Procrastination is not what you think.

One fateful day, in the dead of the night, I shocked sickness.

I had for three days been struggling with a throbbing pain in my neck.

My throat was sore like an open wound. I couldn’t swallow spit or water, plus I also had migraine.

On that fateful night, I was preparing for my directing project. It was windy and rain was splattering all around, but I had scheduled an overnight dress rehearsal for my actors and set hands.

Normally, overnight rehearsals are pretty stressful, so to make it worthwhile for actors, directors try to provide incentives.

Incentives come in the shape of snacks or drinks, but because of how excited I was for my final project, I decided to do both to improve morale.

I served them all a plate of toasted bread and egg with cold drinks. I know it seems so mundane, but gosh, you should have smelt how sweetly the scent filled our noses.

In fact, I had to take a little break so that my actors and set hands could enjoy their meal and then come back to the stage for our final run.

It is important to tell you at this point that I had not eaten all day because of the nature of my throat.

I was weak and almost falling off my feet, plus the sweet smell of the food had started lulling me to its music.

I picked one of the bread and egg; struggled to sip some drink into my throat.

Then, looking at my food with the consternation of one who was prepared for war, I swallowed the bread and it was not funny.

It felt like I was forcing a hammer down my throat. Even as I write this, I still remember barely the pain.

I forced it oh. Didn’t care one bit, plus the meal tasted divine.

But I noticed that after the rehearsal, my sore throat and headache had vanished like it never existed.

How did this happen? I thought to myself.

But in a way, I was aware how it happened. I had forced myself back to health. In other words, my sickness was shocked.

Now you may wonder how this leads to procrastination.

Take a chill pill, and let me explain.

But first, a short break.

There is a natural course my illness could have taken.

I would have kept on stalling, taking meds, and acting timid. Of course, I would still get better, but it would have followed a different time frame.

Likewise, procrastination is a means of escape. A subconscious attempt to run away from what makes you feel uncomfortable.

A way of abandoning tasks because the pressure of doing them is seven-fold in your mind than the pleasure of possibly focusing your time elsewhere.

Now, this is a funny scenario because whatever we choose to focus on would be better enjoyed without the anxiety of an abandoned task.

But brethren, fret not. I have a funny solution for you.

To move yourself away from procrastination, you have to accept it with a hug.

You have to first of all live in its chaos, then raise it to a controlled state - by this, I mean a created time for procrastinating - and from there, develop a surefire system that helps you deal with it.

Here’s an example of how that works:

Tunde is a chronic procrastinator but he decides to set his afternoons between 12 and 3 as a time to abandon work.

He also decides to add an early morning jog into his daily routine, which he compulsorily does every day.

As the days progress, Tunde notices a systemic change.

Now that he has started jogging, he realises he also likes reading books before taking his shower, and over time he adds suplementary habits that relate to his new daily routine.

Slowly, his procrastination starts to fall off. His competence starts to rise, his belief in himself grows.

He also notices that he still keeps to his procrastination, but the time created reduces.

If you’re still unsure how this works, let me explain.

Most times, habits come in stacks.

Scrolling on Twitter leads to watching movies.

Watching movies leads to scrolling Instagram.

Scrolling Instagram leads to TikTok.

And TikTok, well tick-tock.

“Do you get it? Do you get my joke?”

The best way to solve your procrastinating routine is to break it with a simple task that disconnects the stack.

Sometimes it’s good to force the bread down your throat.

Sometimes you can wait, but remember, tick-tock.

And remember, like me, that the world needs more empathy. 😘