Procrastination is
the act of delaying or postponing a task (or set of tasks). It is the
force that prevents you from following through on what you wanted to do. The
ancient Greek philosophers (like Socrates and Aristotle) developed a word to
describe this type of behavior: It is called Akrasia, which is acting against your better
judgment. It is when you do one thing even though you know you should do
something else. This is procrastination (or a lack of self-control).
Procrastination is a challenge we have all
faced at one point or another. For as long as humans have been around, we have
been struggling with delaying or avoiding issues that matter to us. A
scientific term to help understand procrastination is time inconsistency refers
to the tendency of the human brain to value immediate rewards more highly than
future rewards.
One way to make
habits easier is to use is the 2-Minute Rule, which states, “When you start a new habit,
it should take less than two minutes to do.” The idea is to make it as easy as
possible to get started and then trust that momentum will carry you further
into the task after you begin. Once you start doing something, it’s easier to
continue doing it. The 2–Minute Rule overcomes procrastination and laziness by
making it so easy to start taking action that you can’t say no. Below are some important
points on procrastination for us all to know:
1.
Procrastinators
Feel Real, Physical Pain: We
procrastinate
because certain tasks make us feel bad. In order to lessen
these uncomfortable and painful feelings, we simply avoid the task. Problem
solved
for at least for now. For now, know that the key
to getting rid of the task-associated pain is to simply get started on the dreaded task. The
pain is in the anticipation, not in the actual doing of the task. Once you’re
engaging with a task the pain almost immediately disappears.
2.
Procrastination
Is Not About Time Management: Most procrastinators I
know are just as good as managing their time as others. They may be a bit more
optimistic with their time allocations, but that’s not why they procrastinate. It’s often an
emotion management and self-discipline problem. Some people don’t
have the necessary tools for
handling the negative emotions and the pain stirred up by certain tasks. Procrastination
is about managing the self (our thoughts, feelings, and actions), not managing
time.
3.
Procrastinators
Care too Much, not too Little: Do you ever find yourself
bragging about procrastination? This type of behavior lets people believe
procrastinators are just careless and lazy when in fact the opposite is true. Far
from being carefree, procrastinators tend to worry just as much, if not more
than other people. The typical procrastinator worries that what she does is not
good enough people will judge her. She will get disapproved of
or even ridiculed.
Whatever the exact patterns are, procrastinators tend to
worry a lot. Then, in order to mitigate the negative feelings generated by all
the worrying, they put off the task.
4.
The
Number One Reason People Give for Procrastinating Is…: According to procrastination the #1 reason
given for procrastination is fatigue. This makes a lot of sense. When you’re
tired, you are
low on energy. Since
overcoming our tendencies to procrastinate takes energy, we are doomed to fail
once we’re out of that precious resource. No energy equals
procrastination.
The more energy equals the less procrastination.
5.
No,
You Won’t Feel More Like it Tomorrow: “I’ll feel more like it tomorrow.” It’s
just a trick our mind is playing on us. Affective
forecasting is predicting
future mood.
The problem is that we’re too focused on our current
situation and on how we’re feeling right. Believe it or not, we tend to just
assume that how we’re feeling now is how we will feel in the future. Back
to procrastination: The trouble is that we feel good when intending a future action. Because
we feel good, we expect to feel good tomorrow. Why do we feel good when
intending a future action? First, because putting off a dreaded action feels
good. “Ah, I don’t have to exercise now. What a relief.” Second,
imagining yourself engaged in a productive future action makes you feel good in
and of it. If you imagine yourself exercising tomorrow, you feel pretty good
about yourself for making such a proactive and healthy decision. Good for you. You
may even feel a bit of pride.
6.
Technology
Makes Things 10x Worse: Procrastination is a battle between
what you should be doing and what you want to be doing.
The bigger the pleasure gap between what you should be doing
and what you want to be doing, the worse your procrastination. Technology makes procrastination worse
because it creates a massive pleasure gap between what you should be doing and
what you want to be doing.
The statistics show that procrastination has seen at least a
5-fold increase over the last couple of decades. In the 1970s, only about 4-5
percent of people indicated that they considered themselves as procrastinators.
Today, that number is at a staggering 20-30 percent. There’s
a direct relationship between temptations and procrastination: The
more enticing and the more readily available the distraction, the more we
procrastinate.
Is it any wonder we’re
suckers for procrastination if we consider how basically all of our modern
distractions are literally engineered to be as enticing as possible to our
brains? And that they are all readily available at our fingertips 24/7? Whether
we like it or not, technology is a key driver of procrastination. If we want
any chances of overcoming this dreadful habit, we need to learn how to interact
with technology in healthy ways.
“Procrastination is like stopping a train that
left the station. When we procrastinate,
we hold others up.”
(Joseph R. Ferrari)[i]
[i] Sources used:
· “6 Little-Known but Super Useful Facts about
Procrastination” by Nils Salzgeber
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