The act of delaying or postponing something, better known as procrastination, is something that at one time or another we’ve all had to tackle head on. Not only does procrastination cause you personal stress and pressure, it also can cause you to lose out on opportunities and make you seem like an unreliable person.

It’s quite natural that we choose to procrastinate when faced with tasks that we’re either fearful of or simply don’t want to do. Some would even foolishly argue that they work better under the pressure that procrastination creates. However, experience quickly shows us that that approach is never one that yields positive results. As adults, employees and business owners people depend on us to be at 100% and favoring procrastination never gives us the chance to be and do our best.

There was a time when procrastination was a terrible friend of mine and I knew that if I didn’t do something to combat the problem I was headed for serious consequences. In the past I’d been known to literally wait to do something until it was due. In turn I’d end up freaking out and the results were always disastrous to say the least. Thankfully I realized that there had to be a better way and when one of my favorite speakers (Tim Urban) published a blog on the topic I knew it was just what I needed to hear in order to become more proactive and work ahead of time.

I learned several valuable lessons about how procrastination was impacting my life and what I could do to fix the problem.

Today, let’s focus on the problems that it causes and why you need to create some major mind shifts in order to remove this type of chaos from your life.

The struggle is real

Procrastination is a widespread problem for a lot of people and although I’ve been able to become more proactive over the years, I still deal with crippling bouts of procrastination from time to time. If this is an issue that you’re trying to conquer, don’t feel like you’re in it alone.

Procrastination (and its accompanying guilt) sucks

I hate the guilty feeling you get when you know you should be doing something but do something else instead. Guilt hits you right after the more pleasurable activity you put in front of work and that’s not a good feeling. When you start to feel guilty it begins to open the door to self-loathing and that in turn opens the door to more problems.

The instant gratification monkey will ruin your life

Tim Urban discusses the Instant Gratification Monkey, the character in your brain that only likes activities that are fun and easy.

When you think about it, nothing in life is ever really “instant”. You even have to cook instant rice for at least 5 minutes so don’t fall for the idea of instant gratification. When you think in terms of “instant” you begin to devalue the work that you and others are doing. Once this happens the quality of your work declines and you start to lose your reliability.

There are two types of procrastinators

Casual procrastinators: They dabble in procrastination every now and then, but have the power to turn it off when the stakes are high.

Hardcore procrastinators: These folks struggle to get anything done and their work is subpar because they always wait until the last minute. Without deadlines in their lives, they will never achieve anything of material substance.

Procrastinators can only get so far in life

Procrastination keeps you from ever doing anything of real value and it shows in a very real way. People will be reluctant to work with you or trust you ability to be dependable. Essentially, you’re standing in your own way when you constantly avoid your responsibilities.

Aren’t you ready to give procrastination the boot?