This week as I was working on an article for a client, my procrastinating habit reared its unattractive head (ugly is such a strong word). The article he gave me was a bit different to his usual requests so I had a hard time wrapping my mind around how to tackle it. So instead of getting down to it, I did the next obvious thing…I procrastinated. The thing is, I was constantly thinking of the article, trying to plan it out in my head, almost like I was scribbling my ideas on a whiteboard in my mind and then erasing them when I thought they didn’t work. Then I realised that I didn’t want to get started because I was afraid that when I put my ideas down on paper, or rather on my laptop, I would have evidence that they completely sucked.

This made me reminisce about a time management training session I was in a few years ago. The facilitator said something that blew my mind – procrastination can be a result of perfectionism.  Say what now?

At that time, procrastination had become a way of life of me. You could even say I had become an um, pro at it 😉 and I really wondered why I always left everything till the last minute. When I had something to do, in particular something that was for my own well-being or progress, somehow everything else became more important. Suddenly, my room needed to be cleaned or I needed to manually sew up that hole in my pants crotch where I have been using a safety pin for months hoping that it doesn’t somehow become undone and well, you know…hurt places, or I needed to research my genealogy to prove that I am related to Beyoncé (I mean c’mon, it’s so obvious *flips hair*).

The problem was that I got away with it like 90% of the time.

In 2011, I had one course in my Master’s degree where I had to complete weekly essays which had to be submitted by midnight on the due date. I remember for one essay, I took my procrastination to extreme levels. I started it around 7:00pm on the due date, panicked around 9:00pm, took a nap and then woke up at 10:00pm to continue. Then of course Murphy had to step in and we lost power at around 10:30pm. My laptop was charged up but was running out of battery life quickly. I was able to finish the essay and save it on my phone just before my laptop died and then send the essay to my lecturer just minutes before midnight. I swore never to procrastinate again, which lasted for maybe a week (If only I could procrastinate my procrastinating). I still got an A on that course.

But experiences like the one I just described made me realise something else. My procrastination also had a tinge of the fear of failure. If I had gotten a B or a lower grade, I would have been like “well I didn’t really dedicate a lot of time to it, so I didn’t fail”. Now when I think about it, it seems silly to think like that, when I could have been thinking “hey, I gave it my best shot so I have no regrets”.

Click here to read how I procrastinated about learning to drive!

There are many who think it is a myth that procrastination is created by perfectionism because perfectionists usually procrastinate less. While this may be true in some cases, I think for me, it rings true. I procrastinate but I still have high standards and expect a lot from myself. I expected that when I started to do something or write something, that it should be perfect from the start. If I thought that it wouldn’t be, then I wouldn’t start. I hated going through “the process”. But the process is what makes you learn and grow, the process is what makes you appreciate when you have achieved your goals.

How I Plan to Overcome Procrastination

There are five things that I plan to keep doing this year to keep procrastination from lurking in:

1. Set more practical goals and deadlines

Sometimes I think just the way we write our goals can make it even more intimidating and make us more likely to procrastinate. I will break down my larger goals into smaller, more manageable steps, maybe into daily or weekly goals until I get to the overall objective.

2. Keep a planner and make lists

So a few days ago, in my excitement to plan out my various new writing projects, I went to a few bookstores to get a proper planner. Of course, you guys didn’t leave anything for us procrastinators because they were all sold out (duh, Yash, it’s the third week of the January #procrastinatorproblems). I was able to get a planning pocketbook from a stationery store though that had the most appropriate quote for my post this week…

Break down your goals into smaller steps, write them in your planner and tick them off when you get them done. It is so satisfying!

3. See the small consequences and the small benefits

When I sat down to write this post, I realised that I had started to write a post about my procrastination almost two years ago, which meant that I was thinking about doing this blog for at least two years (it was probably much more than this though) but my perfectionism and fear of failure caused me to procrastinate. So a consequence was that I missed out on building my experience and a readership during that time.

But also see the small benefits. Once you start, you begin to learn and things will begin to grow. For me every step – every blog post, every reader – counts.

4. Re-examine standards

Do you ever notice that if your friend was asking for feedback about his/her work or performance, you would be more generous and kind, whereas you get overly critical of yourself? I plan to go easy on myself, and maybe re-examine my standards and self-expectations. I am going to appreciate my progress, no matter how small it may be. Nobody’s perfect, all I can strive to do is be the best version of myself.  🙂

5. Reward yourself

This is my favourite part! Rewarding myself for small wins! Maybe a sweet treat (yum!) or a day at the beach. Gosh, just writing this gives me motivation!

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So the lesson here is – just start. Start doing the things you need to do to achieve your long-term goals. The time will never be just right and you may not even have all the puzzle pieces. But once you make that commitment, you will see results and in a month, a year, ten years from now, you will be so glad you did. 🙂

P.S. I procrastinated A LOT when I was writing this but I committed to finishing it and I hope you enjoyed it. If you are a fellow procrastinating perfectionist, then I hope the list of things to overcome this will help you as well. Thanks for reading and don’t procrastinate on subscribing to get more posts like these from the Mind of Yash! Now where’s that candy bar?