Why Do People Procrastinate And How Can They Avoid It?

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 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,

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.

     To procrastinate is to put off doing something out of casual carelessness or common laziness. It often needlessly postpones or delays events or objectives in your life which can effect others. Procrastination is almost like a drug in your life, because once you start doing it a little bit, it slowly adds up to a dependency that you will find to be common habit. Although this is what we all perceive procrastination to be bad, there are some benefits to it. It can have beneficial impact on how you take pressure, or how well you can act when time is limited.

The research article titled “Procrastination, Deadlines and Performance: Self-Control by Precomittment,” authored by psychologists Dan Ariely and Klaus Wertenbroch, aimed to figure out the reasoning behind procrastination. A study was conducted to answer three questions all posed from the central thesis of procrastination. The first question the studies sought to answer was whether people are willing to impose deadlines, with substantial consequences if they are not met, on themselves. The second question whether these self-imposed deadlines were actually helpful in improving overall performance. Lastly, the third question aimed to determine if the deadlines people imposed on themselves, were done so to achieve their best results. It was

Procrastination is ignoring your responsibilities and avoiding them for no good reason. Experiencing procrastination can have a positive or negative reaction according to the amount of the behavior. The person that is procrastinating must first realize that they have a problem in order to find ways to overcome procrastination because they are putting their health, family and job at risk. Twenty percent of people realize they are procrastinators which in the end becomes a lifestyle. There are various reasons why people procrastinate.

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.

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.

Procrastination is the act or habit of putting tasks on hold. It is the unnecessary postponement of starting or finishing an undertaking, which eventually leads to distress (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). The intentional delay of due tasks is very common among students and lately, it has become prevalent in college settings (Rabin, Fogel & Nutter-Upham, 2011).

“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.)

According to dictionary.com, the meaning of procrastination is “the act or habit of procrastinating, or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention”.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to procrastinate is “to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done.” Another way of putting it is “to wait until the last minute.” Procrastination is a very bad habit. Even though

The questionnaire was posted online for psyc121 students of Victoria University of Wellington. “Please read each statement, and select the option that best describes how much you agree or disagree with each one” was the instruction given to the participants when completing a Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS) which was developed by Steel (2010). It had 12 items and on a one to five scale where one is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree. A statement “I generally delay before starting on work I have to do”. Higher scores meant higher levels of procrastination.

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.