What no one told you about procrastination

Procrastination. /prə(ʊ)ˌkrastɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n/ noun: The very thing you’re doing right now. (That, Google, is the definition you should provide us with when we search for the meaning of ‘procrastination.’)

❝ Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before today. ❞

PROCRASTINATION IS THE THIEF OF TIME.

Honestly speaking, you’re probably procrastinating on something at the moment. It doesn’t matter what it is: homework, a project, studying, making that really important phone call, paying your bills, reading the last chapter of that book you’ve been planning to read for the past two weeks, hitting the gym, planning world domination…

We all have that one thing (or a bunch of things) which we’ve been planning on doing for the past few days, weeks, months, years, maybe even our whole lives, but have never really started working on.

❝ Among the greatest enemy of success is procrastination. ❞

My friend here, let’s call him Bob, wants to take over the world. He says there’s one year till the grand zombie apocalypse which will wipe out humanity for once and for all, and that he has 365 days to sort out his evil plan. But since Bob is a professional procrastinator, he decides to start planning one day before the actual apocalypse. How stupid, right? The moral of this story is: don’t be like Bob. Don’t put off everything till the last day, you’ll never establish dominion over the world.

Like Colin Kaepernick said, just do it. Don’t wait for ‘tomorrow’, just do it.

❝ Tomorrow you will wish you had started today. ❞

AND REGRETS WON’T DO YOU ANY GOOD.

Feel like making a blog? Go and make one. Want to get into the habit of reading? Pick up a book and start reading. Need to finish the project that’s due in a week? Start right now. Don’t wait for motivation, get up and get it done. You can’t spend your whole life waiting for that little spark of motivation. Just. Do. It.

❝ Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. ❞

– PABLO PICASSO

If you can’t bear the idea of dying before doing a certain something, don’t put it off till the next day. Sometimes ‘tomorrow’ takes years to come, and sometimes it doesn’t come at all. Don’t wait for tomorrow, if it means so much to you, do it.

A perfect explanation of procrastination in one sentence:

❝ I’m very busy doing things I don’t need to do in order to avoid doing anything I’m actually supposed to be doing. ❞

Stop. It doesn’t matter which stage of procrastination you’re in now, break the cycle. Push yourself to start, don’t procrastinate.

The problem with procrastinating is that we know that we’re procrastinating but we think we’re helpless and can’t do anything about it. Truth is, you can do something about it, you can take matters into your hands. Sometimes you just don’t know where to start. Here’s a blog that I found very helpful, and you might too.

❝ Yesterday you said tomorrow, what are you waiting for? ❞

I hate to break it to you, but an angel isn’t going to descend from the heavens to “motivate” you and to bless you with superpowers which will make you immune to procrastination. If you can do it ‘tomorrow’, you sure as hell can do it right now.

Au revoir, amis. ✌