When you put off thing that you should be working on right now, and focus on doing something else you are procrastinating.According to psychologist Professor Clarry Lay, a prominent writer on the topic, procrastination occurs when there's "a temporal gap between intended behavior and enacted behavior." In simple terms, it happens when there's a significant time period between when people intend to do a job, and when they actually do it.
Some useful indicators that will help you know when you're procrastinating:
* Working on low priority
* Going Reading e-mails several times a day without an agenda.
* Too many coffee breaks.
* Putting off important things to do right now.
* Waiting for the "right mood" or the "right time" to tackle the important task at hand.
Why you procrastinate can depend on both you and the task. But it's important to understand which of the two is relevant in a given situation, so that you can select the best approach for overcoming your reluctance to get going.
People procrastinate for a variety of reason. The main reason is that they find the work unpleasant or difficult. The easiest and fastest way to deal with is simply to go head on with your work and get it over with.
Being disorganized is another cause for procrastinating. When we leave our things all over the place. We spent time looking fro things and getting distracted.
Sometimes. A project is too big to handle. You feel overwhelmed by it. The best way to work on this is chew on it in small size. Break down your task at hand.
If you are a perfectionists you will be prone to procrastinating as well. You want to do things perfectly. So you tell yourself, I won't do it because I don't have all the resources and skills to do it the way I want perfectly.
One final major cause of procrastination is having underdeveloped decision-making skills. If you simply can't decide what to do, you're likely to put off taking action in case you do the wrong thing.
Be honest with yourself. If you know you are putting things off admit it. Ask yourself why are you doing it. Nobody is perfect. Life is a work in progress.