Have you ever missed out on an opportunity because you waited too long to decide that you wanted that opportunity? Unfortunately, this happens to people all the time, and the main culprit is procrastination.
Today’s quote speaks to this phenomenon and reminds us that no opportunity is available forever. We need to stop procrastinating and take opportunities when they present themselves.
Dangers of Procrastination
We have all been there: we put off doing things that we should be doing until the last minute or until we don’t end up doing those things at all.
Procrastination is a common problem, and it seems to be becoming a more normalized occurrence in society. However, procrastination can be dangerous for several reasons. Let’s take a look at a few of them:
Missed Opportunities
Procrastinating in the decision-making process can lead us to miss out on important and life-changing opportunities.
As an example, consider the following scenario: An employer reaches out to you and is interested in bringing you in for an interview, but you don’t respond to them for two weeks because you procrastinate. To the employer, you appear disinterested in the position, and they move on to another candidate. Outcome: you lost a great job opportunity.
Lack of Advancement
Stemming from the previous danger, procrastination can cause you to remain at a standstill in life. When you put things off rather than tackling them right away, you prevent yourself from making any progress. This can affect your relationships, work performance, and personal growth.
Decreased Well-Being
Most importantly, procrastination can be detrimental to your overall well-being. Procrastination causes unnecessary added stress to your life which decreases happiness, damages your immune system, worsens your mental health, and prevents you from getting help to fix it.
How to Avoid Procrastinating and Accept Opportunities
Luckily, there are several ways you can go about avoiding procrastination and opening yourself up to new opportunities. Here are four tips you can use to start advancing your life today:
Break Up Tasks into Smaller Tasks
Sometimes we procrastinate because a task or a decision seems too big and too time-consuming. You can help yourself out by breaking overwhelming tasks up into multiple smaller tasks and focusing on completing one small task at a time.
Give Yourself a Shorter Decision Timeline
Our brains are interesting; when given a deadline, we tend to put things off until close to the deadline. So, if we are given a deadline that is two weeks from now, we tend to do no work for the first week and a half. Weird, right?
The great news is that you can trick your brain by setting earlier deadlines for yourself. For example, if you have a paper that is due in a month, set earlier deadlines for each portion of the paper. Aim to have the introduction written in the first week, then aim for two body paragraphs the week after.
These smaller deadlines will keep you on a better track to a larger goal.
Focus on Your Goals
Having goals in life is extremely important as goals drive you to be better. Focusing on your goals can help you avoid procrastination because you know what you need to do in order to reach those goals.
Allow Yourself to Make Mistakes
Finally, be willing to make mistakes. Perfectionism is another leading cause of procrastination because the fear of failure gets in the way of even trying in the first place. Give yourself permission to fail and go for it. You’ll be happy that you did.
Whenever you find yourself procrastinating, remember that “Time and tide wait for none.” Life is happening now. Go after what you want in life while you still have the opportunity to do so.
