Procrastination: How to Fight the 'Thief of Time'
In Spanish, the word mañana — which means "tomorrow" — can also be used to refer to any time in the future. It could actually be tomorrow, but it may also be the day after, a month, or maybe even years from now.
You might, for example, hear it from a student who decides to watch Netflix all evening, because they'll do their big project "mañana."
Of course, this is just something that many of us do — procrastinating.
Procrastination has been called the "thief of time," and for most people it's a way to delay doing something they need to do.
But for some, it's more serious, stopping them from doing things they want to do in life. If not managed, it can even affect their health.
Fuschia Sirois, from the University of Durham in England, says procrastination is not about the way we manage our time, but how we manage our emotions.
She believes there must be something we don't like about the activity we're delaying: it could be difficult and we're afraid of failure, or maybe it's just boring. So by putting it aside, we get "an immediate feeling of relief," she told The Guardian in August 2022.
That's why we browse online, or look out the window, or go to make a drink — they're soothing activities.
However, she adds that this relief is temporary, and it will "come back to haunt us."
So what can procrastinators do to combat this?
Awareness is an important first step, according to life coach Dominic Voge. Think about why you're procrastinating and how you feel when you're doing it.
Then, break your task down into smaller pieces, and work step by step, beginning by doing a small piece before coming back to it later.
Voge compares it to Swiss cheese: make one hole now, then another later, and before you know it you've made holes all over that task, so when you get back to it there's less to complete — and you can get it done long before mañana comes.
