No matter how driven you are, you likely struggle with procrastination. And while I wouldn’t say procrastination in itself as a bad thing, let’s just say I’ve had my fair share of its repercussions.

A lot of you know me as someone who is super productive, a guy who generally has his stuff together. And while for the most part I’d like to think that’s true I can’t bring myself to ascertain any such perceptions at the moment. I do have my days, I have my weeks and sometimes I even have my months where I can’t get anything done.

For the past couple of weeks I have procrastinated writing this article and a long list of other activities. It got worse this week and I say so because usually, I try to find a silver lining when I’m in a slump but this time, I just couldn’t be bothered.

The thing I hate most about procrastination isn’t the fact that I get behind on my tasks or the fact that I have to cram a lot in the last minute before a deadline. It is the fact that it blankets otherwise enjoyable activities with a thin layer of guilt and while I aimlessly lay about idling, there is a nagging voice at the back of my mind reminding me that I’m totally going to regret this state of unproducitvity.

Procrastination ninety-nine percent of the time is one of two things. It’s either the challenge is too hard or it’s just too boring. For majority of cases I find out it is the latter. Now using my leave of absence from writing articles as an example, I won’t say that I don’t enjoy writing articles. The problem is, my new schedule of writing one article a month wasn’t ambitious enough and so amidst my academic schedule I always convinced myself of the fact that I’d certainly find time at some point within the month to wrap it up. 

I wasn’t being ambitious with my time. But guess what, the difficulty balls down to finding balance. If you take on too much, you risk getting burnt out and if you don’t, you risk cutting yourself short of your true potential. The solution is no more difficult than sitting down and getting to work and yet, in practice it is not so easy. Essentially, being productive is no different from climbing a hill. The difficult part is the initial stage where you have to set the tone or put in mechanisms to get you in a mood to do the hard work. That’s where the true difficulty lies and once you have achieved this flow state comes naturally.

“Flow is a state of optimal performance where your brain locks in on the task at hand and everything else in the world seems to fade away.”

It is at this state that your best work is done whether an artist, videographer, student or an accountant. You achieve this by choosing an activity that you find intrinsically rewarding and as you become immersed in, it triggers the flow state. However, for it to be effective make sure to carve out enough time. I do this by reading the dictionary, somehow it gets me in the mood and I’m able to get started on whatever task it is.

So, when you have an article or essay to write, instead of staring at a blank page waiting for inspiration to fall on your laps you might want to edit something you’ve already written. Or, instead of laying in bed for motivation to hit you, you might want to change into your workout clothes and prep your mind for the task ahead. 

You won’t always be motivated, on most days you have to count on your discipline to get by.

You might also want to implement a reward system where you create rewards for yourself after completing a task. The reward system was first popular with the promodoro technique of studying. In this technique, there is an uninterrupted study window of 25 minutes which is followed by a rest period of 5 minutes within which you are allowed to do anything you like. Of course the time periods can be altered per the individual’s own discretion.

The significance of the reward system is to delay gratification but also to avoid burnout and while many people can sing lots of praises about it, I can’t relate. It has never worked for me and quite frankly I don’t think it ever would. Some people practise it in other aspects of their lives. They could put off any form of sugar or sweets throughout the week up until Sunday or they could put off watching Netflix up until Friday evenings. Like I said it’s tailored to the individual’s own discretion.

When it comes to putting off our tasks, work or studies let’s just say it is a constant battle because it is always easier to do so for a plethora of reasons. The truth is, procrastination is the most common manifestation of resistance because it is the easiest to rationalise. We don’t tell ourselves “I’m not going to study for the test”. Instead we say, “today was a long day so I’d study tomorrow.” And in that moment all the pressure, all the anxiety and all the stress is alleviated. We feel as though we are making progress when we’re not. We convince ourselves through all of the excuses that tomorrow I’ll have more energy, tomorrow I’ll feel more inspired but the problem there is that tomorrow never comes because tomorrow we don’t feel inspired and we don’t have more energy so we continue to push it off until the guilt or pain is so great that it can’t be ignored. The deadline arrives and we have to get to work or face the consequences.

The reality is things don’t always go as planned and we can’t always count on things to go in our favour. For the most part of my life, holding myself to a strict routine and staying accountable hasn’t been a problem. Unfortunately I can’t say same now. Lately, it has taken a lot of willpower to get by my daily activities; showing up for school, working out, staying up to date on assignments, showing up for shoots, studies, prepping my meals, trying to keep active on my socials, reading my booklist, socialising, etc.

In my resolve to find a way out of my slump I found out that I’m looking for a solution where there is none. I realise now that I’m too fixated on trying to live up to set standards and I am exhausted. For a while now I’ve lived with the impression that ease is something to be distrusted and that it’s inherently something I shouldn’t be doing but that’s false. While I hate to admit it I’m going to have to make some adjustments to my routine and prioritise some things over the other. I won’t always have all the answers and that’s okay. At least I can count on myself to show up when I need me the most.

Before I sign off, I’d leave you with this “Don’t do more today than you can completely recover from tomorrow.”

Thank you so much if you made it all the way here. I hope the blog post was very well worth the read.

If you found this blog post helpful please be sure to hit the like button, leave a comment and share it with others who need to hear this. Have a lovely weekend ahead!❤️