Procrastination

PROCRASTINATION

A word very commonly used these days. A lot of us procrastinate all the time. I know I do! Ah! Seems like bliss. But is it really a bliss? Think about it. We delay what we should have done earlier unless it is absolutely necessary for us to do it and most of the time, we end up spoiling our tasks which we could have done way better had we not procrastinated and not done them in a rush at the last minute! So how can something that brings us from a 10 to a 5 be bliss? Oh, and I know what most of you would say “we perform better under pressure” well, it might be true for a few, but not all of us who procrastinate can perform better under pressure! It is just an excuse, a cover up that gives us a front to not feel guilty about delaying work.
I came across a very interesting definition for this word Procrastination which said that Procrastination is “the act of ruining your own life for no apparent reason”. How true is that!
On a more serious note, according to psychologists, procrastination reflects our perennial struggle with self control. Studies have shown that the major population that procrastinates comprises of students! A 2007 survey revealed that 80-85 percent of students procrastinated on a daily basis, particularly when it came to completing coursework. Being a student, I can very well relate to this fact! 

Why do we procrastinate? According to behavioral psychology, a phenomenon called “time inconsistency” is responsible for convincing the human brain to procrastinate despite our good intentions. Time inconsistency refers to the inclination of the human brain to appreciate immediate rewards more than future rewards. In simple term, our brain is more likely to opt for immediate pleasure than work for future benefits.  According to Tuckman, Abry and Smith there are 15 reasons why people procrastinate. Some of these include: forgetting, not knowing what needs to be done, not knowing how something needs to be done, lacking initiative to start a task, blaming sickness, believing that you work better under pressure etc. I procrastinate a lot myself and I think a lot of you do too, and that is why I chose to write this article to help you understand that procrastinating does not help. In fact, it reduces our potential and has a negative impact on our lives. There are ways one can overcome procrastination so if you are a procrastinator and want to stop being one, try the following things:
Make the rewards of taking action more immediate: As you know by now, our brain is more drawn towards doing tasks that have immediate rewards rather than those which bear a result in the future. So, the best way to stop procrastinating is by making rewards more immediate. Remember when you were a kid and your mother used to tell you that she would give you a chocolate or make your favourite dish if you completed your homework? This method is just a grownup version of that! Behavioral psychology calls it Temptation Bundling. A few ways you can practice this is by listening to your favourite music while you exercise, or having your meetings at a restaurant that you have been wanting to go to for a long time. There are a number of ways to practice this method. All you need to do is find a way to incorporate something you love doing in your free time and incorporating it while doing your tasks.

Make the Consequences of Procrastination more immediate: It’s basically just a variation of the first method. For example, if you have been putting off exercising or doing a project or studying off, make a deal with your friend that the two of you will do it together. That way, you will have to show up and start working. If you do not show up, you will look like the bad guy and your procrastination will have an immediate negative impact on your life. You will be forced to stop procrastinating and getting work done.

Making tasks more achievable: We all know that big goals and elaborate plans have a scaring effect on the mind and can demotivate us to achieve those plans. So the way to combat this issue is by reducing the size of the tasks. This could mean breaking one big important task into a number of smaller tasks and then making it our goal to just complete one task successfully at a time. Our mind is fooled into thinking that the tasks are easy and thus it helps us not procrastinate.
Procrastination is not a medical condition, it is just a tendency that all of us are bound to have at times. Some of us have this tendency a little more than we should and therefore it is necessary to keep it in check so that we can be productive and live up to our full potential.

Editor: Swastika Goel (Amity Law School, Lucknow)