Procasination

Ask a Therapist Seeking Help
1

I usually procasinate on stuff. And whenever I do that I suffer from the amount of work that I have procasinated. I want to learn to reduce the amount of times I have procasinated. Because every time I procasinate I ended up stress on the amount of work I have to do. I caused it ny myself. I usually use my phone and lay down and scroll. I prioritise on relaxing more than doing work. I really want to stop procasinating what should I do?

2

Dear @ais

Thank you for reaching out for support here. I can see you are motivated to address the procrastination habit as you find it reduces your time available for other areas of your life which raises stress. Please know what you are encountering is fairly common among many others, including students and adults. There is indeed a lot of distractions around us, so taking small steps to effectively reduce time on these distractions will help.

Do check out these sites for guidance:

https://www.mindline.sg/youth/article/10-ways-to-get-stuff-done?type=interest

I have summarised the approach for your easy reference:

-Break down the task to smaller sub tasks

-Use the pomodoro method (25 min focus, 5 min rest and then repeat)

-Put the phone in another room

-Switch up your environment

-Keep the outcome in mind

I encourage you to take the first step soon. Though it will feel difficult at first, keep going and you will gain momentum to continue. Be kind to yourself, if you find your attention shifting gently acknowledge and accept it takes time and it’s ok. The next step would be to remind yourself on your outcome and resume the task. You can do this!:yellow_heart:

3

Thank you so much for helping I will try to use these techqiues to conquer my procasination! :slight_smile:

4

Hi @ais , I read this blog post a while ago that I found quite insightful on this topic, thought you might like it too: Why Procrastinators Procrastinate — Wait But Why. It’s definitely something you can train and get better at! :slight_smile:

5

Hey @ais it really does sound frustrating to be stuck in that cycle, procrastinating to relax, then feeling overwhelmed and stressed because the work piles up, and then blaming yourself for it. That’s a really heavy loop to be in, and I can hear how much you want things to be different.

I want to gently push back on one thing you said: you’re not procrastinating because you’re lazy or irresponsible. It sounds more like you’re exhausted, and your phone and lying down are the quickest ways your body knows how to get some relief. Wanting to relax isn’t wrong…though it just ends up costing you more later, which hurts.

What’s painful here is the self-blame. Telling yourself “I caused this myself” over and over can make starting even harder. When stress and shame build up, avoidance actually makes sense as your mind is trying to escape that discomfort for a bit.

Instead of trying to stop procrastinating completely, it might help to start smaller and kinder (these kind of worked for me so I’m sharing them with you :slight_smile: )

  • noticing when you reach for your phone, usually it’s when the task feels big or overwhelming.

  • giving yourself permission to rest, but with a gentle boundary (e.g. “I’ll scroll for 10 minutes, then I’ll just open my notes”)

You don’t have to suddenly become super disciplined. Even doing a tiny part of the work is enough to break the stress spiral. We can figure this out slowly, in a way that doesn’t involve being so hard on yourself. I’m here with you :white_heart: