We have all heard something like this before. Obviously, no one intends on procrastinating; that is, nobody does it on purpose. So how come we keep doing it, even when we are certain of the result which is increased stress, rushed work, and regret? Some people say they keep doing it because they still manage to get their work done. Others say it’s a cycle they are trapped in but don’t know how to break.
Everyone has a reason as to why they procrastinate, whether they want to accept it or not. What not many people have clear, and could motivate them to avoid procrastinating in the future, is the price they pay for postponing a task to be done later. Often times we never really sit and think about a decision as small as choosing to start a task or to put it aside for another time. Thus, when we go with the latter, only after we are in a state of panic and regret we think, “I should have started this earlier“. This is exactly what I mean by the price associated with procrastination — you either endure the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. For any type of task, the pain of regret is always much worse.
It’s hard to re-wire your brain into not falling into the cycle of procrastinating something and then feeling bad about doing so afterwards. A trick that changed my bad habit of procrastination when I was younger is to actually trick yourself into thinking you will only do the dreaded task for 5 minutes. Once you start doing the task, and reach the 5 minute mark, you will realize it wasn’t actually as bad as you thought it to be and continue to do the task. This tells us two things:
<ul>
<li>The hardest part in completing a task is starting it</li>
<li>We like to assume how difficult a task is without even starting it, encouraging procrastination</li>
</ul>
If this strategy doesn’t work well for you, try to combine it with reasoning the price you will pay if you push something to be done later. Do anything in your power to start the task you have been dreading when you need to with your future self in mind.

The Price of Procrastination

The best routines are the ones that are not too fragile and also not insignificant. By fragile I mean hard to follow or maintain; running a marathon every day, for example. Let’s say you did run a marathon one day and tried to run another one the next day completely exhausted, so you stop halfway. Still determined to keep the morning routine going, you try running another marathon the day after, only to pull your hamstring and be injured for a week.
On the other hand, a routine should not be totally insignificant. An example for this would be re-organizing your closet every single morning as a means to start the day off on a positive note. By completing a recurring activity every day, you should be either training your discipline, checking off necessary things to be done, or working on something little by little.
Most people already have some routines, such as a morning or nighttime one where they either get ready for the day ahead or get ready to sleep. You might have some you don’t even know about, such as your post-workout stretching routine. If you’re a writer, you probably have a routine or process when it comes to brainstorming, writing, and editing.
The point I am trying to make is that there might be some routines that are actually wasting your time instead of helping you in the way you think it does. One thing about me is that I thought I could only write in certain environments. More specifically, all these conditions needed to be perfect in order for me to actually start the writing process: water bottle filled up, all notifications checked off, no tabs open, the right music playing, and my desk perfectly organized. I quickly realized that having a pre-writing routine was halting my progress, since my goal from the start was to simply write quality stuff.
Revising my writing routine helped me to find something that worked in making me more productive, but I would have been stuck on the same counterproductive routine I had previously if I didn’t get serious about it.

Routines & Benefits

Of course, there is no ideal schedule that everyone must follow; we all have our own concept of what balance looks like in our lives. For me, I do not have much of a work-life balance, and I often tell others that it’s necessary to work with imbalance, especially if there is a lot of uncertainty in your typical day. I have valued my personal (and professional) development, finding avenues to apply learnings, and creating impact for others. My concept of balance is to be equally developing myself in these three areas.
Since there is no right answer when it comes to how you should split up your time with work and leisure, it becomes hard to find a split that works for you and your goals.
If you’re struggling with finding a system that works for you in regards to work-life balance, you’re not alone. It’s a trial and error process where you have to try out new schedules in hopes of finding a better organization of activities than your previous setup.
There are a few things to consider that may help reduce the number of trials needed to find a good balance:
<ul>
<li>Priorities - try and balance out your time by being mindful of your current priorities, both short and long term. It can help in delegating certain tasks that need to be done first, and also give more flexibility for the remaining tasks.</li>
<li>Health - your physical and mental well-being should not deteriorate as a result of adding more work to your schedule. Your health should take precedence over any other criteria when thinking about modifying your work-life split.</li>
<li>Purpose - think about your current daily/weekly schedule and ask yourself if it’s allowing you to both reach your goals and be fulfilled. Perhaps you would benefit from spending more time with friends and family, or feel more fulfilled by putting more time into a passion project. These decisions should always answer the “why?“</li>
</ul>

Working with Imbalance

We tend to get caught up in the everyday madness of things as busy individuals, so much so that we rarely take time to think about the progress we’re making (or not making) on our goals.
Let’s assume I set a goal to land a job.
There are two alternate ways this can play out. The first one is to only acknowledge the goal once in a while but never plan time to work towards completing it - you simply let the days pass and hope for the best. The second way is to do the necessary planning to maximize chances of success: scheduling time blocks to apply for jobs, doing some outreach and networking during your downtime, and refining your profile on LinkedIn and X. These altogether drastically increase your chances of hearing back from an employer.
The word “effective“ in effective planning is a key distinction that will help to not take things to the extreme. For instance, if you really wanted to secure an internship, you can theoretically apply to every single job you are qualified for and reach out to everyone in your network and their colleagues in hopes of getting a referral. However, you will find out (the hard way) that burnout is a real thing and actually holds you back from completing your goal.
By practicing methods like the 80/20 rule - you should spend 80% of your time on 20% of the most important parts of a task - in conjunction with planning specific actions needed to be taken to complete a goal, you will see that it becomes much easier to stay consistent in making progress on that goal.

How to Plan Effectively

Let’s say you just cleaned your desk at home, made a coffee, and are finally ready to finish that item on your to-do list that you have been painfully working away at all week. Not even 5 minutes in, you get a text from your friend asking if you could help out with an assignment. Apparently, it’s urgent and you seem to be the only person that is capable of helping out. What do you do?
It sucks to admit it, but we are the most overstimulated humans in history. This means our attention spans are at an all-time low, stress levels at an all-time high, and screen times through the roof, so it’s not a surprise most of us struggle with prioritizing. I mean, it’s hard for anyone to pick which ball to catch when there are thousands of baseballs being pitched to you at the same time.
You’re probably wondering what the big deal is; after all we suck at prioritizing, so what’s the point of trying to get good at it? Let me tell you one thing: the most successful people in the world are experts at this. Being an excellent prioritizer gives you the ability to execute as fast as possible, wasting no time being stuck in a state of uncertainty and get whatever you need to get done, done.
One of my goals a couple years ago was to be the most time efficient as possible. I searched articles online, used a bunch of productivity apps, tried countless methods, but I ended up even more overwhelmed trying to micromanage my life. What worked? The exact opposite of what you would expect; disconnecting from everything and thinking about what the biggest problem that needed to be solved was.
While I do recommend trying out as many methods as you can on how to figure out an order of completing tasks, I guarantee that you will have the most mental clarity when not looking at a screen or a schedule. It really is that simple.