Procrastination and perfectionism: How Perfectionism causes procrastination

 

Image designed by the author.

You're not alone. We all want to get it right the first time. We all want to get it right right away. As a result, before we start doing anything, we tend to feel a certain way. Doubt our abilities, fear failing, and worry too much about making mistakes. 

It's just the aftermath of perfectionism. There's more. We may feel like this for two reasons:

• There are standards that we have set for ourselves. This could be because we grew up in an environment where perfectionism is highly valued.
• There are standards or rather expectations that have been set for us brother people. They could be our parents.

With perfectionism comes different habits. One of the most common ones is procrastination. Let's look into that. Shall we?

The relationship between procrastination and perfectionism 

How does perfectionism make us procrastinate? It's simple. It depends on the type of perfectionism. Some types of perfectionism increase procrastination while others decrease procrastination.

Let me explain. Maladaptive perfectionism, which is negative perfectionism, increases procrastination. For example, if you're a student, you may work on an assignment for over 2 weeks and you're still afraid of submitting it. 

This is because you doubt your answers, worry about the results, and what other people may think of your work. This may make you to further delay in submitting your work.

Adaptive perfectionism on the other hand decreases procrastination. These are reasonable standards that will make your work a success. These are standards that aim for realistic goals. 

Going with the same example, if you're a student, you might want to submit your work on time to get good grades. Good grades will allow you to get into a good college. Good grades may earn you a scholarship.

There you have it. Procrastination that stems from perfectionism is called perfectionist procrastination. You might be wondering how you would know that you have perfectionist procrastination. Here is how:

1. You spend too much time on a task because of doubts or fear of starting right away.
2. Your statements start with "I have to" instead of "I want to" which is making you see your chores as a burden.
3. Your goals are unrealistic. If you've just started the habit of reading, you want to read 30 pages instead of one page a day.
4. You have a rigid schedule. If you start the task later than a certain time, you won't do it completely. This is because you have an all-or-nothing mentality.
5. You spend too much time researching and plotting how to do a task. This is because you want to ensure you get it right away. You fear making mistakes. This is because you think it will lead to being rejected. 
6. You have a long to-do list. This might not be your fault. With everyone advertising how they're productive 50X, you're meant to doubt your abilities. As a result, you bite more than you can chew. You procrastinate.

Now that we know how to identify perfectionist procrastination, let's see how we can remedy this.

How to overcome perfectionist procrastination

• Make a short to-do list. This will prevent you from being overwhelmed.
• Be willing to learn from your mistakes. Researching and plotting will not prevent you from making mistakes. Mistakes are part of being human. Mistakes are part of the learning process. 

It's only after a series of mistakes that exceptional. None of those champs you admire succeeded with one trial.

• Use a flexible schedule to avoid an all-or-nothing mentality.
• Set deadlines to complete your tasks. If to succeed to follow through with them, award yourself. If you fail to do so penalize yourself. Don't be too hard on yourself here. 

Set reasonable deadlines and allocate yourself a reasonable amount of work that makes it easy for you to do a task. A reasonable amount of work makes it hard to procrastinate.

• Change your statement from "I have to " to "I want to ". Here's an example: "I want to update my blog post" not "I have to update my blog post"

It's a wrap 

Perfectionist procrastination is not an incurable illness. It's something that doesn't require you to toil much. Just start by saying tweak how you think and you be good to go. Baby steps.