Procrastination: The Art of Postponing
Though unnoticed, every person has one or two activities that he or she is fond of postponing, maybe intentionally or by chance. This tendency is the perfect definition of procrastination. Literally, procrastination means placing “forward” to “tomorrow”; for it is derived from the Latin word, eras, “tomorrow,” and prefix pro, “before” or “forward”. Whereas it is at times wise and necessary to delay an action or decision where hasty conclusions would be foolish; procrastination continually means putting things, which ought to be done today, off tomorrow. However, some critics argue that it is the fault of laziness and dilatoriness that leads humans to shirk to the doings of the present duties and incline them towards deferring these duties to some future time (Ferrari, Johnson & McCown, 2011). This essay informs on several issues that concern procrastination.
Procrastination and Punctuality
Is the fault of procrastination the opposite of the punctuality virtue? To some extent, this supposition holds water for the reasons that a punctual person habitually takes care of what has to be done precisely at the right time. However, Ferrari, Johnson & McCown (2011), points out that the dilatory man never does anything at the right time, but always wants to put it off till tomorrow, or next week, or next year. Procrastination, if it is not firmly checked, soon grows into a bad habit, which at last makes the punctual performance of daily duties impossible. It may be due to sheer laziness, and disinclination to toil when work seems inconvenient, or it may be due to the illusion that there will be plenty of time in the future to do all we have to do. In this regards, it is outright that procrastination is the antonym of the virtue of punctuality.
The Relationship with Time Management
Procrastination is to a large extent related to poor time management. At many times, people tend to have a dreary attitude of working on a task when it is almost to the deadline whereas others do forget about them forever. According to Van Eerde (2016), the cause of failure for a majority of the people is procrastination. It is unfortunate that almost every individual across the world is affected by this procrastination problem. The major outcomes of procrastination are shoddy jobs, poor academic performance, lost opportunities, low self-esteem, wasted time, stress, and frustration (Ferrari, Johnson & McCown, 2011). However, if a person takes his or her time to manage their tasks; well, they will not have to undergo the problem of having to put off their work.
Understanding the Reasons for Procrastination
Having said that, then why do we procrastinate? Several reasons lead to procrastination. In most cases, people have a tendency of putting off tasks which are not pleasant to them. A majority of the human beings are likely to deal with tasks that they enjoy first and later on complete those that they do not feel comfortable with in short times (Van Eerde, 2016). In this perspective, it is true to suppose that people have the affinity of underestimating tasks by thinking that they are easy, and on the same note, need less time thus postponing them very close to their time limit. Another key cause of procrastination are tasks which are difficult or complex. It is the nature of the human beings to dislike chores that are difficult or rather complex and therefore push them to the last things on the priority list of activities to be done.
Being afraid of failure is also a significant contributor of procrastination amongst people especially when they feel that they are not ready for that particular task. In such a situation, anxiety builds up and makes a person choose on rescheduling the task to offer him or her more time for preparation or wait for information from somewhere else. Some individuals also take a rain-check on activities when they are trying to do tasks that they are unpassionate about or at the time engaged elsewhere. Others do so to time or moment when they have a good mode. On this note, Ferrari, Johnson & McCown (2011), claims that a majority of the people are unaware of the fact that once they initiate the undertaking, they psychologically develop a good mode to carry on with the task to completion.
How to Overcome Procrastination
Nonetheless, the biggest challenge rests on how to stop procrastination. Whereas there exist multiple ways to avoid procrastination, proper management of time best fits the problem at hand. Once a certain activity is set out, people should make sure that they have the discipline to follow up on that activity per the timeline. Proper evaluation of a task is also important in avoiding procrastination because it will aid in making the right judgment and therefore prevent an adverse perception on a simple task being complicated or difficult.
To sum up, procrastination has several issues. Every day we put off the work we ought to do, we are piling up an accumulation of work for “to-morrow,” and we shall at last find that the arrears of undone work are too big to overtake. Therefore, so, in the end, lazy folks take most pains. Time wasted is time lost, and therefore procrastination should not be tolerated by an individual as it grows into a habit and later on systematic failure.
References
Ferrari, J. R., Johnson, J. L., & McCown, W. G. (2011). Procrastination Research. Procrastination and Task Avoidance, 21-46.
Van Eerde, W. (2016). Procrastination and Well-Being at Work. Procrastination, Health, and Well-Being, 233-253.
