Procrastination

Procrastination is characterized by delaying

work on a task that requires completion.
While it’s not a mental health disorder,
procrastination can cause psychological
distress. Frequent procrastination may
negatively affect your personal, school, or
work lives. Procrastination is when a person
delays a task or puts something off until the
last minute or even past the deadline. While
everyone’s reasons for procrastinating are
unique, there may be a common element of
fear and perfectionism motivating
procrastinating behavior. Perfectionism
makes a person want to do every task
flawlessly, which becomes a block to getting
things done and leads to procrastination.
Procrastination is also associated with
higher levels of anxiety and depression.
Procrastination doesn’t do anyone any
favors. It can create problems beginning in
your school years, when you may delay
deadlines, project management, and follow-
through. Studies have shown that the earlier
an assignment is submitted (indicating less
procrastination), the higher the academic
achievement. Other negative impacts of
procrastination are:
 Increased risk for anxiety and depression
 Low self-esteem
 Increased stress
 Poor impulse control
Procrastination may stem from many
factors, including an underlying mental
illness or perfectionism. People who want to
stop procrastinating can do so by assessing
from where the problem arises and working
to develop new coping methods. One of the
biggest factors contributing to
procrastination is the notion that we have to
feel inspired or motivated to work on a task
at a particular moment. Procrastination itself
is not a mental illness. But in some cases, it
may be symptomatic of an underlying
mental health condition such as depression,
OCD, or ADHD. Non-procrastinators focus
on the task that needs to be done. They have
a stronger personal identity and are less
concerned about what psychologists call
'social esteem'—how others like us—as
opposed to self-esteem which is how we feel
about ourselves. People who don't
procrastinate tend to be high in the
personality trait known as
conscientiousness, one of the broad
dispositions identified by the Big Five
theory of personality. People who are high
in conscientiousness also tend to be high in
other areas including self-discipline,
persistence, and personal responsibility. It is
only in cases where procrastination becomes
chronic and begins to have a serious impact
on a person's daily life that it becomes a
more serious issue. In such instances, it's not
just a matter of having poor time
management skills; it's a major part of their
lifestyle. Unfortunately, this procrastination
can have a serious impact on a number of
life areas, including a person's mental health
and social, professional, and financial well-
being:
 Higher levels of stress and illness
  Increased burden placed on social
relationships
 Resentment from friends, family, co-
workers, and fellow students
 Consequences of delinquent bills and
income tax returns
Procrastination is a learned behavior, and it
can be unlearned. A good place to start is to
acknowledge that you’re procrastinating.
Once you recognize this behavior in
yourself, you can figure out what's causing
you to procrastinate and change it. Ways to
overcome procrastination include:
 Identifying the role of procrastination in
your life
 Making time for time management
 Breaking up large projects into smaller
tasks
  Finding productive reasons to keep
working on tasks and commitments
 Keeping your goals realistic and
reassessing goals and strategies as
needed
Fortunately, there are a number of different
things you can do to fight procrastination
and start getting things done on time.
Procrastination is associated with various
potential issues, including missed
opportunities, worse academic performance,
worse employment and financial status,
increased interpersonal conflicts, worse
emotional wellbeing, worse mental health,
worse physical health, and a tendency to
postpone getting treatment for one’s
problems. The following are common signs
of procrastination:
  Repeatedly saying things like “I’ll do it
later” or “I’ll do it tomorrow”.
 Waiting until the last minute before
deadlines to get started.
 Wasting time repeatedly and being
unable to do anything about it.
 Always having excuses for not doing
things on time.
 Promising yourself you’ll do something
and then dragging your feet instead.
People procrastinate because their drive to
delay is irrationally stronger than their drive
to act. This happens when their self-control
and motivation are weakened by issues like
exhaustion, and are opposed by issues like
fear. Specifically, the drive to act represents
how strongly people can push themselves to
take action at the moment. It depends
primarily on people’s self-control and
motivation, which are influenced by various
factors. Conversely, the drive to delay
represents how strongly people feel pushed
to avoid taking action at the moment. It
depends primarily on the desire to feel better
in the short term, by avoiding negative
emotions, and by increasing positive
emotions, a behavior described as “giving in
to feel good”. This drive involves various
issues, like anxiety and perfectionism, which
people want to avoid in order protecting
their emotions in the short term. To stop
procrastinating right now, identify the
smallest possible step you can take to make
progress toward your goals, and try to start
with just that tiny step, while giving yourself
permission to make mistakes during the
attempt. Finally, remember that imperfect
action is generally better than no action, so
you’ll benefit more from trying to do just a
bit of the above, than from getting stuck
doing nothing at all. Also, the longer you
delay, the more likely you are to do nothing,
so you should start right now, while
understanding that you’ll probably get some
things wrong at first, but that you’ll be able
to improve your approach over time.