January and February have been brutal: the shorter daylight hours, the cold weather, and the inability to stay outdoor for a long period of time. You might feel extra groggy and tired. Some people describe it as a mind fog. Everything just seems to be slowing down. And reasonably, you might not be as motivated to do things as you are in the summer months.
Procrastination has such a negative connotation in our everyday language. It is somehow often associated with laziness. But if you are someone who procrastinates, does it mean that you are lazy? Not necessarily.
When trying to overcome procrastination, you need to first understand the root of this tendency. It could be the underlying anxiety that’s driving your procrastination. Or maybe it’s the lack of interest of what you’re supposed to do. Working through an anxiety looks quite different from figuring out how to motivate yourself despite the lack of interest - which is why it’s important to understand the underlying causes of procrastination.
Here are some of the reasons behind our lack of motivation:
Lack of interest
Maybe the task that you are working on is just plain boring. Maybe anyone would find it tedious and uninteresting, which explains why it’s so difficult for you to get started – anyone would. This is completely different from “It’s my problem. I’m just lazy”.
Having the understanding of “it’s not just me” also takes away some of the shame associated with procrastination.
Fear of failure, of not doing a good job, & of judgment
When there are tasks that you’re required to completed (either for school or for work), there are expectations and evaluations, and with expectations come the possibility of failure and of disappointing others. The fear of not meeting these expectations often contributes to our procrastination. It is counterproductive though, as procrastination takes away time that we could’ve allocated to these tasks. If we continue to procrastinate, “not meeting expectations” is guaranteed. It makes no logical sense to procrastinate in this situation.
Actions and behaviours driven by fear tend to be counterproductive, as fear immobilizes us and prevents us from making sound decision. We also fail to think long-term when we are driven by fear. To some people, the idea of “failing” elicits strong emotions. Sometimes people describe feeling like they are frozen. Are you one of these people? Do you think you can still push yourself to initiate a task when you are feeling this way?
Usually behind the fear of failing is the fear of judgment from others. This fear also immobilizes us. The reality is that getting any kind of tasks done entails judgment from your coworkers or boss. That is the nature of a job. You are constantly evaluated – it’s not something that we can escape from. Working through the anxiety of judgment is what you need to focus on. If the fear of judgment resonates with you as you procrastinate, ask yourself: Why are you worried about how others view you? Is your identity closely tied to your job?
Fear of Uncertainty
Think of a specific task that you have been procrastinating on, are you unsure how/ where to start? Sometimes the fear of uncertainty is what prevents us from getting started. Perhaps you feel overwhelmed because the work entails many “parts”, and thinking about all these parts just seems so complicated and overwhelming.
Perhaps you tend to avoid tasks where you can’t clearly see each step from beginning to end. Is the feeling of “not knowing what I’m doing” overwhelming? Do you tend to overcomplicate things by being fixated on the details instead of thinking about the big picture?
Low Self esteem and expectation of a negative outcome
Are you held back by negative beliefs about your abilities? Are you constantly immobilized by the feelings of incompetence? The lack of confidence in your abilities often stops us from getting started in the first place. Moreover, do you expect there to be a negative outcome after you put in all the work? For instance, do you expect a lot of hiccups along the way? Do you expect yourself to do a poor job, which then will cause others to doubt your competence? Do you find yourself jumping to conclusions about your abilities to get work done?
If this applies to you, perhaps what you need is to increase your confidence and to correct those maladaptive beliefs about yourself. If you are genuinely unsure about your skills and competence, what can you do? Can you further develop your professional skills, or seek advice from others? You need to work through these negative beliefs about yourself before tackling the lack of motivation.
Concentration difficulty
When we keep getting distracted, it makes it so much more difficult to get things done. When you find yourself getting distracted every few minutes, what’s the point of even getting started? It is tempting to just procrastinate.
If concentration is what you are struggling with, you need to figure out why you keep getting distracted. What are you distracted by?
Low mood/ fatigue
Check in with yourself. What’s your mood and energy level like? Fatigue and feeling low make it much harder to get work done. Are you burned out? Are you feeling sad? It might be more productive to explore the reasons behind your low mood and fatigue, than to push yourself to initiate a task. Are you taking enough breaks throughout the day? How is your sleep and appetite? These are all important elements that determine our level of motivation.
Feeling overwhelmed
When you are trying to start a task, if one of the first thoughts that comes to mind is: “I don't know where to begin”, then you are likely procrastinating because of the overwhelming feeling that you get whenever you think about initiating the task.
Putting things off does make you feel temporarily better if you’re already feeling overwhelmed, especially if the source of this awful feeling is the task itself. It’s not like you can vividly see yourself succeed anyway.
If this resonates with you, you need to figure out where the overwhelming feeling is coming from. Is this task particularly challenging? Does it involve too many steps? Pick one small thing that you can complete that will contribute to your larger goal. Focus on one thing at a time, and try not to think about the other parts while you are focused on this one thing.
As you can see, there are many underlying factors that lead to procrastination.
Procrastination is just the tip of the iceberg, and without addressing the underlying causes, it is much more difficult to motivate yourself. Asking yourself “What is stopping me from getting this done” might shed light on what the core issue is. If your answer is “my laziness”, dig deeper.
We are still in the middle of a global pandemic…
Last but not least, please remember that we are still in the middle of a pandemic. The world we are living in right now is not normal - having to stay home all the time and being restricted in our socializing is not normal.
We are social animals, and we do need social motivation to help us get things done. Do you find that it’s easier to stay focused when people around you are also concentrating on their work? Right now, you don’t have that social motivation, and naturally, it should be more challenging to feel motivated. A task that usually takes 4 hours to complete, might now take 8 hours. Lack of motivation contributes to decreased efficiency.
Also, please remember that you are not alone in this – chances are many of your coworkers are feeling the same. They might not always share their struggles with you, which creates an illusion that everyone else is coping well, but you.
Because of how long this pandemic has lasted, it’s easy to forget that the world we are in right now is not normal. When we forget that, we’ll start to have expectations that might have been reasonable under normal circumstances. These expectations might not be reasonable right now because of the lack of presence of our coworkers, along with other stressors that also contribute to our decreased abilities.
The next time these questions come up, remind yourself that you are still in a global pandemic. It being an ongoing stressor for a year now doesn’t mean that its negative impact diminishes overtime.
The longer it lasts, the more draining it becomes. It’s like running a never ending marathon.
This is no longer a temporary challenge, contrary to what you might have thought last year this time. The uncertainty of the future also makes it more difficult to cope.
I’m not saying that we should let the pandemic be our excuse for everything. But sometimes, especially when you are feeling stuck and that inner critic is particularly loud, being tough on yourself will only lead to further withdrawal and self loathing. What happens if you’re just a little more understanding, and cut yourself some slack?
I will be further discussing strategies that might help with motivation in the next post, so stay tuned!