The Advantages And Drawbacks Of Procrastination

Many of us can recognize that leaving things to the very last minute is not very wise and can cause an abundance of unnecessary stress. Procrastination is self-sabotage whether it’s to pay a credit card bill, fill up gas in your car, or complete your homework. Procrastination ranges from the most miniscule task to the most significant ones so the question is why do people procrastinate? For myself I rationalize this behavior by saying I work best under pressure but through my recent discoveries I found this isn’t true at all, it was just an excuse. The heavy pressure we feel when an important deadline is approaching physically forces us to complete our work but that doesn’t always mean that our work is good. Starting a project weeks before it is due guarantees that we had time to think and process your ideas therefore our work is our work is generally well-prepared. Starting an assignment the night before it’s due forces us to rush through it just to get it done it does not ensure that our best abilities are being put to use and usually ensures that our best abilities are being put to use and usually ensures that it’s satisfactory at its best from a psychological standpoint procrastinators can adapt

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 is not always a very bad thing though; there are some points in your life that it could prove to be a plus. If done enough you will be use to doing things last minute, which could possibly help you in your career with handling pressure when you boss tells you do something within a set amount of time. Also extended amounts of doing this bad habit could help you learn to take pressure better, as example when you have a huge paper due by the next morning and you need to keep your self calm or else it will show when your writing the paper. Even though these sound like positive measures to procrastinating they are really not worth the

Besides this omission by Kalat, he still provided an accurate and detailed account of the research article written by Ariely and Wertenbroch. This article is essential in understanding procrastination and answered throughly the three questions it posed. 1.) Are people willing to impose deadlines, with substantial consequences if they are not met, on themselves: yes. 2.) Are these self-imposed deadlines actually helpful in improving overall performance:

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.

Attention Getter: A famous author by the name of Wayne Dyer once said, “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is incredibly heavy.”(1) In todays society it seems as if procrastination has become a normal and acceptable thing to do. It is often joked about amongst schoolmates and co-workers around the world. Nothing seems to get done until it absolutely needs to get done, then everyone runs around getting things done quickly and often times inaccurately. The trouble with this mentality however is that some things will never get done because something will come up tomorrow or the next day and what you are putting off now gets pushed even further back. Today I will persuade you to stop this habit from continuing. I will be explaining the problems we face when dealing with procrastination as well as how to deal with it and actions you can take to prevent it in the future.

In the passage “Structured Procrastination,” the author speaks in a positive tone, and almost supports procrastination. The passage says in paragraph three, “This theory says you can use the common tendency to avoid boredom or hard work to your advantage. The author is saying that there is a good way to procrastinate. In paragraph five of the passage it says,”

Procrastination is a tendency to postpone, put off, delay, reschedule, take a rain check on, put on ice, hold off, or to defer what is necessary to reach a particular goal.(Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition. Philip Lief Group 2009.) While attending College some students find it hard to juggle work, family, and friends. Leading most students down a dangerous path to procrastination; that negative impact affect students from their physical health, mental health, and social health.

Zeenath and Ocrullo (2012) indicated that university students procrastinate because of its affective consequences. External factors, such as peer influence and coping strategies, surrounding them also contribute to this. Furthermore, the way of teaching of the professors also affects the performance of the students toward the tasks given to them. Procrastination is the reason behind the poor academic performance and unhealthy lifestyle of the students. However, even if the individuals receive negative consequences, they still choose to

Procrastination is a common tendency that we all give in to and all of us have at least a little experience with.

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.

Procrastinating is a minor reinforcer and provides immediate reinforcement. It has negative short-term consequences e.g. stress, regret, academic failure and fatigue. The benefits attained from are

“Procrastination is a common form of self-regulatory failure with substantive connections” where the tendency is to put off tasks. (Steel, Farrari, 2013)

Upon reading the article on Stress Management, I realized that procrastination can definitely cause stress in my life, unwanted and unnecessary stress.For years I have been in a fight with procrastination. I am ashamed to say that I have identified this issue a long time ago and have done nothing to get rid of it. I am even more ashamed to say that about 90% of time procrastination wins. Whether it be a simple wash the bathroom now or no more movies, not to mention take out the garbage now, I allow procrastination to win. I will always say, I can do it later or I have time. This is a negative factor that affects Time and Stress Management.