Almost all people procrastinate to some degree; it is a complex psychological behavior that affects every human being. But when procrastination becomes part of your lifestyle then it not only curtails your progress but disrupts your career and diminishes your chances of living your life to its full potential. I am not a psychologist but I know the power of procrastination from experience, Here are some interesting definitions of procrastination: To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness; to postpone or delay needlessly. Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished for no good reason. Obviously nobody postpones without a reason, the problem is that often they are not good reasons for postponing the tasks at hand.
Let me share how it often happens in my life. Let’s say I am given a task and am asked to finish it in 10 or 15 days. Unless I am really excited about this project, often I put this task in the ‘to do’ list for the next two weeks. Since I have other tasks which have to be completed or are closing up on their deadlines my focus is often on the ones that are closest to their deadlines. Like most procrastinators I tend to be an optimist who hopes that things will be easy one day, that one day there will be nobody disturbing me in my office, that one day I will have all this time to work on this project creatively. But the reality is that the longer I postpone a task the more difficult it will become just to complete the task, forget creativity.
When procrastination becomes part of your lifestyle then it not only curtails your progress but disrupts your career and diminishes your chances of living your life to its full potential.
One thing I have learned in life is that we cannot make a difficult job easy, but we can make an easy job difficult by postponing it to the last minute. Lulled by a false sense of security, we often pass or kill our time and then suddenly realize that we do not have the luxury of time anymore for a creative work. I heard many who say “I only work well under pressure” in fact many of these people are those who only work under pressure and not work at all when there is no pressure. It’s not true that they work well under pressure; they have developed a habit of working only under pressure. At this point when pressure is generating a special energy in us we are only making progress because we have no other choice. Our back is against the wall and we perform because this is ‘do or die’ time, we have lost our freedom and are only trying to survive.
One thing I have learned in life is that we cannot make a difficult job easy, but we can make an easy job difficult by postponing it to the last minute.
There are many reasons why we postpone or procrastinate. Here are some of the simple and common reasons why we postpone identified by some psychologists. 1. Lack of discipline: In other words being lazy and not willing to work hard. These are the kind of people who put off things at hand in favor of doing something that is more enjoyable or comfortable. 2. When the task looks difficult or humongous (like Ph D dissertation), when people are overwhelmed they tend to postpone. We naturally tend to avoid difficult things in favor of those that seem easy to us. When the task is big we usually do not know where to begin.
3. Lack of knowledge: We tend to postpone anything we are not confident of completing successfully; no one wants to make mistakes, so we tend to wait until a time when we are good at it. Sometimes boredom and lack of motivation also cause procrastination. 4. Unrealistic expectations: Many believe that procrastination is closely related to perfectionism, some of us do not want to start anything unless we are sure we will do an excellent job. Learning is part of our humanness; if you only intend to do excellent things you will not do anything in life. 5. Fear of failure and anxiety: Being too anxious of our result and the fear of failure cause many people to postpone their tasks. This tendency will actually cripple a person and can develop a negative belief that “I cannot do anything well”.
Edward Young said “Procrastination is the thief of time”. It’s not only the thief of time but it is also the thief of freedom. Once it becomes a habit it is hard to break the chains of procrastination. In the words of William James “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task”. The wise man in Proverbs (Chp 24) warns us “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.” After reading this article, don’t say I am going to do something about it tomorrow, that’s the essence of procrastination.
“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task” – William James
– – Author: Rev. Francis Burgula – –
