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Dear Vibrant Young Mind,
What is Procrastination?
To Procrastinate simply means to intentionally defer or delay doing something until a future time. Sometimes this postponement maybe till the last minute or even beyond deadlines.
We procrastinate about our work and personal life alike — everyday things like submission of a report, completion of assignments, paying our bills, or health checkups. At some point or the other, we have all been found guilty of procrastination.
Procrastination is not the same as being lazy. Laziness suggests inactivity, lack of willingness to consider or act. Procrastination - on the other hand, is an active process — when we intentionally make the choices to do something other than the task that we know we should be doing.
Research says that procrastination is a common human tendency, we often find ourselves delaying things for later times for various reasons. For some of these reasons, we are truthful to ourselves, and other times, maybe not so.
Why do we procrastinate?
The human mind is logical. There is usually an analysis going on all the time in our heads. This is called ‘Internal Dialogue’. This process of internal dialogue is something like the angel and devil in our heads. Only we don’t know which one is an angel and which one is the devil.
We usually don’t do things because we don’t want to. So why is it that we do not want to do things? Well! here are a few reasons:
Fear of failure: we may not be sure of our own capabilities of completing the work to the best. And we don’t like the idea of being a failure – not in the eyes of others and certainly not in our own eyes. So, we may find an easy path of not trying in the first place. For example: “I want to lose 10 kg weight… and I don’t think I can do it. Can’t fail if I don’t try, right?”
We don’t find the task rewarding: these are the cases when we feel that the time required to put in to get the work done is far more than the reward we get. For example, the class submission requires me to put in 10 hours of research on a topic I don’t enjoy and even my best efforts would get me 8 points (out of 10), and the submission itself contributes towards 5% of the course. So, it's neither important nor rewarding.
Too daunting to start: The project is too intimidating. This is an example where the task seems so big or difficult that I cannot motivate myself to even begin working on it. Hence, I make excuses to others and myself.
Nature of the task: I don’t like exercise, so I find all possible reasons to not exercise today. This is an example of procrastinating because the task does not interest me. Here we are not looking at the larger picture and the significance of end results. Not doing regular exercise can have detrimental effects on our health.
General practice: ‘I work better under pressure’ or ‘ I prefer to finish the job once I start it’ or ‘I don’t like doing things in pieces’. These are all examples of our brain telling us we have done this in the past, we can manage this again. There is no rush to do this task.
Easy distractions: watching TV, chatting on social media or playing games seem to be certainly more fun. These act as easy distractions from the task at hand.
In everyday life, procrastination seems to cause only deadline stress and temporary anxiety. But prolonged or habitual procrastination can lead to serious consequences like lack of confidence, drive, low self-esteem, and catastrophic in cases of health issues.
What can we do?
Begin with the end in mind: Tell yourself how important it is for you to do this task: What is your reward? What will you lose if you don’t do this? Example: “if I don’t lose 20 kgs I might turn into a diabetic or may have heart disease soon.”
We need to look at the larger picture: how do my small actions contribute towards my larger goal? Example: “if I keep losing 8 points for each assignment, I would lose a lot of marks”.
Getting rid of distractions: you're more likely to get your task done by limiting the distractions around you — your phone, TV, gaming, etc.
Break the task into smaller chunks: when the task is too big, divide it into smaller, more doable parts. For example: if you have a week to complete the submission keep 2 days (2 hrs each) for research. Followed by the complete first draft by day 5 etc.
Identify your most important task: prioritize the task at hand on the basis of the impact they have as an outcome. That will give you an idea of where-does-my-time-go’.
Awareness: keep a tab on yourself and be aware if you are slipping into procrastination mode. If so, what are the reasons? Being aware is the first step to finding solutions.
We don’t want to label anyone as a procrastinator or non-procrastinator. But we know that if you procrastinate too much and for too long, you are only deferring the journey that can take you somewhere more desirable. Whether you wish to take that journey or not is a decision for you alone to make, all we recommend is don’t make the decision out of habit – make it out of conscious choice and for the right reasons.
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