Procrastination Is Our Biggest Enemy

Kathy

One of the greatest foes of millennials is procrastination: we have so many things on our plate and yet we still put them off till the last minute. However, this doesn’t mean that we are lazy! Procrastination simply occurs because we are afraid of the less desirable outcomes that may arise when we embark on a task. We are afraid of failure or being unable to meet our own expectations, and this makes us avoid the task rather than confront it head-on. Whether it is because the task seems too big, or new and uncertain, or that we often set high standards for ourselves, here are some tips that we can use for us to overcome procrastination:

1. Acknowledging procrastination and what you need to do

If you find yourself asking ‘Am I procrastinating right now?’, chances are, you are! More subtle signs of procrastination could be that you find yourself doing things you normally wouldn’t do during that time period in order to replace the task and still seem productive and occupied. Thus, we first have to recognise that we are not being as productive as we want to, especially in matters that we know are more urgent.

2. Break down your task into smaller tasks

Sometimes we don’t know where to begin, so we just decide not to begin at all. One way to overcome this is to break up the big end-goal into smaller mini-goals. Oftentimes, the big end-goal is simply made up of many familiar approaches. Identify the small steps that you will need to take in order to finish the task and slowly tick them off as you go. Smaller goals can help you to create a systematic timeline, making you feel less frenzied, and confident in approaching them. This way, you can see progress in your work no matter how big or small, and motivate you to continue on when the going gets tough.

3. Being kind to yourself

Lastly, we have to take care of our own mental wellbeing! While procrastination does hinder our productivity, we don’t have to put ourselves down when we are procrastinating. Rather, we could think of it as an alarm clock that is alerting us of the things we have yet to tackle, and that a change in attitude towards the task may be necessary!

We hope that these tips have helped you to learn more about why procrastination occurs, and how you can counter procrastination!

P.S. If you have been procrastinating on getting started on investing, check out some of our blog posts on investing today!

About Kathy

Co-Founder of The Joyful Investors and Manager of The Moneyball Portfolio. I graduated with a degree in Economics in National University of Singapore (NUS). My previous experience with traders at the Merrill Lynch enable me to realize many counter-intuitive truths about how the financial markets work and to uncover the challenges faced by many new investors. We believe that investing can be astoundingly simple and want to make financial education understandable for everyone.