Procrastination: Why do we do it?

I sat down to write this post and have managed to waste about one hour. I've had a long week and all I want to do is go home and relax and I could be doing that now but I made the decision to procrastinate and it's not good.

They say better late than never but I wish it was one hour ago.

Why do we procrastinate?

There are several reasons:

1. We lack focus

Some people lack focus at all times. They have no purpose in their life and they are just going through the motions. They will wake up grumpy, go to work, do something that they are not passionate about or even worse, hate and then go home where they look at the TV or the four walls and then go to bed and then wake up 8 hours later and do it all over again. Doesn't sound too appealing does it. Although in saying that, the 8 hours sleep sounds great right at this moment although I've got to get this post done.

2. Bad planning

What is that old saying? I think self-help author, Brian Tracy said:

"Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution."

I know that I can be haphazard in planning as I just sit down and get started which is good but there can be a real lack of direction and then you get bogged down and you get distracted and that momentum is lost.

Not good.


3. Technology distractions

Isn't the smartphone great? You have a text machine, calendar, photo album, camera, weather forecaster, map, video maker, networker, date maker, music player and encyclopaedia all in one.

It can also be the biggest distraction ever. You check your social media feeds, you check your email. You have a look at the rugby score (well, I do anyway).

The technology we have access to us now should be a great assistant to us as opposed to something that just a big, fat, time waster.

4. We bite off more than we can chew

When we bite off more than we can chew it can lead to being overwhelmed. We say that we will do this and this and this and this. When we think about it we realise that we probably can't do all of that and then we don't know where to start most of us decide to not start at all and the suddenly the house is cleaner than it has ever been before and the fridge is getting a real thorough airing.


5. Lack of organisation

This is similar to bad planning in that you don't know what you are going to do and you don't have the necessary tools to do it even if you do have it. It is just bad. It is as simple as that.


Before you sit down at least have some sort of idea about what you are going to do and discipline yourself to sit there until it is done with minimal distractions.

Easier said than done I know but if you are going to get to where you want to get then you have to do it whether you like it or not and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the key.