Perfect Expectations

I found I’m not alone according to two leading experts on procrastination, Joseph Ferrari, professor of psychology at DePaul University and Timothy Phikul, professor of psychology at Carleton University 20% of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators and up to 70 percent of students in one study said that they procrastinate. This habit affects so many and it one of the most difficult tendencies to kick but fortunately there are ways to go about solving the issue so today I would like to inform you all about why people procrastinate and the effects it can have and also ways to overcome it.

The dictionary definition of Procrastination is the act of “carrying out less urgent tasks in preference to more urgent ones, or doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time, sometimes to the "last minute" before the deadline.” In other words, doing what you want to do, instead of what you should be doing. At times, it could also be something we don’t mind doing; that science homework, packing our lunch for tomorrow to just taking a shower, these are many things people just don’t feel like doing,

I like to think there are four levels of procrastination. The first is false security, the “I still have plenty of time, I can finish this later.” The second is laziness, the thoughts like,“I should probably get this started. Nah.” Next comes denial and excuses such as, “I would start this, but I’m doing something else right now.” and, “I’m just taking a little break.” Then finally the crisis stage, the stage during which you stay up all night long in order to finish the homework assignment you had all day to do. Because of this, the hardest part of my daily routine was the time when I knew I needed to start my homework, but I truly wanted to keep watching shows on Netflix. This wouldn't be as difficult if it weren't

The two articles, 'The Procrastination Doom Loop- And How to Break It' and 'This Was Supposed To Be My Column For New Years' both provide much information about procrastination. One example is that it has more to do with emotion than time. In the article, written by Derek Thompson, he talks about how each of us recognizes it is important to go to the dentist, but still put it off. We look away from this because the pain is too upfront and the rewards are too small. Another example is having nothing to distract you and everything ready to go, but not writing an email back because you don't feel like it. Procrastination can be an effective tool for getting things done.

Procrastination was such a terrible habit for myself. It happens to be extremely difficult to prevent procrastinating as soon as a person has gotten into the habit of doing it. Being the procrastinator that I am, I usually postponed until the last minute to

Procrastination is a problem that many people have, but through work can be overcome. The website gave me the useful tip of starting in small, manageable steps towards

Another thing I could relate the procrastination to is a lack of motivation. In high school I didn’t have to do much studying or spend time writing long papers or doing assignments. So when I came to college I thought it would be the same way and I quickly learned that the college work load is much different and more intense than a high school work load. This was a major factor in my GPA being where it was. I was not extremely motivated to be taking all the general education classes I was enrolled in and therefore did not invest the time that I should have. Having a good GPA is not a primary instinct like hunger or thirst, it is taught to you that you should strive to have a good GPA. Hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex are all primary drives of motivation and are all biological needs.

     Procrastination is something that you don’t naturally have an innate ability to do. It is often brought on by finding ways

People procrastinate because they are afraid to fail, they have poor time management, they avoid things that seem difficult or they feel depressed or they feel guilty. Some people believe that other procrastinate out of laziness or lack of discipline, but I know there are perfectionists that often procrastinate as well. For example, a perfectionist may put off writing a paper until the night before it is due and then they will have an excuse saying, “I restarted because I didn’t like what I had written.”. Another example is that some philosophers and scientists, such that Aristotle questioned if time even exists, and Einstein believed that time was a muddle in which the past, present and future were only illusions.

There is a certain irony with procrastination, things we put off doing accumulate to the point of in manageability and feelings of anxiety increase which, is why we procrastinate anyway.

“A Dictionary of the English Language” written by Dr. Samuel Johnson, defined procrastination as “delay.” This common issue mostly around everyone. Many people struggle with deadlines every day. It is one of the largest problems seen in college counseling centers. (Grohol, Psy.D.)

Another factor that causes procrastination is fear. Fear is a very powerful emotion. Whenever someone is faced with a difficult task, they can become overran by the fear of not being able to complete it. People who succumb to this are setting themselves up for failure. Whenever someone feels as if they are going to fail, they tend to postpone the task for as long as possible. This means that they often try to avoid the task all together until completion is absolutely necessary. In doing so, the number of tasks that need to be done increases. However, the time required to complete them does not.

Many people believe that procrastination is derived completely from laziness but the culprit could be multiple things, including perfectionism. This can become a huge problem for perfectionists, especially perfectionist students. They most likely will overthink projects and put off getting started because they’re afraid they won’t be able to make them as perfect as they want them to be. Luckily this is a common issue among students and there are many different techniques to cope with it. Students can overcome procrastination due to perfectionism by setting S.M.A.R.T goals, creating detailed to-do lists, and by just getting started.

But it is proven that lots of procrastinators are also perfectionists. Therefore, the reason behind procrastination could be to avoid failing. As a perfectionist, you will think that only perfection would be good enough, and often you cannot live up to your own expectations, thus you just avoid trying – at least for as long as possible. You may even argue that you perform better under pressure, which I personally believe is a lie. But if you are a perfectionist then no matter how early you begin your assignment, you will always feel like it is not good enough, and you can do better. Because of this, you will be wondering how to make the assignment better, right until you reach the deadline of the assignment, and thinking about this constantly might make you stressed out. But if you wait up until the last minute to begin writing you will not have the time to wonder how to do better. Of course, you might still be stressed because of it, but therefore, as a perfectionist, procrastinating it might actually seem like a much better idea, rather than to begin early.

An equally important cause for procrastinating could be the laziness one might have. For a college student, several amounts of homework could be assigned within the first week of school, but the professor might state that those specific assignments to that class will be due at the end of the semester. So, one would say to themselves that there is plenty of time not to worry, so the student kicks back and worries about other things. Once, the end of the semester comes the person could have forgotten about the assignment that was given in the beginning of their school year. Now, there is little time to get the tasks finished and turned in, while other teachers in other classes might have assigned homework for the same due date as the other professor. Of course, at this point, the student regrets the decision that he or she might have made to procrastinate until a couple of days before the due date, now the