Few can say they have never fallen to procrastinating during their lifetime. Procrastinating becomes a negative word filled with judgment and thoughts of being lazy. But if you understand why it’s done, you can turn it around especially when the reasons behind it have nothing to do with laziness.
Why We Procrastinate
There are three main reasons why people put off doing something and each are rooted in fear.
- Fear of failure
- Fear of success
- Fear of the unknown
To move past the fear holding someone in place it’s necessary to be aware of the reason for not moving forward. What is beneath the fear you’re feeling? What is causing you to put off doing the task?
How Procrastination Hurts
You would be mistaken to think procrastination doesn’t come without any hurts or setbacks other than you doing things a bit later than planned.
- Procrastination damages a worker’s reputation. Often the person never realizes the impact such as when an employee is passed over for a promotion because upper management doesn’t see this person—who continually arrives late—as a good candidate for a leadership position. The employee may never realize the setback of being a procrastinator directly stalls their earnings and responsibilities.
- Quality is sacrificed on creative projects because of putting off getting started. When you start earlier your ideas have time to develop and be polished. While you may pull off the presentation with some saying “good job,” imagine how much better it could have been if you allowed yourself more time.
Big business actually makes money off procrastinators.
- Late income tax extensions make millions of dollars annually for the IRS. Each extension gives the person more time to pay but comes with a fee tacked on. Procrastinators would be saving money by filing on time.
- Failure to pay off credit cards in full each month generates income through interest fees for credit card companies.
- Mail-in rebates are other ways for companies to boost their profit margins. A sizable portion of the population are enticed to buy a product with a mail-in rebate but these people fail to complete the form(s) and mail the rebate. Companies count on this and reap the money they don’t have to pay out.
When you understand something better, you can change it to serve you better. If you would like to chat about how to free yourself from procrastination and work up some actionable steps to follow please reach out and schedule an appointment with me.
Discover much more about procrastination by listening to my full podcast episode, Procrastination Syndrome? Find out the Causes and the Cures! with Eric Twigg and author of the book The Discipline of Now.