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What is Procrastination?
Procrastination is defined as the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be
accomplished by a certain deadline. It is the action of delaying or postponing
something.
For example, if you
have a college assignment to be written and submitted before the deadline, you
end up watching YouTube videos rather than concentrating on the assignment and
end up struggling to complete it all within few hours before the deadline.
Basically,
procrastination is nothing but the action of ruining your own life for no
apparent reason.
Before starting
let’s make this clear:
I’m a
procrastinating student struggling with my course. Only if there existed any
course which corresponds to overnight study-pass policy. Thought I’ll finish
this article and submit it 24 hours back. Looks like we cannot rewind time, only
if we could rewind time.
Are You a
Procrastinator?
Finally sitting in
front of the laptop, have left those 34 tabs open and having a clear mindset of
not getting up from the chair until you complete your task and submit it, but
end up using social media, staring at the sky, recalling the past memories,
just to end up lamenting on your delayed task.
If you are a
constant procrastinator, you constantly tell yourself, “I really need to stop
doing this last-minute work”.
Thoughts of a
Procrastinator
Every
procrastinator would be under constant stress. Of course, if you end up
procrastinating your work every time, how would you expect yourself to not be
under stress about how you are going to complete your work before the deadline.
You are constantly
thinking about weird things not happening in this world, like, why doesn’t time
go slow, why doesn’t time ever pause and take a break,why do deadlines exist,
why do humans have two legs and not three, why don’t dogs get to submit work
before deadlines.
The Cause of
Procrastination
A person doesn’t
choose to procrastinate by choice. But it just happens without any knowledge. A
procrastinating person doesn’t end up delaying something on purpose or because
he wants to. But, at the end of the day, the person just ends up sitting there
with the delayed work.
For many people, it’s
the stress and anxiety that drives them. They panic about how they are going to
finish the work before the deadline and end up doing various stress-relieving
activities.
People usually
relieve stress by watching shows or movies, hanging out with friends, playing
with a dog, using social media for hours, talking or texting someone over the
phone for hours, just to end up looking at the unfinished task at the end of the
day.
For some, it’s the
laziness that drives them. After all, laziness is the boss of procrastination.
And for the others,
it’s the uninterested attitude that leads them to procrastination. The feeling
of not being able to gain interest in completing the task drives them do other
things like, laze around watching shows or sleep.
Thinking about the
fact that the rewards for task completion are far ahead in the future, pushes people
more into procrastination.
Factors like Loss
of motivational factors, self-control, exhaustion, or failure makes us fall
into the pit of procrastination. Also, some might find themselves get into
negative thoughts like, “what if I am unable to achieve a goal in spite of hard
work”, which drives them into procrastination.
Overachievers don’t
take procrastination as something bad. They take it as some strong force that
drives them to complete their work. Their idea of procrastination would be to
finish their work with pressure. They see it as something positive.
Consequences
of Procrastination
Students studying
in schools and colleges end up getting punished for not being able to complete
their assignments on time. Some students are even expelled. With respect to
workers, they are being depromoted or their salary is being reduced for
delaying their task submission.
Conclusion
Getting over procrastination
is not so easy. Trying to find a reason why you procrastinate and how to
overcome it, is important.
You can get over
procrastination by thinking about the negative consequences you will have to
face in the near future.
Not giving yourself
a lot of time to complete a particular task can help to overcome
procrastination. As a result, your mind will be very focused and will try to
complete the task in a stipulated time.
Trying to find
interest in whatever your task is, is another tip on getting rid of
procrastination. If you really find something interesting, you will do it, not
because you have to do it, but because you want to do it.
Making a plan on
how to complete a task, sticking with the plan by setting realistic targets,
keeping a checklist, rewarding and pushing yourself can help deal with
procrastination.
Written by - Sandhya
R
Edited by – Adrija Saha
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