The plain and easy answer is, you won’t do it tomorrow. There have been times when I will write down the same things on my To-Do List every single day of the week. My excuses include, “I had to work too late,” “I got busy,” “something came up,” or “I didn’t have time.”
Stop it!
When you have things to do, do them! There are some days when you actually don’t have time because something really unexpected came up, but make sure you honestly analyze your situation.
For instance, if you unexpectedly get a flat tire, or you have to tend to a sick family member, that would constitute pushing back some things on your to-do list. However, if you unexpectedly had to purchase milk at the store because the stuff you had at home went bad, that’s not an excuse to brush things off of your to-do list. Here are a few reasons why you should stop saying, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”
You disappoint people when you put things off.
People may be expecting or looking forward to the things you said you were going to do. If you fail to do what you said you would, you lose credibility and the trust of those people. If you do this consistently, they will find others to rely on and learn not to entrust you with tasks you may actually enjoy.
You damage your reputation.
Like I said above, you lose credibility when you continuously put off tasks. People aren’t going to want to work with you, or worse yet, they will let other people know that you don’t keep your word, and even they won’t want to work with you. That’s not a reputation that will serve you, so you need to work really hard to show that you are dependable and reliable. If you want to gain success, you want to be known as the person to go to!
None of your tasks get done, so you have a giant pile of tasks.
This one seems so obvious, but it’s so important! If you keep putting things off, they’ll never get done! If you had just done what you were supposed to do when you said you would, it would already be finished. And because of that, you wouldn’t have to stress out about all the things you have to do! Don’t let your responsibilities build up to the point where they are unapproachable, because let’s face it, they’d never get done at that point.
When I start feeling overwhelmed with responsibilities, I will make a checklist of all the things I need to do, and from there, I will sort them from highest priority to lowest priority. If there are a lot of things on my list, I simply divide them up and do a few each day. It’s crucial not to overwork yourself, or you will burn out. Just take it easy!
It becomes a habit.
Procrastination is nothing more than a bad habit, and although it’s not easy, it is something you can break. All habits can be broken if you work hard enough. Don’t let yourself fall into a cycle of laziness, because it only ends up creating more laziness. I wish I had a good tip on how to get over bad habits, but all I can say is, focus really hard on what you are trying to accomplish. Continue to remind yourself about how important it is to keep reaching toward your goals, and don’t forget that little progress is still progress.
Tomorrow really doesn’t exist.
People stress out about the future all the time, but all you really need to worry about is what you are doing right now. What you do now will either help you or hinder you when the time comes to deal with the task you will eventually be faced with, so it’s probably better to do what needs to get done when you have the ability to do it. Don’t sell yourself short, you can accomplish a lot more than you think you can!
At the end of the day, everyone wants to be happy and stress-free. Procrastinating definitely doesn’t make me happy, and I can’t imagine it makes anyone that happy in the end. So next time you are faced with a task, just do it! You will thank yourself later!
Δ Abbi