How To Beat Procrastination (backed by science)
How To Beat Procrastination (backed by science)
By Darius Foroux
What’s something you want to do in your life but you’re putting off until later?
“One day I’m going to start with investing.” When is one day? It’s more likely we’re not going to start at all. When you live your life like that, one day you’ll look back and think, “Where did my time go? I haven’t done anything I said I would.” That’s not a good feeling. I was on that path myself. And when I saw my grandmother pass away with many feelings of regret, I decided to change my lifestyle.
I looked at procrastination as my biggest enemy in life. I aimed to become someone who does what they say. I started small and kept living like that. When you never procrastinate on the biggest things in life, you will never feel any regret. It’s a very peaceful way to live.
How To Beat Procrastination (backed by science)
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Do you want to beat procrastination? Join the club. Procrastination has been around since the start of modern civilization.
Historical figures like Herodotus, Leonardo Da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Benjamin Franklin, Eleanor Roosevelt, and hundreds of others have talked about how procrastination is the enemy of results.
One of my favorite quotes about procrastination is from Abraham Lincoln:
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
The funny thing about procrastination is that we all know that it’s harmful. Who actually likes to procrastinate? No one enjoys doing that. Me neither. And yet, procrastination was the story of my life. When I was in college, every semester, this would happen:
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In the beginning of each semester, I was the coolest mofo on the planet. Relaxing, going out, enjoying myself. Big time.
I experienced no stress whatsoever. However, about a week before my exams, I would freak out.
“Dude, why didn’t you begin earlier?” I would tell myself.
And what would follow is an ugly sight of me, with a bunch of Red Bull cans, locked up in my room — freaking out while I was studying.
And research shows exactly that: When you procrastinate, you might feel better in the short-term, but you will suffer in the long-term.
It doesn’t really matter why you procrastinate. Some love the pressure of deadlines. Some are afraid to fail so they put it off until the very last moment. One thing that all procrastinators have in common is that procrastination has a price.
This highly cited study, published in the American Psychological Society journal, by Dianne Tice and Roy Baumeister discusses the cost of procrastination. It is related to:
Depression
Irrational beliefs
Low self-esteem
Anxiety
Stress
Procrastination is not innocent behavior. It’s a sign of poor self-regulation. Researchers even compare procrastination to alcohol and drug abuse.
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