means not getting anything worthwhile accomplished.

Check out WaitBuyWhy.com's humorously illustrated procrastination post to learn more about said monkey. James Clear talks about this concept in scientific terms, so take a gander at his intelligent post as well.

How To Avoid Procrastination
Because...it's not perfect yet.

Oh ok. So when will it be perfect? NEVER!

Nothing is perfect. Ever. Unless you're some kind of robot, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you're human which means you're just like the rest of us.

Not perfect.

Those who strive for flawlessness never reach their goals, and therefore nothing ever gets done. Aiming for perfection is really a flawless form of procrastination; it'll happen every time.

According to Psychology Today, we overwhelm and frustrate ourselves by creating such impossible standards and nothing ever gets done as a result. Check out Psychology Today's article and take their quiz to find out the cause behind your procrastination.

If this blog post resonated with you, then you'll be interested in The Procrastinator's Guide To Getting Organized and stuff like this...

Heroes Dont Procrastinate Journal by neals18

Do you have a drawer or a cabinet or a closet or a room (or 2 or 3) that you close the door to when people come over to your house? Yeah? This guide is for you.

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