Procrastination occurs when you put off important tasks despite knowing they need to be completed. Instead of taking action, you may find yourself engaging in simpler or more enjoyable activities. This habit is often driven by fear, perfectionism, low motivation, or feeling overwhelmed. While delaying tasks might provide temporary comfort, it usually results in stress, guilt, and last-minute pressure. Overcoming procrastination involves starting with small steps, setting clear deadlines, and minimizing distractions.
Why do we procastinate?
Fear of losing or failure: What If I screw this up?
I will do it later attitude: I have enough time, I can do it later.
Waiting for perfectionism: It has to be perfect or I shall not do it at all
Overwhelmed by the task: The task is too big, I do not know from where to start
Not motivated enough: I just do not feel like doing it
How to break free from Procastination
Start small – Work on a task for just 5 minutes.
Set personal deadlines – Stay accountable even without external pressure.
Use the 2-minute rule – Finish quick tasks immediately.
Eliminate distractions – Keep your phone away and use focus tools.
Reward progress – Treat yourself after completing tasks.
We all have found ourselves thinking too much in our day-to-day life. We overthink about scenarios which might never happen, we overthink, live in that scenario and suffer. It is an endless loop which can be very exhausting. You might believe that by thinking too much about certain problems or scenarios you may find a solution to it. However, in reality you are just wasting your time by putting all your energy in thinking about it instead of taking a productive action.
It is okay to think long & hard when taking an important decision in your life, ex: which university to select, which career path to choose or before breaking an important relationship. In fact, you should think carefully about the outcomes in such scenarios but what is not okay is to inculcate this habit in your daily life, to overthink about even tiny life choices. I understand overthinking is a hard habit to break but trust me it is not impossible.
How to break the overthinking cycle?
You can not be in your head all the time. It will not happen overnight but lets try few tips & tricks to manage our overthinking.
Let go off what you can not control
Write it down
When you find yourself stuck in an endless loop of over analyzing and overthinking, do not let it over power you instead sit with it. Start a journal, start writing your thoughts, start writing about the problems & thoughts that are triggering you. When you sit with it you will realize that either you have a solution for it or not. If you have a solution for it then its time to stop overthinking about it and take a productive action. However, if you do not have any solution to your problem, it deserves to be free from your mind. If something is beyond your control you need to let go of it, for your own wellbeing.
If it is out of your hands, it deserves freedom from your mind too.
Ivan Nuru.
Practice Mindfulness
FOCUS
Do you realize we only overthink about the situations which has already happened in the past or might happen in future. What is missing here? The “Present” . We keep on worrying about the past & future without living in the present. We have to realize that the past is gone, it can never come back and the future, well nobody has seen it, it might or might not even come. So all you need to do is focus in the present and practicing mindfulness will help you achieve that. Below are the few things that will help you practice mindfulness and calm your over active mind.
Focus on your breath.
Meditation
Yoga
Use grounding techniques
Observe your thoughts
Ask yourself:
Is your thought based on a fact or is just an assumption.
Will this matter in a week, a month, or a year?
What is the worst possible outcome that can come of this situation? Can I handle it. (Most of the time worst possible outcome is not as bad as we imagine it to be.
Everything starts from your head, force yourself to bring back your thought to present and focus on something positive or some activity.
