Why Procrastination is the Thief of Time that You Need to Beat

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Have you ever heard the phrase “procrastination is the thief of time”? It’s an old adage by the English poet Edward Young that first appeared in his long poem “Night Thoughts”. And the phrase has got a point – procrastination is an awful way to spend your time.

I know you have dreams and goals that you want to reach. I know you have many things to do and not enough time to do it all. And I’m pretty sure that sometimes you leave things till the last minute and feel bad about it.

But what can you do about it? Where can you find the motivation to quit procrastinating? Read this article to find out.

What counts as procrastination

I’m sure that you know that procrastination means putting things off because you don’t feel like doing them. The reason could be that the task feels too difficult or boring, or you’re not quite sure what exactly you’re supposed to do. Or perhaps you are too overwhelmed to even get started or maybe there is something that you can’t resist doing, like watching a series you are hooked on.

These are all common and natural reasons to procrastinate. But you have every right to take a break sometimes and you don’t necessarily need to start working on a new task right away. So what counts as procrastination then?

Typically you know you are procrastinating if you know you should be doing something and you are coming up with all kinds of other things to do. This in turn makes you feel bad. It’s often the negative feeling that is the tell-tale sign.

Some of the most common ways to procrastinate are checking social media, watching TV, and completing meaningless tasks that don’t make much of a difference. Often people procrastinate without even noticing it at first.

It’s good to know what you usually do when you procrastinate so that it’s easier to notice when you’re just wasting time and get started on what you really have to do.

Why procrastination is the thief of time

Procrastination isn’t good, but how bad is it exactly? Why did Edward Young go so far as to call it the thief of time? What is the meaning of the quote exactly?

We all have only 24 hours in a day. And that isn’t much, especially when you subtract sleeping and other non-negotiables that you just have to do. So at the end of the day, there isn’t even all that much time for those things that you have to do, but don’t need to do right away. And those things are the problem.

If you procrastinate, everything you need to get done won’t get done until later. And many things you think would be good for you to do, you’ll simply never do because you’re scrolling through Instagram instead.

Have you dreamed of learning Spanish, writing a book, starting your own Etsy shop, or exercising more? There’s a good chance that you’d have enough time to do those things if you just stopped wasting time on things that don’t matter.

Of course, you are a human being and that means you don’t have to be perfect. And you do deserve some time off sometimes and it’s not bad to spend some time on Instagram. But where do you draw the line? A 10-minute Instagram break can relax you a little and give you energy. But that’s all you need. 100 minutes on Instagram won’t give you more energy, it’ll just make you feel worse.

Procrastination is the thief of time because it steals time from what really matters. You have your dreams and goals and all of your responsibilities. These things deserve your time, but procrastination takes it all from you without you even noticing. And you get nothing much in return.

You’re not going to look back and be glad you spent hundreds of hours of your life watching reality TV or playing video games. So don’t leave things till the “next day”, because you want to make this day count too.

“Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him.” Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

How procrastination affects your life

There are plenty of ways in which procrastination makes your life worse. Of course, it makes you feel bad about yourself and you don’t want those negative emotions. It also makes you stressed and can exacerbate your fear of failure.

Of course, it stands in the way of your goals and dreams. That in turn often means that you’re getting less from life. If you for example have thought about starting your own online business, putting that off means that you’re making less money. It might be the reason you have to stay in a job you don’t like. Chronic procrastinators often don’t get far in life and you don’t want that.

One last thing to keep in mind is that procrastinating often brings some other problems. For example, spending extra time on social media can make you feel bad because you’re likely to see a lot of upsetting or annoying things in your feed. And it’s not necessarily fun seeing pictures of happy and successful people when you yourself feel like you have nothing going on in life and you’ll never get as far as the people in the pictures.

Of course, we all know that what we see on social media isn’t the whole truth. But seeing those pictures can still make you feel bad. And then it’s going to be even harder to start tackling your to-do list.

What you need to do to stop procrastinating

Of course, you don’t want to waste your time, so how can you stop doing that? How to stop putting things off till later time and start spending your time wisely?

First of all, you have to truly understand what procrastination is doing to your life. It’s not about just doing some things a little bit later. By procrastinating, you’re hindering your chances of ever living that life you dream of. There’s an ever-growing list of things you should do. You’re underperforming in many different areas of your life. And most importantly, you’re not feeling good. That’s why you need to stop procrastinating.

Secondly, you need to know why exactly you often resort to the more comfortable option of checking your phone or otherwise wasting your time, when you know you have something important to do. Is it because you can’t get yourself to do something you don’t enjoy? Are you afraid you will fail? Do you feel like there are too many things to do and you’ve already lost control of your life? It’s easier to take action when you know what the problem is.

You need to learn to do things you don’t enjoy. I know it’s not fun, but often those unpleasant tasks actually aren’t quite as awful as you thought and next time doing the same thing will be easier. If you just learn to step out of your comfort zone, you can do great things in life.

In case your biggest problem is that you feel like the quality of your work isn’t good enough, you just need to practice more. If you want to become better, the best option is to start on your task early so that you have plenty of time to try and do your best. When you practice and give yourself enough time to complete the task, you can do excellent work.

While you can try many productivity tips and tricks to try to make working more fun, at the end of the day it all just comes down to you sitting down and doing to work. Not everything can be fun, but it is often those things that feel hard that will change your life the most.

Related article: The Truth About Productivity That You Don’t Want to Hear

How I overcame procrastination

I know a thing or two about procrastination from personal experience. Years ago, I used to waste most of my time online and I had a very hard time getting anything done. Thankfully that time is in the past and I must say, life is much easier now and I definitely feel much better about myself.

There are many things that helped me make the change, but one of the most important things was to understand that almost nothing is as hard as it seems. It’s easy to think that for example writing an essay is really difficult, but in reality, it’s all about taking one step at a time until it’s all done. Just focus on taking one step forward instead of thinking about having the whole essay written. This of course applies to everything else too, not just writing.

Another thing that really helped me beat procrastination was to focus on progress instead of perfection. Most things don’t need to be done perfectly. You just need to get them done. And if necessary, you can usually do some editing later, especially if it’s a piece of text you’re working on. In any case, done is definitely better than perfect.

If you want to read more about my journey to becoming more productive and get a few tips, read this article.

Conclusion

I think we can both agree that procrastination really is a bad habit that serves no purpose. It’s not necessarily easy to beat, but doing so will bring many good things to your life. You will feel better, get more done and you don’t have to be as stressed all the time.

If you learn to be productive and simply do what you have to do, you’re going to have much better chances in life. Imagine never being able to make your dreams come true because you spent your days on your phone, looking at other people living your dream. Not fun!

Take your life seriously and resist procrastinating, even if it means getting outside your comfort zone.

Read why prioritization is vital for productivity next and go work on those goals of yours!

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