Thinking You Have Time But You Don't

It's the usual scene of lying carefreely on the couch or on the bed, probably watching movies or just randomly scrolling through social media. You know you have a lot of things waiting to be done but you just can't bring yourself to start doing them. It's quite a relatable experience for a long of people, and when that alarm goes off for the 10th time, that snooze button comes in handy again.

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One of the things that comes with procrastinating is thinking you have a lot of time. To be very honest, that is one of the hardest nuts to crack. A few more episodes won't hurt, besides I still have a lot of time, you think. It's never so easy picking yourself up and doing what needs to be done right away, it takes a lot of discipline to keep the phone down or whatever distraction it is that is holding you back and doing something relevant.

Procrastination is one problem a lot of people struggle with every time or once in a while like myself. I used to shift tasks a lot while I was younger. I would remember my Mom assigning us chores before leaving for work, only to come back and see me still on that particular chore or sometimes, I don't even finish up by the time she's back. Of course, she doesn't seem happy that I've wasted a lot of time doing nothing meaningful during the day and I get scolded for it.

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When she noticed that I always want to relax a bit before getting on my activities, she told me that wasn't wasn't the way to do things. Do your work first and you'll realize that by the end of the day, you still have some spare time to do other things like engaging in recreational activities. I have tried that a lot of times and it just happens to be a fact. Most days when I procrastinate so much, I end up carrying some work over to the next day, when that happens I often feel overwhelmed with the so much work I have to do. But when I do things at the right time, I don't have to worry about carrying tasks over to the next day.

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Making a list of activities for the day is one thing, the question remains "when am I going to start?". I am not such a morning person, I know days when I have to snooze my alarm so many times before finally dragging myself out of bed. But I figured out that when I start earlier, I get more productive and I even get motivated to do other things in preparation for the next day. One of the things I need to cut out was unnecessary distractions during work periods. There's no harm taking a little break from work and shifting focus, but there's always a temptation in not knowing when to get back to what were doing previously.

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I try as much as possible to keep my phone away when I'm trying to get my work done. Trying to reply texts or distract myself with reels online add to the reasons I procrastinate sometimes. Before I know what going on, I'm running out of time and that's when I start hurrying up, playing the fast and furious in order to catch up with my activities. Reducing screen time when during bed hours is also an ideal thing to do if I have a lot of activities for the next day. It helps me get enough rest and energy to start my day without having to keep snoozing the alarm when it goes off.

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There are times when I have some tasks that gets me overwhelmed when I think of doing it. But as usual, I start doing something right away probably the small ones that are less overwhelming and before you know it, I'm done and onto the next one for the day. The idea is just to start, don't say I'll do it later or there's still so much time left. You'll be very surprised how much time you'll save when you do things at the right time.

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It will be quite normal if you go back to the cycle of procrastinating once in while , don't panic. It takes a lot of time and effort to build a consistent routine, set your every day activity and work towards achieving them without having to shift anything to the next hour. In no time, it's going to become a way of life for you and you'll be happy with the good results afterwards.

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