The Art of Procrastination

By Khushi Rawal

(Image source: psycom.net)

“The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started"

As human beings, one of our greatest weaknesses is procrastination. Waking up

everyday with a recurring thought of doing something new or different might

be encouraging, but to actually work upon it and to gather the energy to get up

and figure out ways to be more productive or finish our tasks can be more

difficult than it seems. For months now, we’ve been stuck inside our houses and

in a routine which starts with waking up with new ideas and a sense of creativity,

but as time passes, and procrastination comes into action, every effort we put

into being productive seems futile. For instance, I’ve been trying to write this

article for a while now, and two of my team members Kuljeet and Vaibhav have

been pestering me relentlessly to complete it, but it took me quite a while to stop procrastinating and actually work.

The feeling of being stuck in a vicious cycle of procrastination and laziness can be

agitating, but in order to understand it, one must accept their reasons for

procrastinating. To look at it from a psychological point of view, procrastination

generally stems from a tendency of self-defeat, which comes from either a

negative state, i.e. fear of failure, perfectionism etc. or from a positive one, the

joy of temptation. To know what you ought to do and to not be able to get

yourself to do it, is the gap between intention and action. Social Scientists debate

upon the reason for the existence of this gap, primarily being the inability to regulate one’s

emotions or the inability to manage time. Theories suggest that an activity which

is found more pleasurable than others usually stays higher on priority than the

others, while in cases of a set deadline, tougher tasks get more important.

It is easy to make even the slightest of discomfort or inconvenience cause major

damage to one’s schedule or system of work and suffice to say, the results are usually

unfavourable.

However, there are a few simple yet effective ways to decrease such

behaviour patterns.

1. One should start with breaking down the task at hand into smaller and

more manageable pieces, it order to make it uncomplicated.

2. Seeking professional help from a counsellor, always stays as a feasible

option, to manage our emotions and understand our mental state.

3. Self-imposed deadlines have proved to be helpful in increasing the ability to

complete tasks.

4. While it might be difficult for a person to prevent any sort of distraction,

it’ll be easier to work effectively if a personal meaning is attached to the

task.

5. The practical use of the Operant Conditioning, which would include using

reinforcement(positive or negative) to encourage or discourage, desirable

or undesirable behaviour, has also proven to be of great use.

“Action today can prevent a crisis tomorrow”