The 6 Stages of Procrastination

I hope you’ve all had a nice week. Thank you all so much for the great feedback I’ve been getting on my spring posts lately 🙂 . I’ve been working on ‘The 6 Stages of Procrastination’ for quite some time now, and I’m so happy to finally be able to share it with you guys!

I don’t possess many qualifications, if any really. But I think it’s safe to say that were procrastination an Olympic sport  I would have all the gold medals. Or at least, I’d think about getting them. I’d probably have other stuff to do first. I’d get them at some point though. Maybe later…

Seriously though, I hope you guys enjoy it and – if you’re procrastinators like me, let me know if you recognise these stages as well. Or, if you know how to actually be a sane, organised human being please comment down below and share your secret!

Stage 1 – The Blissful Ignorance 

Some, admittedly naive, people may claim that the key to accomplishing a task successfully is to begin by acknowledging it… But that’s just ridiculous. Obviously, the best way to deal with your problems is to pretend they don’t exist.

Stage 2 – The Complaining

Once the denial stage has run its course, and you’re slowly realising that you can’t avoid reality forever, you move on to step 2 – acknowledgment. By this I mean notifying everyone in the universe that you have work to do. Because why start working, when you could spend hours complaining to your friends about  how little time you have instead?

Stage 3 – The Delay

Once you’ve accepted the fact that you have work to do, the next step is to do everything in your power to avoid starting said work. This stage is characterised by the classic Google search “how to stop procrastinating” and the advanced calculations necessary to determine just how far you can push your deadline. Your motto in this stage is, “Why do today what you can do tomorrow?”. You start making up all these excuses, randomly cleaning your room, getting distracted by anything you see. And all the while, you tell yourself that you still have enough time left, even though you know it’s a lie you’ll live to regret.

Stage 4 – The To-Do List

Eventually, you’ll reach a point where a short burst of motivation will inspire you to pull out a pen and paper, or perhaps a phone and notes app (who knows what you kids are up to nowadays), and write a to-do list. Now this is when you’ll start convincing yourself that you are an organised, proactive person who has their life together.  Why? Because in your mind, writing down all the jobs you need to do, in order of priority and with little check boxes scribbled beside each task,  is the equivalent of doing half the work.

Stage 5 – The Busy Bee 

There’s a common misconception that procrastinators aren’t productive. I beg to differ. Let me tell you, when procrastinators have a job to do, they become the most busy people in the world…doing everything except start work on what they actually need to do. Have a ten page essay due tomorrow? Sounds like the perfect time to take up skiing, flamenco dancing and learn to speak Estonian.

Stage 6 – The Last Minute Panic

Now, inevitably the cycle of procrastination will end with an emotional breakdown right before your deadline. Often, this will be Sunday night where you have to finally admit to yourself that if you don’t start working now, the work just won’t get done at all. From here on there are two possible outcomes. One, you do the work, tired and frustrated, to a relatively mediocre standard and promise yourself you’ll never procrastinate again. Or, for the truly experienced like myself, will spend the remaining amount of time devising a suitable lie that will temporarily get you out of this situation. In both cases it’s only a matter of time before you’re back at stage 1, ready to repeat the whole process again.

 

Did you enjoy this post? Make sure to like and comment below if you can relate or if you’re one of those crazy people who actually get work done!

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