Sometimes procrastination isn’t just about poor time management skills. If you have good time management skills and still procrastinate, then you may want to take a look at the following causes of procrastination.

1. The Task Isn’t Meaningful and Motivating

This is one main reason for procrastination. The task at hand isn’t motivating you, as it does not match your aspirations. It is not meaningful to you, and therefore you drag your feet in completing the task.

If this is what causes procrastination for you, then you can overcome it by making tasks meaningful. One way is to see the task in the bigger scheme of things -- how completing that task contributes to the organization and your career growth.

2. Feels Like Helping Someone Complete Their Goals

Let’s face it: Sometimes in the working world jobs are assigned to you against your wishes. There is then a tendency to think that completing the task is helping someone accomplish their goals instead of your own. In such cases, you hardly want to commit the time to it. Is this what causes procrastination for you? If this is the case, understand your role. Each of us has a role to play in an organization. And each of us has the responsibility to do our best. That contributes to the bigger goal.

3. Care Too Much About What Others Think About You

To determine if this is what causes procrastination for you, you need to dig deep into yourself. I have seen it in young executives -- they want to impress others so much that when given a task they feel so much pressure that it delays their work.

The term for it is “evaluation anxiety”: You are too anxious about other people’s opinions of your work. Once you know this is what causes procrastination for you, just Do Your Best. Doing your best means accomplishing your task. If you care so much about other people's opinions and delay your work, then the repercussions can be much worse.

4. Striving for the Perfect

It sounds weird, but perfectionism can be what causes procrastination. You may want to strive for perfectionism so much that you feel disheartened even before you begin. This is because a goal that seems unachievable can be demoralizing.

If the strive for perfectionism is what causes procrastination for you, remember this: doing your best is more important. You can’t measure perfection, but you know when you have given your best.

5. Doing Things Totally New to You

This is a common cause of procrastination. You need to embark on a totally new project and have no idea at all how to tackle it. The first reaction is to procrastinate. The uncertainty of the result of the task causes you to delay commencing the project.

Do you know if this is what causes procrastination for you? Then do this: Learn the skill to complete the task. Ask people who have completed similar tasks before. The key thing is to do your research and lessen the uncertainty in your mind.

6. The Lack of Confidence

Another common cause of procrastination is the lack of confidence in completing a task. It can be true that you lack the skills, but sometimes it may be just a perception that you lack the skill. Because of this you may totally avoid completing the task.

This cause of procrastination is easily avoidable. If you truly lack the skill, then training is an obvious option. Someone to show you the ropes will also help. Ask yourself: Is it a perception, or is it true that I lack the skill?

Now that you know what causes procrastination, work on these one step at a time. Remember, change is slow and gradual.