The power of habits to fight ’I’ll do it tomorrow’.

Several simple routines to avoid procrastination, the "I'll do it tomorrow".

In psychology there are many paradoxes, and one of them is the following: while the same type of emotional discomfort can be caused by many different types of behaviors that we have learned and internalized almost without realizing it, a single pattern of behavior that is part of our habitual repertoire of behaviors can give rise to many different problems.

The latter is what happens, for example, in the case of procrastination, which is the word by which psychologists refer to the propensity to leave things for later, or for "tomorrow" (emphasis on the quotation marks). It is something we can adopt with surprising ease, put into practice almost without realizing it, and give rise to a wide variety of disastrous situations and frustrating failures as a result.

In this article we will look at how, through small changes in our habits, we can fight procrastination, so that we can better perform our responsibilities.In this article we will see how, through small changes in our habits, we can fight against procrastination, so that we can better perform our responsibilities and have an easier time enjoying quality free time.

Why does procrastination arise?

As we have seen, procrastination means putting off, without having a truly valid excuse, the fulfillment of our responsibilities or the tasks necessary to reach the goals we have set for ourselves. We will agree that, defined in this way, this behavior does not bring any significant benefit, and in any case creates problems. However, it is something that the vast majority of people fall into at one time or another. Why?

There are several factors that explain the existence of procrastination. One of them has to do with a personality trait: low responsibility.. Those who score significantly below average on the Responsibility trait in personality tests based on the Big Five model tend to fall into "I'll do it tomorrow" much more frequently. This indicates that procrastination is linked to a broader aspect of how one behaves: a lack of interest in meticulousness in what one does, or in how one complies with a set of rules.

On the other hand, those who are perfectionists are not always free from procrastination either.. It has been observed that there is a type of perfectionism that is linked to procrastination: one in which the person's focus is not on the concrete steps to be taken to complete a task well, but on the fear of making a mistake, the fear of not doing something to be proud of. When this type of perfectionism is predominant, procrastination enters the picture.

Another important aspect is lack of practice. If we have to start a task that we have not yet mastered, the idea of starting to work on it can be difficult, because we must first invest effort in deciding what to do, how to organize our time, etc.

And since none of this has to be materially embodied (as it happens in our head) and we have no way of knowing if we are doing it right due to lack of experience, we do not have the feeling of progressing, which makes the experience very frustrating, something worth starting "for real" when we are in a better frame of mind.

5 habits to fight against "I'll do it tomorrow".

Here are several simple habits you can apply to fight procrastination.

1. Beware of emotional hunger

Many people "disguise" their procrastination sessions under the guise of visits to the fridge that in theory have the purpose of calming hunger. A hunger that is curiously timed and appears intermittently every few dozen minutes.

This is, in reality, emotional hunger: a false sense of hunger that arises from problems in interpreting the discomfort we feel and that is psychological in origin, not physical.not physical. In this way, we learn to calm that anxiety or restlessness by snacking between meals, giving us an excuse to neglect what is really important to concentrate on the pleasant sensations that food gives us. So, to keep procrastination under control, set yourself a meal schedule and keep food away from the work area.

2. Create your work area

Often, the key is to start the task; everything else is easier once our ideas about what we need to do are already on track. That's why it's good to associate your work area with just that, work: don't use it to rest or entertain yourself. This way, it will be easier to make a commitment to work, it will be easier to make a commitment to workBecause sitting in that chair in your study will mean for you that in that very second your day begins.

At the same time, it is very important that this place is far away from the most tempting distractions for you.. If you use a computer, it may even be good to create digital barriers on that computer to make it difficult for you to enter your social networking profile, certain entertainment websites, etc.

3. Rest well

Related to the above is the need to be physically well in order to meet our responsibilities. Even if we have the energy and the ability to concentrate to perform a task, feeling fatigued exposes us to procrastination..

4. Make plans for free time

Another aspect that favors procrastination is the fact of having unstructured and diffuse free time, without clear limits. If you create plans of activities that you like for your free time, you will take influence away from that fuzzy free time and you will give it to another type of leisure that besides making it easier for you to commit to what you have to do, is often more stimulating and enjoyable than staying on the couch watching anything on TV or on your cell phone.

Bibliographical references:

• Barrick, M.R. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis.
• Sirois, F.M.; Molnar, D.S.; Hirsch, J.K. (2017). A Meta-analytic and Conceptual Update on the Associations Between Procrastination and Multidimensional Perfectionism. European Journal of Personality. 31(2): pp. 137 - 159.
• van Eerde, W. (2003). A meta-analytically derived nomological network of procrastination. Personality and Individual Differences . 35(6): pp. 1401 - 1418.