How to beat procrastination

Ah, procrastination! The pompous word that is starting to replace laziness. We aren’t lazy anymore, we are procrastinating. Because lazy is an adjective, while procrastinating is a verb.

I’ll go a little bit into grammar (which, I’ll admit it, it might not be my forte). The adjective is used to describe things, while verbs are defined by action. This is why we are more comfortable about saying “I procrastinate” rather than “I’m being lazy”. Lazy will attach us a label, while procrastination is an action that we do, and we can stop it, eventually.

But enough with lingering about this. In conclusion, procrastinating is the same as being lazy.

So how do we stop this? How do we stop/beat procrastination?

It’s quite simple to be honest. Just fucking do it. It’s a simple strategy. If you want to do something, just start doing it. You don’t need to have any strategy, you don’t need to overthink it. Just start working on that goddamn thing.

Sometimes, the very act of planning is the one holding us back. We want to have the best plan of action, with ten bullet points and items, and schedules and so on. When in the end, we should have started to work.

Let’s take this very post, for example. I got the idea to write it a few days ago. I’ve kept postponing it, because of reasons, and I’ve decided that I should’ve written it this morning (it’s 9 PM right now). Obviously, I didn’t write a single word this morning, because again… reasons. And I was on the point of not writing it this evening either, just for the reason that I wanted to watch an extra episode of “Black Sails”(a series that I’ve just picked it up recently). So basically, procrastination at its very best.

But, I eventually began to write it. And the words started to flow, one after another and they will continue to flow, until I’ll end the post. Clear and simple. I had to do only one thing: To open a new post page and start to write. Just this. And everything will come into place.

There is no point in throwing the fault of other things. We are the only ones at fault when we don’t do our projects. When we don’t do the work, no matter if that work is doing the dishes or a big project that we keep avoiding, it’s our own fault. We could read as long as we want and try to find strategies to beat it out of us, when in reality we are pushing the fault either on the past or the future. The best moment for everything is now. No strategy, no plan, no 10 step program. Stop avoiding, stop hiding behind reasons and start working.

So what’s the best way to beat procrastination? To start working. Just do it, as Nike would tell us.

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