Imagine a world where procrastination doesn’t exist.

People won’t feel stressed, overwhelmed or upset just by looking at their tasks for the day. No one would complain about, analyze, fear or put off what needs to be done. They will just do it. By simply starting, being focused, doing a small part of it, and then the next one.

Then many more people would be successful. Many books would have been finished and published. Many goals would have been achieved and dreams – come true.

But that’s not the world we live in. Although it might be.

We let procrastination – the desire to do anything else but the important task in front of us – control us.

It leads us to dark places, where we feel hopeless. We turn to distractions, face fear and anxiety, we don’t feel happy, we think and analyze too much and never feel accomplished.

We put things off for later.

But later becomes never. And things don’t get done.

But if we really understand what’s going on when we try to start working on a task, we’ll see that it’s not procrastination itself, but other elements.

Like worrying about not having enough time to complete it, not being ready, or thinking we’re not good enough to do that. Having many others things to do, not being sure if it’s that important, not knowing where to start or what to do, not being sure if now is the right time, etc.

These are all excuses our mind comes up with. And they’re an illusion.

But if we eliminate them, all that is left will be us and the task. And when nothing can stop us from doing it, we’ll just start.

So our goal here is to get rid of all these thoughts and focus.

The best way to do this is to let go.

To let the process of getting things done be, by just relaxing, breathing deeply and starting to work on your first most important thing with a smile on your face.

You know what getting it done means to you, all the benefits it will bring and how good this will make you feel about yourself. Why ruin all that?

Procrastination itself is nothing, if we don’t give it power by paying attention to it.

What we need to let go of is not procrastination itself, but the need to putt off things for later, the idea that we can do something else and come back to this project in the future and things will be alright, the excuses you come up with as to why now is not the perfect time…

Here is how letting go saves you from procrastination:

  • you ignore mistakes from the past, and that makes your fear of failure go away;
  • you stop thinking about the outcome, what might go wrong and whether you’ll fail or not;
  • you don’t compare – saying that the task is too big, hard or takes a lot of time, means that you’re comparing it to another one;
  •  you don’t judge – you just start working on it, you don’t think whether you’re doing it right;
  • you focus on the present moment – that’s where the magic happens, and being concentrated here and now is what helps you finish your work;
  • you don’t hold onto ideals – you let go of how you think things should turn out and just go with the flow, let things be.

Letting go is a freeing process that brings peace. It helps you see things from a more realistic point of view, and not through the prism of past and future.

And thus it can help you overcome procrastination. By being mindful of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, you can be productive.

So let go of everything else but the task itself. See it for the beautiful opportunity it is for making this day successful, yourself – more proud, your future – brighter. And – once that becomes a habit – having a better life in general.

Do you struggle with procrastination?