5 Types of Procrastination and How To Overcome Them

Procrastination has long been a common phenomenon in society. However, most of us have not been able to improve this procrastination habit even though we are very aware of its impact on work and daily life. Moreover, habits will become increasingly difficult to break if we move from a state of awareness to normalizing procrastination.

A 2015 survey found that the average person spends 55 days in a year just procrastinating. At the same time, they also wasted 218 minutes a day on unimportant things. Specifically, if you spend an average of 218 minutes (more than 3 hours) per day: 218 (minutes) x 365 (days) = 79570 (minutes) = 55.3 (days). Thus, every year, you have wasted more than 50 days on unnecessary things. Therefore, you need to prepare yourself with the necessary knowledge with a “steel spirit” and a highly determined attitude to thoroughly eliminate this bad habit. 

5 Types of Procrastination and How To Overcome Them

TYPE 1: PERFECTIONIST

This type of person is extremely attentive to small details. Perfectionists often don’t start working right away because they often spend time worrying about preparation. This often causes them to become stressed even though the work hasn’t really started yet. Sometimes they even get stuck in their own plans. This makes their activity pace difficult to maintain because they always waste time during the work process.

Advice:

If you are the type of person who procrastinates, instead of focusing too much on the details or steps of the task, you should focus on the end goal of the task. Clearly defining the end goal of what you’re doing and setting yourself a “deadline” is what you need to do to avoid wasting your time and energy.
For example, you may be tasked with reporting on changes in the customer file that visited your store in the past month. What you need to make clear is the specific numbers and important keywords that describe each customer group specifically. Therefore, you need to focus on creating a chart that represents that content as well as visualizing the customer concepts in your report. Accordingly, you will not delay the task because you are busy paying attention to the unimportant details in the report.

TYPE 2: DREAMER

This type of procrastination often occurs in people who have a lot of ideas for their plans, even if they can come up with an extremely creative plan, but lack the determination to put it into action.

Advice:

To pull yourself out of your fantasies, you should materialize and simplify your plan. You should break down the plan into different parts and complete each of them in turn. In addition, you can plan according to the SMART model (Specific – Measurable – Attainable – Relevant – Time) to avoid wasting time adding too many unnecessary details to the plan. Better yet, you should make a plan that you can implement right away, not wait a while to be able to implement it.

Example: You plan to reach your goal of waking up at 6:30 every day. What you should do is break down your plan into small steps like:

• Go to bed before 11 o’clock every night
• Set bedtime alarm
• Only take appointments early so you don’t have to come home late
• Waking up at 7:30 in the first week

In addition, you should also closely monitor the progress of your plan so that you can clearly see the results of what you are doing. From there, you will have more motivation to continue taking the remaining steps, contributing to the formation of healthier habits.

TYPE 3: ANXIOUS PERSON

This type of person is often quite concerned when taking on any task, especially the one they think they can’t handle. As a result, anxious people can sometimes refuse a task altogether out of fear of not being able to complete the task and at the same time doubting the judgment of others.

Advice:

Many people think that a productive working day usually begins with checking email every morning and starting to organize work. However, for people with anxiety, my advice is to use the first part of the day to do the work that you think is the most difficult. After each time you overcome those difficult tasks, you will strengthen your energy and confidence, from which, you will feel a little easier when tackling other tasks. You should start doing this by breaking down your work and committing to it every morning.

Example: You are faced with a 2000-word essay and estimate that it will take a lot of time and effort to complete. Even so, when you break down your essay into sections, you’ll find that it doesn’t take as long to complete as you think (e.g. introduction – 15 minutes, table of contents – 5 minutes, charting). – 20 minutes, presentation of arguments – 40 minutes, conclusion – 30 minutes)

TYPE 4: PEOPLE WHO ARE OFTEN IN CRISIS

People who are often in crisis have a habit of deliberately procrastinating until the last minute. For them, working under pressure often gives them a lot of motivation and focus. Therefore, they often wait until the due date to start working. This can also affect the quality of the product as well as show that you are quite weak in time management.

Advice:

Pushing yourself under pressure to get things done faster is really just your illusion because this way of working can help you get the job done, but it doesn’t give you enough time to check the entire product.

If you are someone who is more likely to work in the near-maturity period, you can try the Pomodoro method developed by Italian businessman Francesco Cirillo. This method helps you focus on working for a short, intense time, then gives you a short period of time to recover and start again.

For example, You can work continuously for an hour and take a short break for about 15 minutes, then start working again in the next hour… Just like that, your brain will be rested regularly, Take a break to recharge your batteries and increase your productivity. Still, completing tasks early is always the safest bet so that you have more time to test the product and complete the assigned task.

TYPE 5: PEOPLE WHO ARE BUSY WITH EVERYTHING

People who are busy with everything often have a hard time handling their tasks because they can’t determine what to prioritize and can’t make rational decisions.

Advice:

You need to quickly highlight or prioritize the task on a separate list so you can focus on getting it done. Oftentimes, important tasks will affect other small tasks. Therefore, do not worry whether your time budget is enough to tackle each task from important to less important.

Example: For tomorrow, you need to inform the customer about the amount of product A left in stock. At the same time, you also need to solve the problem of arranging the number of products in stock. In this case, you need to solve the problem at the warehouse before replying to the customer because if the goods in the warehouse are sorted and statistically specific, you will quickly respond to not only this customer but many others. the other client.

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