Procrastination
Procrastination is the act of unnecessarily postponing decisions or actions. For example, if you need to write a report for work, but end up reading the news online even though you know you should be working, that means that you’re procrastinating.
Procrastination is often detrimental to people’s ability to successfully pursue their goals, which is evident, for example, in the fact that procrastination is associated with receiving worse grades at school and earning a lower salary at work. Furthermore, procrastination is also associated with a wide range of other issues, such as increased anxiety and a negative impact on our physical and mental health.
People often assume that procrastination is simply a matter of willpower, but in reality, the situation is far more complex than that.
How does Strategic Hypnotherapy work with Procrastination?
With procrastination it is not unusual for people to want something, but not be willing to pay the price for it. Whilst goals are typically spoken about in terms of benefits there is always a price to be paid. Consciously the client has not truly recognised what it will take to achieve the outcome, or unconsciously is not willing to pay the price for the outcome. This is a faulty thought process the client is running.
However if I was to talk with the client I would not have any trouble having the client detail to me how they are able to run a goal achievement process in other parts of their lives. So…..it is not as if the client does not have the process within them for achieving goals. It is not as if I am having to teach the client how to build this process. Afterall, the client has set a goal of coming to see me and has managed to achieve this goal successfully. The very fact the client is sitting with me in a session is confirmation the client can successfully run this process.
Rather, it is the reasons that sit behind the clients choice of process that I will work on with the client - as there is a process around good and bad choices the client is running.
For you to get maximum benefits from your Procrastination Clinical Hypnotherapy sessions, typically allow for between 3 - 6 Sessions depending on the levels of these and any underlying comorbid mental health concerns
What Causes Procrastination?
When faced with a decision to make or a task to complete, we usually rely on our self-control in order to push ourselves to get things done. Furthermore, our motivation, which is based on the expectation of receiving some reward for our efforts, can support our self-control, and make it more likely that we will get things done in a timely manner.
However, there are also various demotivating and hindering factors that we can experience, which have an opposite effect than our motivation, meaning that they make us more likely to procrastinate.
For example, anxiety, fear of failure, and other negative emotions can cause us to delay unnecessarily, as can being given a task that is unpleasant.
There are some hindering factors that interfere with our self-control and motivation, in a way that also makes us more susceptible to procrastination.
For example, exhaustion, which occurs as a result of having to work hard all day, can make it more difficult for us to exert self-control if it’s already late at night.
Similarly, a large gap between the time when we complete a task and the time at which we will receive the reward for completing it (a hindering factor) can cause us to discount the value of this reward, which means that its motivational value will be greatly reduced.
As long as our self-control and motivation outweigh the effects of demotivating factors, despite the hindering factors that interfere with them, we manage to get our work done in a timely manner. However, when all the negative factors outweigh our self-control and motivation, we end up procrastinating, by putting off our work either indefinitely, or until some future point in time when the balance shifts in our favour.
Overall, we procrastinate because our self-control and motivation, which might be hindered by factors such as exhaustion and rewards that are far in the future, are outweighed by demotivating and hindering factors, such as anxiety and fear of failure.
The good news is there are strategies and tools available to assist you to overcome Procrastination
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