Note: This article is based on the work of the author Darius Foroux, in which he tells us about the reason that drove him to procrastinate in his life.
The company had a system that would automatically call the next client as soon as the first client hang out the phone. For this, you have to be on the phone constantly. However, I found a loophole in this process.
After every call, you had to log your activity on the system, and as a professional procrastinator, I took a great deal of time to draft a lengthy summary of the call. In other words, I would do whatever it takes to postpone the next call.
I also procrastinated during my college years. While pursuing a master's degree in marketing, I often waited until the last minute to finish an assignment or study for an exam.
I also procrastinated when I worked as a freelance marketing consultant after I graduated. I didn't understand why I put things off until the last minute. I thought it was part of my personality. Most of my friends, like me, would rather sit and have some fun than work.
This is what I believed in, "You only engage in business because you need the money and the status, not because you enjoy it." Unfortunately, most of us think this is the truth, and I couldn't understand why people procrastinate.
Fortunately, my procrastination behavior changed, and it wasn't some magic productivity trick or some kind of software that turned me into a productivity machine. I'm more productive and focused than ever before, and more satisfied with my work than I was in the past.
What Pushes People To Procrastinate Is That They Aren't Passionate Enough About What They Are Doing
The secret is to do what you love. Working isn’t a bad thing at all. I like to write, which is why I do it 7 days a week. However, I didn’t like my previous jobs, nor the small businesses I started.
I used to think that we procrastinate because of our poor time management skills, which is why I tried every productivity trick, system, and program, but they are all useless when compared to doing meaningful work. In short, if you want to achieve something great, do the important things.
Productivity tricks get a lot of attention, and more and more often, people offer time management tips as a solution. Time management somehow reminds me of speed reading. Most of us would like to read quickly to finish more books in less time. However, I enjoy reading, and I don't want to spend less time doing it. We seem to want to skip the actual work and focus only on the outcome.
As Ryan Holiday, author of Obstacle Is The Way, puts it in his article on speed-reading: “If you find yourself wanting to speed up the process of reading a particular book, you might want to ask yourself, ‘Is this book Good?’” Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy reading.
I think you can apply Ryan's quote to your life and career as well. Life is too short to do something you don't enjoy, and no matter how many productivity tricks you try, you won't produce more if you're not passionate about what you're doing.
If you find yourself constantly procrastinating, you might want to ask yourself the following, "Am I passionate about my work?"
If the answer is no, then you know what to do, which is to find something you are so passionate about that you don't want to put it off for a second. Since we all know that time is limited, why not act accordingly? And if you know you have a limited time on this planet, why waste it?
“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them." The Roman Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
I believe in the idea of doing what you are passionate about. However, I also tend to praise doing what you are good at, but following the middle path is a virtue. In other words, it is to love what you do and be good at it at the same time.
Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, says work and passion go hand in hand. When we're really good at our job, we often become passionate about it.
In Conclusion
I'm not saying that productivity tricks are pointless. I've written plenty of productivity tips that have improved my results and my productivity. What I'm saying is that the best solution to procrastination is to be passionate about what you're doing. Procrastination can be a sign that you're doing something meaningless. So, don't let it become a habit. After all, procrastination can make you abandon your dreams and goals.
If you are waiting for the right time, the American philosopher Benjamin Franklin said to you: “You may postpone, but time does not.”
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