I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments – Psalm 119:60

Often people mistake procrastination for “laziness”. They talk about it as if were some nasty character flaw.

Procrastination has nothing to do with being lazy. Procrastination is making a decision for no valid reason to delay or not complete a task or goal you’ve committed to, instead of doing something of lesser importance, despite there being negative consequences to not following through on the original mission or goal.

Procrastination is, in some way, an intentional decision. It may happen very fast, almost automatically, and be like a habit, so often you may not even realize that you’ve made the decision. Being a procrastinator doesn’t mean you are a person who puts off doing everything in life, although this may be the case for some.

There are many different areas in our lives where we can procrastinate. Some of the areas can be such as study or work projects, health check-ups, or exercise routines. Any task we need to complete, any problem we need to solve, or any goal we might want to achieve can be a source of procrastination.

Many times, we will use excuses to make us feel better when we delay something, such as “I’m too tired; I’ll do it tomorrow.” “It is too nice a day to spend on this,” or “I’m too busy to do it now.”

The thing with these excuses is that there is often some truth to them. For example, it may be true that you are tired, or it is a nice day, or you don’t have enough time; the problem is that you then conclude from these truths that it is OK not to do the task now, but to leave it to another time.

People will often beat themselves up and become highly self-critical as a consequence of their procrastination, and generally, when you do self-criticism, it often makes the task or goal like a chore, and the unmotivated you will feel overwhelmed, which will keep the procrastinating to be continued. The more you put something off, the more task piles up around you, and the more overwhelming it will make you want to avoid it.

To get a handle on procrastinating, make a list of things you desire to do and make a time frame when you want to complete the task. Don’t make all of your tasks easy, but make some problematic. Make a note of why you want to avoid doing the task, then make a conscious decision you will complete the task.

The word I can’t shouldn’t come out of your mouth or even your thoughts, especially if you’re a believer. God has gifted us with the ability to accomplish anything we set our minds to do. Look at procrastination as another way the adversary will keep you from reaching your goals by a hindrance, using you to defeat yourself.

 Procrastination is another way to stagnate your spiritual growth; when it’s time to pray or read the Bible, you will think of all the things you can do or need to do and the reason why you’re not praying or reading the Bible. The Bible says we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus, but in order to conquer, we must have a challenge.

We must also know the more we procrastinate the more we’re missing out on receiving knowledge that will assist us with our spiritual walk as well as give us wisdom and knowledge for our natural life. Procrastination is something that can hinder us naturally as well as spiritually, but through the grace of God, we can conquer procrastination and anything else that will come to hinder and stop our success.