Is Your Procrastination Protecting You – Or Holding You Back?

When you were a college student, did you procrastinate to work on a paper? When it was close to the deadline, you started to feel stressed and you decided it was time to work on the paper.

As a physician, have you procrastinated to do something, say, writing patient notes? You know you have to finish them, yet you believe there is not enough time to finish each note after seeing the patient. Or the clinical day is so overwhelming that, by default, your goal is to survive – taking care of the patient and everything else (patient documentation and inbox tasks) are put aside for later.

Procrastination is the act of delaying to do something intentionally. Is procrastination always bad?

To answer that question, let us explore why we procrastinate. As I have shared other times that our human brains can only handle focusing on one task at a time. This means that when we carry on with our day, when we prioritize doing something over other tasks, we are procrastinating. Ask yourself if you are procrastinating because that is the best way to get to your goal, or because you are doing it based on an emotional quest.

When I was delaying to finish the patient charts, I had all kinds of legitimate excuses. I was busy. There was no time to write the notes, which was something I did not enjoy doing. I believed that if I spent time finishing each patient’s chart before seeing the next patient, the patients would be upset because they had to wait longer (probably no more than 5 to 10 minutes extra). I was trying to avoid the discomfort of causing someone else to be upset, or so I thought. Instead, I prolonged my work day by working the extra hours after seeing the last patient. It was painful. I was mad at myself for not being efficient while I believed that it was not possible for me to finish each patient chart right away.

It is important to understand why you procrastinate, and be open to question yourself if there is a better way to do things. Or if it is better to shift your priorities. Setting your goal is very important, because that is the guide to how you prioritize the tasks at hand. If you delay doing something, which will result in a delay in achieving your goal, examine to see what is going on. Why would you do something that would take you longer to achieve your goal? The most common reason is an emotional cause, despite knowing intellectually that it negatively affects your efficiency and productivity. It usually involves the desire to feel better or the desire to avoid discomfort. As I shared with you that I delayed patient documentation to avoid the discomfort of having someone upset at me. Or the college students delay doing their class work because they believe it is not an easy task; instead they want instant gratification and do something else instead, such as playing video games, going on social media, or hanging out with their friends.

When you have a clear goal of where you want to be and what you want to achieve, remind yourself what the rewards you will reap when you do not procrastinate based on your emotions. Remind yourself that when you can focus and strategically prioritize and procrastinate, you can achieve your goal faster. Train your mind to appreciate delayed gratification instead of yielding to instant gratification.

We all procrastinate one way or another. To be more efficient, productive and to achieve our goal faster, it is important for us to learn to procrastinate in a way that will lead us to the goal and not away from it. Always examine our lives and our behaviors, without judgment. Examine with curiosity and see if there is a better way to do things. Ask yourself, are you prioritizing and procrastinating in a way that is helpful, or are you doing it to avoid some kind of emotional discomfort? Procrastination is not always bad. Be mindful of what you do and why you do certain things.