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Procrastination is pushing a task that needs to be accomplished, to later. In other words, it’s doing something that is more pleasurable and avoiding something that is less pleasurable. People misjudge procrastination for laziness, poor time management, lack of interest, disorganization and what not, without realizing that procrastination is a total different story.
Procrastination is linked to perfectionism in different aspects. A perfectionist is a person who wants to do all the task perfectly without any mistake at all. Perfectionism can be one of the causes of procrastination but it’s definitely not procrastination. But, people often mislead perfectionism and procrastination. According to a study conducted by Piers Steel,an organizational-behavior professor at the University of Calgary has shown that chronic
procrastination isn’t actually linked to perfectionism, but rather to impulsiveness, which is a tendency to act immediately on urges.
Procrastination affects every individual to some level or the other, some people have minor issues,whereas, some are chronic procrastinators. Some people who procrastinate feel they work well under pressure,but recent studies have shown that it just reduces stress temporarily and rather it may lead to extreme problems in health later on, problems like depression,anxiety,and poor well being.Experts say the consequences of chronic or extreme procrastination can be serious and can lead to break ups, family issues, people losing their jobs, etc.
There is no standard reason as to why a person procrastinates, the reasons vary. People mainly procrastinate because they are stressed with the amount of task in hand. Secondly, they are overwhelmed with too many items to complete,and procrastination gives them an escape. Thirdly,the fear of failure that is, if you lack sufficient skill to complete a task at a reasonable level of quality, you may procrastinate to avoid a failure experience. Laziness,poor time management,lack of discipline,perfectionism are also one of the many reasons as to why procrastinators procrastinate.One can stop procrastinating by realizing that he/she has to do the work eventually so, the sooner the better. Secondly, if it is a difficult task, one can break it into tiny bits and work on it. Thirdly,one needs to discover the real reasons behind the delay, list them down and try and overcome the reasons listed earlier.
Procrastination is mainly putting work off for later by opting for short-term pleasures. Mainly, every individual procrastinates,it’s just that the degree differs.The society holds a misconception about procrastination being perfectionism,laziness, poor time management, disorganization without understanding that these are just the excuses a person uses to procrastinate.An individual may procrastinate because of stress levels,too many tasks to complete,a fear of failure or simply because he wants to escape from that particular situation as he has too much to complete and he doesn’t know what to start with.People should stop procrastinating before it becomes a habit that will destroy their life.
Say “no” to procrastination, as it is a career killer.
Bibliography
Calpoly. (2016). Calpoly . Retrieved from www.calpoly.com: http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/procrastination.html
Shirley, W. S. (2015, August 31). The wall street journal.Retrieved from www.wsj.com:http://www.wsj.com/articles/to-stop-procrastinating-start-by-understanding-whats-really-going-on-1441043167
Steve pavlina. (2005, February 8).Steve Pavlina. Retrieved from www.stevepavlina.com:http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/02/overcoming-procrastination/