Procrastination is something that many people, myself included, struggle with a lot. Procrastination is the act of postponing off a task for later, and it is something we have all done at some point or the other. Sometimes it'll be a project for school, or sometimes it will be as simple as getting dressed for a special occasion.
Yesterday, as my mother yelled at me for the third time that day to vacuum the living room, I wondered to myself, "why am I putting off this task? My mom is right; I should get this done." Later, I sat, wondering to myself why humans procrastinated on things that could be easily done. Procrastinating my chore of vacuuming did not benefit anyone; it did not benefit me, and it definitely did not benefit my mother's blood pressure.
I decided to do some research on it as well as make a few educated guesses on why people put off work for later.
One of the things I was surprised to find out is that procrastination does not have anything to do with one's self-control, nor does it have to do with how lazy a person is. Instead, it is a coping mechanism one's mind uses so that one doesn't have to feel negative emotions such as boredom or frustration.
A reason why I, personally, think I procrastinate is that I want to feel happy at the moment, so I don't think for the future, so I put off the task for later (something the future me probably won't appreciate). At the moment, I would rather watch YouTube than work on my important World History project.
Procrastination is also a method people use if they are afraid to fail. For example, if someone is given the task of weeding a garden, they will probably put it off if they are afraid of getting a sunburn out in the heat, or if they fear getting stung by an insect, or hurting themself with a gardening tool.
From everything I could find I concluded one major thing: procrastination is nothing but a coping mechanism. People want to feel happy, and they want to feel happy now. Putting off a task used to be a very bad habit for me, and it still is; however, I don't postpone my tasks as much as I used to. Some things that can really help for one to stop putting off tasks are:
- Do small parts of a task at a time
- Create goals and deadlines for yourself
- Create a plan so it's clear on what you have to accomplish
- Work for just ten minutes, after that, it'll be easy to continue doing your task
That's all for this article!
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