How many times has it happened that you put off a very important and probably urgent task for some trivial and highly unproductive thing? Imagine having a long to-do list, maybe you have to buy some groceries or the garden needs trimming or removing those Christmas lights and you still find an excuse to avoid them and focus on one of the less important tasks like Candy crush or swiping through Instagram. That is procrastination!
So let’s talk basics.
What is Procrastination?
Procrastination is an act of putting off or delaying an important task till the last minute or sometimes way beyond the deadline. A person who procrastinates is called the procrastinator (No. It’s not a cool superhero-sounding name). A procrastinator will put off that important task despite knowing that there would be negative consequences.
The term Procrastination is formed from the Latin word procrastinatus in which pro means forward and crastinus means of tomorrow. All of us have a little element of procrastination somewhere in us but it’s not harmful as long as it is not self-destructive. Chronic procrastination is often self-destructive.
Why do we procrastinate?
Although there are multiple causes for it, procrastination either results or is caused by negative feelings and/or negative emotions. One of the common reasons for it is because the procrastinator finds the priority as an unpleasant task or difficult task – playing the game on your phone feels much easier and less stressful than doing laundry. Or working out is an unpleasant task for the brain than eating a cheese-filled Pizza.
Another, more scientific reason for procrastination is related to instant gratification. It is called time inconsistency. Time inconsistency is the ability of the human brain to value immediate rewards rather than long-term future rewards. The priority is given to the present self rather than the future self.
Let’s understand this a little better. For example, your goal is to save money and have better savings and finances. For that, you have to cut on your unnecessary expenses. What you are today is your Present self and when you make a plan, you are doing it for the Future self or a future version of you. But to please that future self you have to avoid spending now – which means disappointing your present self.
This is when the procrastinator takes over and thinks buying a new phone now is much more pleasurable than waiting for that future happiness. The only thing that can stop anyone from procrastination is the thought about the future self and future consequences.
To achieve that goal in the future, you have to let go of the existing temptations.
Other reasons for procrastination:
- a. Lack of focus on things to be done
- b. Lack of proper time management
- c. Chronic procrastinator
- d. Excessive negative feelings or negative emotion
- e. Need for feeling instant gratification
TYPES OF PROCRASTINATION
1. Active procrastination:
The act of purposefully delaying the task to be done. The reasons for that could be multiple from the need to feel the last-minute motivation to just being a chronic procrastinator.
2. Passive procrastination:
Delaying the task to be done for reasons probably out of their control. It could be because of forgetting the task or lack of proper mental health or any such reasons beyond the person’s control.
The consequences of Procrastination
Apart from the fact that the task will not be completed, there could be multiple results associated with procrastination. Every person is a procrastinator to a certain extent but when it goes beyond a certain percentage that it starts affecting your daily life, that’s when it starts becoming a nuisance and affects your life negatively.
Imagine what would happen if you delayed your bill payment or if you put off that project till the last minute. The only thing a person will experience by procrastinating is negative feelings or negative emotion.
Chronic procrastination is problematic procrastination and has a negative consequence on your life. It would result in anxiety and invoke negative emotion or negative feelings by the way of failure.
The stress and anxiety of completing a task on time will also affect the mental health of the procrastinator. According to Joseph Ferrari Ph.D. who is a professor of psychology at DePaul University and author of Still Procrastinating: The No Regret Guide to Getting It Done, more than 20% of men and women in the U.S are chronic procrastinators.
Psychologists believe that a person with a perfectionist tendency is more likely to be a chronic procrastinator to avoid the discomfort of doing a new and unwanted task that does not reward immediately.
According to Tim Pychyl, who is a professor at Carleton University in Canada and also a member of the Procrastination Research Group, ‘Our ability to stop procrastinating is an emotion regulation issue. If you procrastinate, you might still get a good grade, but you might also open yourself up to a wide range of negative health outcomes.’
HOW TO OVERCOME PROCRASTINATION?
Since procrastination behavior is linked to mental health, any change in such negative behavior will only improve your well-being, give a feeling of achievement and help you to overcome anxiety.
Here are a few ways to smash the procrastinator in you.
a. Small step for smaller tasks: Divide the large task into smaller tasks – which will make it more manageable. For example, cleaning the entire room at once may be a daunting task but cleaning one corner today seems achievable. You cannot lose 20lbs of weight all of a sudden but you can lose 2lbs every week with exercise and a healthy diet.
Taking one small step and dividing the unpleasant task into smaller tasks reduces the magnanimity of the problem and makes it less daunting of a task. Achieving those small tasks one at a time instills a sense of achievement which motivates you to take another small step and so forth and before you know, you will have completed that difficult task and before you know, you will put an end to the procrastination cycle.
b. Immediate rewards for actions: The primary reason for procrastination is that the other activity rewards more and rewards fast as compared to the boring task. To overcome this, you can reward yourself immediately when you complete a small task or a small step of a specific task.
Example: When you clean out one corner of the room today, you would reward yourself by watching a movie or when you work out and follow the diet strictly all through the week, then reward yourself with new gym shoes.
The rewards motivate us to repeat a behavior – so make sure that the habit of rewarding yourself is only for good behavior. Rewarding yourself with a chocolate gourmet cake after a workout will defeat the entire purpose – so make sure the rewards do not nullify your achievements.
c. Plan ahead: Another way to overcome procrastination is to plan ahead and plan well. For example, you can delete those apps and games which eat up your time. You can also use timers to limit your time usage in apps and save yourself from the negative consequence of overusing the phone.
You can set up automatic transfers to your saving funds and stop yourself from overspending. This will make the seemingly difficult task of saving huge funds more easy and achievable.
d. Don’t stress: Stress will only lead you to negative emotion and negative thoughts and that is not helpful to solve the procrastination problem. The important thing is to stay organized, plan ahead, break the unpleasant task into smaller tasks and take baby steps to achieve them. The idea is to maintain continuity. Stress alleviates the procrastination habit and the procrastinator would only find new ways to convince himself and avoid the crucial task.
e. SMART objectives: If you want to achieve something then you need to define the goal objectively. Having a vague objective doesn’t help procrastination. Reducing weight, learning a new language, cleaning the room, being more productive are simply vague objectives. Instead having Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound objectives will help to accomplish more. Click here to know more about SMART Objectives.
Learning 4 new words every day and using them in sentences sounds like a good plan instead of the vague ‘learning new language’
SMART objectives help tackle a specific task and help to get us into the habit of being productive. This also helps in giving us the feeling of fulfilling our goal.
Conclusion: All of us procrastinate in varying amounts and that is okay as long as it does not make you a chronic procrastinator or till the point where it does not have a negative consequence on your life. Ample planning, self motivation, time management and SMART objectives will help you to deal with procrastination.