Checking In – How Is It Really Going

It has been 7 months since I started this blog. WOW!! Hard to believe, really.

How has it been going? Good question. Hhhmmmm how do I answer that? It’s been an up and down journey for sure.

I guess I would start out by saying just the fact that I am still going is success in my book. I have realized over time that I am much more of a starter than a finisher.

What does that mean? Well I have a lot of great ideas and have lots of motivation to start so many things. But over time many different things get in the way of actually continuing the commitment and finishing things.

So truly, even though it hasn’t always been smooth sailing to get to this point, I know I should celebrate the success of getting this far.

What about you? Are you a finisher or a starter? Are you a procrastinator or many times given up on things too early?

I was so interested in learning more about procrastination I did some research and I found out some surprising things. If you don’t mind, I thought I would share some of them with you. You might just find them interesting too.

Studies suggest that procrastination chronically affects 15%–20% of adults, and that about 25% of adults consider procrastination to be a defining personality trait for them. That sounds about right to me. I know lots of people who openly admit that.

Approximately half (50.7%) of the people who were surveyed reported frequently using the internet to procrastinate. Raise your hand if you have ever done that. Come on, you can admit it. I do it too!

There is one survey where 94% of people indicated that procrastination has a negative effect on their happiness, and 18% indicated that this effect is extremely negative. That is is really big, and something that I will need to think about. I am pretty sure I agree with it though. Procrastination really does have a negative effect. The consequences of that effect probably depends on each person but the effect is still there to some level.

There is a pretty clear connection between procrastination and agreement with the statement “No matter how much I try, I still put things off”, which suggests that procrastination is often involuntary. What are your thoughts about that? Why would that be involuntary? Do you think it’s voluntary?

An analysis through many studies found a positive correlation between procrastination and depression. So they are definitely connected. I don’t really find that a surprise. I found that when I was really struggling with depression I was paralyzed in to inaction, and really didn’t accomplish many things. Years later, I am still working to catch up on things I didn’t accomplish in those years.

People sometimes procrastinate due to an underlying fear of failure. For example, in two separate studies that used an open-ended questionnaire, 7%–16% of people gave fear of failure as a reason for procrastination, and a larger analysis found a positive connection between fear of failure and procrastination. Fear of failure has such a strong hold of so many. I can admit, I am in this group too.

Did you know that you can group procrastinators into five major subgroups? I sure didn’t. Here they are with about how many people are in each group. Where do you think you fit?

Mild procrastinators (24.93% of people),

Average procrastinators (27.89% of people),

Severe procrastinators (21.69% of people),

Primarily depressed procrastinators (11.55% of people, who procrastinate primarily because of an underlying depression), and

Well-adjusted procrastinators (13.94% of people, who procrastinate regularly but are generally not negatively affected by it).

People generally characterize procrastination as a negative behaviour. Yup, I have to agree with that. What about you? Do you see procrastination as a negative? Over 95% of procrastinators wish to reduce it. That is a lot of people.

How about you? Are you a procrastinator who wishes things to change? Some of these statistics are pretty shocking. But I know there is hope. We aren’t required to stay where are or to continue to be who we are today.

There is always opportunity to change and grow. But we need to have grace for who we are and hope for who we can be. As you and I both know, we are not perfect people. Change and growth takes time.

Click here to read more about how to stop procrastinating. There is definitely hope for both of us to improve and maybe procrastinate just a little bit less.

Thanks for reading this friend. I pray that you have grace for who you are today and strength to change. I believe in you.

Comment below if you have any thoughts about this. Or shoot me a personal message through the contact form on the site. I would love it if you like this enough to share it with others. Please SUBSCRIBE in the box above, it helps you know more of what’s going on and get special access.

Stats and info derived from https://solvingprocrastination.com/procrastination-statistics/