Procrastinating on Choosing Your Halloween Costume

Halloween will soon be here again, bringing with it masquerade parties, haunted houses and trick-or-treating. Will you be ready for it? Or will you find yourself scrambling at the last minute, trying to decide what to wear, looking for the uniformed garb of policemen and firemen, of witches, ghosts and aliens, of cowboys and Indian Halloween costumes ? Does it always seem like a difficult choice? As with other holidays and celebrations (such as with birthdays and anniversaries), procrastination seems to be one more tradition as October approaches.

What is procrastination ? It’s postponing important tasks you know should be done. It’s reinforced by habit, but based on a variety of conditions: The tasks you need to do are unpleasant or complex. You’re faced with indecision or a fear of failure, which might also simply be a lack of self confidence.

As the holidays approach, people put off choosing a costume for Halloween, preparing for Thanksgiving, or purchasing gifts for the holidays. A few strategies to combat procrastination include focusing on completing unpleasant tasks first, early in the day. For complex projects, attempt to break the job into smaller parts, plan for and complete a start-up task, regardless of how small it might be. You might also determine a deadline to complete the task; tell others about this deadline to reinforce your incentive to complete it.

If you want to start out small, choose your Halloween costume now; in the weeks before October 31st, you’ll find that having already made the decision will allow you to relax and really enjoy yourself at whatever party you attend.

No related posts.