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Each of us from time to time falls into a state where all things “by themselves” are postponed until later. Trying to fight procrastination, we do not notice how we reinforce our unwanted behavior with habitual phrases. What words should be noticed and, perhaps, spoken less often?
Is the habit of constantly postponing important things preventing you from living? You are not alone; this happens to many people around the world. It is interesting that all these people “calm” themselves with approximately the same words.
“We often come up with standard excuses for procrastination, because of which we ourselves do not realize what exactly is happening to us. It is important to pay attention to some “dangerous” phrases with which we lull our own vigilance,” explains coach Diana Quintana, who leads trainings on time management and self-organization.
Here are some examples of common phrases we say when we are desperately looking for an excuse to put off some unpleasant task like cleaning or writing an annual report.
“It’s temporary”
Do you often say to yourself, “I’ll just put this here for a while”?
For example, you plan to put away your out-of-season shoes soon. But, unfortunately, in 9 cases out of 10, it remains in “temporary” storage for a very, very long time – that is, it gets in the way underfoot in the hallway. Or hiding in the far corner of the pantry. Soon, without noticing it yourself, you begin to put some more items in this “convenient” place, and a real dump quickly forms there.
“I don’t feel like it right now, I’ll do it later”
You tell yourself, “I’ll deal with this later.” You are reluctant to do the cleaning right now, because you will have to lay out a huge pile of things in the places intended for them, and you simply do not have time for this!
Perhaps the real problem is that these things don’t have a permanent place to store them and you just don’t know where to put them? So they keep piling up at the “temporary storage” point until the resulting landfill forces you to finally clean up.
“Don’t promise yourself that you will definitely solve the problem “later” or “someday”. Such concepts do not really exist. “Later” never comes for cleaning, sorting documents, or working on a scientific article. You will never finish the planned business until you define clear, specific deadlines for yourself, ”says Diana Quintana.
“It is too long”
We often overestimate the amount of time required to complete a task. And thus we allow ourselves not to even start, because “it’s too long.”
“In fact, we cannot correctly estimate how long it will take us to complete the task until we take it,” Quintana emphasizes. But the “internal perfectionist” wants to be sure in advance that there will be enough time with a margin. We have a convenient excuse to postpone an unpleasant task, citing lack of time.
“One time is not scary”
These words seem to give us permission to sit back or procrastinate: “Okay, one time you can not fold the sheets. Let them lie in the closet. I’ll get it when I change my underwear.” “Well, one time you can leave the dishes in the dishwasher. I will take it directly from there as needed. If you’ve used excuses like this, you’ve probably seen from your own experience that “once” almost always turns into a “snowball” in the future.
Paying attention to these and other similar phrases, you will be able to realize in time that you are constantly postponing important things for “later” that never comes.
What do all these excuses have in common? They will not work if you clearly decide for yourself when exactly you will take up the intended task, and allocate a specific time for it in your schedule.