You have an important presentation coming up tomorrow and you have to prepare for it today morning. You look at all the material and then put it away, thinking you will handle it after reading the emails first…then after the team meeting…then you get distracted by the funny WhatsApp message and soon it is evening and you are stressing out. You go home and you have to watching that addictive serial. Sounds familiar?
Why do people procrastinate? It has been researched that stress caused from work and not the pending work itself is the cause of procrastination. And you procrastinate to give your brain a relief from that stress. Stress caused from fear. Fear of failure perhaps. What if my presentation is not good enough, what if the boss is not happy with it… Handling the stress by focusing on time management or following easy brain hacks like 3-3-6 breathing, positive visualization helps handle stress and increases your self-esteem. Notice the procrastination dissolve away.