Procrastination is one of the biggest time-wasting habits that many of us adopt into our lives. In this guide, we will cover the causes of procrastination, the dangers of procrastination, and the solutions to procrastination.
Identify Your Cause
The first crucial step to overcoming procrastination is to identify your cause. Why am I procrastinating? You must ask yourself why
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- One reason many of us procrastinate is due to the fear of failure. You are afraid to mess up or make mistakes, but guess what? That's how we learn. So, you are actually afraid to learn. When you put it like that, you realize it sounds really silly. Drop the perfectionist mindset for good. You need to denaturalize overthinking and delaying action. How? You must reframe your mindset from perfection to progress. Understand that mistakes are how we learn. Never feel bad, no matter how big or small a mistake is—you must carry yourself through life with no regrets, only wisdom.
- A huge cause of procrastination is overloading yourself with instant gratification, which creates dopamine addiction. Scrolling through hundreds, even thousands, of short-form content pieces every day is literally training you to switch from one focus to another in what—0.8 seconds? Dopamine addiction does not only come from scrolling on social media; it also comes from junk food, porn, video games, and more.
- Often, we have the idea that something must be perfect, but when we think this way, we might delay what has to be done because it seems so overwhelming. No matter how big or small your goals are, you can't expect the journey to be perfect along the way. Mistakes are how we learn and grow as a person.
- Without a clear path to accomplish your goals, your brain has no clue where to start. Naturally, this makes everything seem ten times more difficult, and you will put it off. I want you to grab your journal and write out at least three or more short-term and long-term goals—short-term being within 4-6 months and long-term being 1-5 years. If you don't have a journal already, you will seriously thank yourself in the future if you go buy one now.
- Our brain tends to seek out the quickest possible way to get dopamine or have fun, but if you are disciplined enough to say no to those urges, push past them, and engage in a more long-term project like reading a book or meditating, you will build true focus. Read the full version of this guide on my patreon. patreon.com/AxelV