Procrastination - "The Real Villain in Time Management"
Are you always short of
time? Do you wish you had more than 24 hours in a day? Well, if you make a list
of things which leads to your poor time management,
you will find a monster in it -Procrastination!
Procrastination
has become one of the biggest challenges for professionals and individuals
alike in managing time. The word procrastination comes from the Latin word, ‘Pro’ meaning “in favour of” and
‘Cras’ meaning “tomorrow”. It is defined therefore as “The act or the habit of
delaying or putting things off’. No doubt it is a one way ticket to stress,
guilt and overwhelm.
Let
me share a funny story I
read which can be linked with procrastination and it's impact. It's the story
of a turtle family. The family consists of Dad, Mom and the Baby turtle. The
Baby turtle was very lazy and always postpones anything and everything assigned
to him.
One
day Mom, Dad and Baby turtle go on a picnic. When they arrive at the park, it
appears that it’s about to rain. Mom turtle asks Baby turtle to run home and
get an umbrella so that they can enjoy the picnic as planned, rain or shine.
Baby turtle as always
said, " No I can't go, why don't you go and get it? ". Dad turtle got
annoyed and gives the Baby turtle an angry look. With a pale face Baby turtle
finally said, “If I go home and get the umbrella, do you promise you won't
start lunch without me?” Mom turtle assures Baby turtle that they will wait for
him before eating.
With
this confirmation, Baby turtle leaves. Ten minutes go by and Baby turtle has
not returned. An hour passes. A full day.
Neither Mom or Dad turtle have eaten anything and become very hungry. They
wonder what is taking Baby turtle so long, and hope he is okay.
Finally,
Mom turtle says to Dad turtle, “Well, he hasn't come back yet. We might as well
eat something.” At which point Baby turtle pokes his head out from behind a
tree and screams, “If you eat, I won't go! I know you will do this, that's why
I was hiding and watching what you will do! ”
Now,
I know this is a silly story, but there is some important message in this
story. The lesson is in the fact that Baby turtle reminds many of us and our
habit of procrastination. His mom told him they would wait for him, but he
chose to hide behind a tree and take rest. He wasted everyone’s time, and
ruined the picnic that was planned, all because he was lazy and did not take
the action required of him.
The question is how can we stop procrastination? If procrastination is a
problem for us, it is important that we learn tools to handle our
procrastination. Procrastination occurs when we are faced with too many
decisions and are unable to complete matters of importance. There are many
reasons why we avoid doing things, sometimes it seems strange that, we know
what we have to do to be successful but we don't do it.
source: google