We never procrastinate to scroll our reels or to complete any web series. We procrastinate to study for our exams but never fail to talk to our friends for long hours on call if you notice that we only procrastinate our important work that requires extra effort and replace that with any easy-going tasks.
In a world of endless distractions like Instagram, Twitter, movies etc., social media can be an easy term to blame for procrastination. Despite that procrastination is not the byproduct of social media instead it’s an indiscipline human habit.
Being consistent and disciplined with your schedule is a challenge for many similarly, the struggle of procrastination is common for all and it is often neglected by laziness or poor time management.
However, it is a complex psychological phenomenon rooted in our emotions, habits, and cognitive processes. This article delves into the root cause of the psychology of procrastination and discusses the solution to why we delay!
Does Laziness Equate to Procrastination?
The word itself suggests that procrastination is an active process: you choose to do something other than the task at hand, despite knowing that its delay will cause you to suffer in the future.
Procrastinators often seek “Ephemeral Pleasures” that is they choose to do such activity which require less effort to do or satisfy their dopamine by watching television, scrolling social media or chit-chatting with friends which leads to postponing their main important tasks. That’s what procrastinating is!
Dr Joseph Ferrari, professor of psychology at DePaul University and a leading voice in the study of procrastination, says that a true procrastinator “has twelve things to do, maybe does one or two of them, then rewrites the list, shuffles it around, then makes an extra copy of it. That’s procrastinating.”
Procrastination is replacing heavy effort tasks with simple easy tasks that we do daily in our comfort zone. It does not portray we are lazy instead we are just delaying to perform our activities.
Why Youths Exhibit Higher Rates of Procrastination?
The reasons behind the higher number of youths as procrastinators are access to various social media and the internet, which allows them to avail the features which require less effort and distract them from their academics.
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Youth at this age are burdened to perform well, fear of failure leads to anxiety and stress and thus they procrastinate on their main tasks to achieve a sense of relief instead of learning effective time management.
Perfectionism also plays a role, as the desire to achieve flawless results can paralyze decision-making and delay action. This challenge of balancing their personal life and academics with a lack of time management skills and not being able to figure out their priorities leads to procrastination.
Why Do We Delay?
The concept of procrastination does not start in the 21st century as we have lots of distractions in our lives. But a University of Toronto Egyptologist Ronald Leprohon translated a 1400 BC Egyptian Hieroglyphs- “Friends, stop putting off work and allow us to go home in good time”.
This depicts that ancient Egyptians were struggling with basic time management. Six hundred years later, in 800 B.C., the early Greek poet Hesiod voiced a similar feeling, warning us not to “put your work off till tomorrow and the day after, for a sluggish worker, does not fill his barn, nor one who puts off his work.” Hence, the sentiment survived intact through more recent times.
What if there’s no deadline?
Deadline plays a crucial role in our lives by providing structure, motivation and a sense of urgency. It helps us to prioritise our work, be more committed towards it and work efficiently by managing our time.
When we know we have a certain deadline or the dates are approaching we become alert and committed towards our work and we learn what to prioritise more. However, failing to meet such deadlines can lead to significant consequences like stress, loss of credibility and missed opportunity.
Also, if it’s a team work it can lead to a burden upon an individual who fails to meet the deadline, which results in delayed projects. Ultimately, respecting deadlines fosters discipline and accountability, both of which are essential for personal and professional success.
80% to 90% of college students procrastinate, and as their deadlines approach, they often rush to complete their tasks to avoid further consequences. This leads to lower efficiency and increased physical and mental pressure.
We often hear from our elders that they keep on saying they wanted to do this, or that in their life but they never got an opportunity to achieve their dreams.
Is it their circumstances that halted them from achieving big or it is their procrastination to step out of their comfort zone to do something that requires extra effort?
This problem is not only with our elder generation but also with everyone who not only procrastinates their daily life work but also has delayed their dreams. We often think of doing many things in our lives and must have written those goals somewhere in our dairy too, but do we show that commitment towards our goal?
However, when we see others achieving those goals, we end up saying I wish I could do the same or I wish could live that life.
We never realize that when we had time to work on our dreams or we could have studied better for our exams, we replaced our goals with some easy-going tasks and now when the time has passed away, we regret it for the rest of our lives and we keep on passing our “I wish” statement to our younger generation.
This happens when we don’t have any deadline and when finally, the time has passed we are in that regret zone for the rest of our lives.
It is either Now or Never! Go out, stop delaying work on your dreams, work on your parents’ dreams and achieve everything you want.
Such persons face Cognitive Dissonance, which is the state where the person wants to do something else but ends up doing other things hence the gap between our actual self and ideal self can lead to feelings of regret, stress, mental health issues and depression.
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For say, I want to be fit and healthy forever but I procrastinate eating healthy, exercising daily or being disciplined with my routine hence this will lead to cognitive dissonance the gap between my actual and ideal self and I will be in the feeling of regret and stress.
If we don’t get happiness after procrastination still, why do we do it?
In 2006 Dr. Piers Steel and Cornelius Koning proposed a Temporal motivation theory. This theory talks about four factors and states that if this all gets fulfilled there’s no procrastination.
1. Desired Reward: If that particular task gives us a specific benefit or outcome that someone aims to achieve for their efforts or actions.
2. Expectation to Win: There is a high chance of winning after the completion of the task.
3. Reward more than present status: If the outcome leads an individual to the upper state from their current status.
4. Immediate result: The result of the activity should not be time taking, it should be immediate.
If all of these four factors get accomplished, then there is very little chance of procrastination as these rewards and expectancy to win lead to the motivation and commitment of an individual towards their tasks.
Fear of failure VS. Fear of regret
In 2012 Psychologists Tim Pychyl and J.R. Ferrari pointed out the drawbacks of the above Temporal motivation theory stating that “Fear of Failure” also contributes to procrastination.
The above theory can give us the motivation to get up and perform our tasks. But if there are two situations where one has to study and one has to watch YouTube videos then definitely motivation for watching YouTube videos will always be higher than studying. And this happens when one fears from their failure.
They fear that if they fail then how will they process their life further or what society will think? Hence, they never try to accomplish their goals.
Thomas Gilovich and Victoria Medec in 1995 gave the Temporal theory of Regret which states “Action may produce greater regret in the short term but inactiveness may produce regret in the longer term.”
Fear of Failure is smaller than fear of regret. For instance, if we try something new or try hard to achieve something, we fail in that. That fear of failure will be greater but for a shorter time instead, if we never tried for our goals that fear of regret will be forever with us.
Take Action Now!
We procrastinate because of our low expectations; our needs do not match and fear failure.
We should always do self-talk or take a paper and write what are the causes for why we are delaying our tasks, writing the causes will answer all the “Why” for delays in our head.
Then we need to write about the dire consequences which we may face, writing the consequences makes us alert for our task. We should also write the rewards we must get after the completion of our task, writing the reward motivates us to perform our tasks.
Along with this, we should also write what are our distractions or where are we wasting our time this helps us to understand our priorities and helps us to manage our time.
These steps will help us to make our lifestyle more disciplined and increase our productivity level. Hence, no procrastination.
Conclusion
Procrastination is a multifaceted issue rooted in our psychology, emotions, and environment. By understanding its complexities, we can adopt strategies to combat it effectively.
While it may not be possible to eliminate procrastination, we can learn to manage it and reduce its impact on our lives. Remember, it’s not about perfection; it’s about progress. By taking small, actionable steps, we can move forward, break the cycle of delay, and achieve our goals.
Understand the importance of time and take steps not to procrastinate anymore because Life is too short to keep dilly-dallying!
Authored by Krithika Gupta, a 2nd year Law student at Calcutta University.
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