Procrastination
is the act of putting off or delaying action on something which requires
immediate attention and action. Procrastination is often confused with
postponement. Both have in their meanings the words ‘putting off’ or
‘delaying’. Postponement is the act of putting off or delaying an originally
planned one to a later date. Postponement is relative to a plan, and indicates
de-prioritisation, merited or not. Procrastination, on the other hand, is
relative to the need for immediate attention. Postponement is often linked to a
reluctance to bestow effort, either due to laziness or otherwise. Postponement
on certain occasions tends to be benign, and on certain occasions, life threatening.
Postponement has many times a financial motive; individuals would like to
postpone expenses and advance incomes. Procrastination and postponement are
interrelated.
Procrastination
is postponing something needlessly and mostly indefinitely, without regard to
time, effort, resources or results. Postponement, on the other hand, tends to
be tactical opportunism to conserve effort and resources. Both make one lose
time, in essence, and delay or totally avoid outcomes or lose results. Procrastination
is said to be the thief of time by Benjamin Franklin. Mahatma Gandhi said, “The
future depends on what you do today”. Procrastination, it is said, is often due
to fear of failure. Here again, what Mahatma Gandhi said is relevant: “To do
what we fear is the first step to success”. Dick Cheney, former Vice President of USA
is reported to have said, “I think I was able to survive five heart attacks
because I never postponed going to hospital when something didn’t feel right”. On
certain occasions, postponement provides unanticipated results, like landing on
a better job relative to the one in hand.
Procrastination is universal
It is imagined
that procrastination strikes only certain people who are wired to be
procrastinating. The truth is that even apparently productive people tend to
procrastinate. People who seem to multi-task effortlessly or seem to be putting
every idle minute to productive use (for example, working on laptop while
waiting in the airport lounge) could also be procrastinating on a few vital
things. In fact, such visible fury of productive working could be a subtle
cover for the ongoing procrastination. Procrastination would well have been
left to an individual’s choice but for the adverse impact it has on one’s own
and others’ lives. While occasional procrastination may be inevitable, regular
procrastination as a personality trait could have underlying behavioural
implications.
There are three
principal causes why people succumb to procrastination. At one end of the
spectrum, an individual could be so opinionated that he or she is unable to
judge the importance of the action he or she must take as well as the rewards
of taking the action and the pitfalls of not taking the action. Some of the
critical lifestyle issues, like doing proper exercise or taking proper diet, fall
into this category. At the other end of the spectrum, an individual could be so
obsessed with perfectionism that he or she would never embark on anything for
fear of outcomes being not to expectations or receiving criticisms. Most people
fall between the two ends of the spectrum, weighed down by a whole range of
issues relating to time management, emotional burdening and mood swings.
Loop of procrastination
Procrastination
is a continuous loop which takes hold of an individual the moment he or she
enters the loop once. The usual entry point into the loop is delay in acting on
something due to a lack of awareness of its importance, and the essence of
timeliness. As one avoids taking action on the matter, the negative
consequences of inaction start becoming apparent, both by comparison and by
self-evaluation. A student putting off studies or a software engineer putting
off the testing of his code fall into the same category. As the hopelessness
caused by the delay becomes evident, the individual slips into a negative mood which
could lead to one of the three outcomes; he could entirely give up with total
nonchalance or helplessness, he could try to complete it by leaving everything
else with total burnout or do what he can with a low level of self-worth. In
any of the routes, the emotional consequences are negative.
Procrastination
typically leads to more procrastination. A student who burns midnight oil to cram
everything prior to the examination deadline would be leaving out all other
extracurricular activities, and even may be skipping the day classes. The
software engineer who defers testing to the penultimate day may fumble to
remediate even small errors. As the
negative emotions start taking charge, one would start distancing oneself from
peers and others, and avoiding carrying out even daily chores, be it reading a
newspaper or checking an email. The feeling of guilt associated with not being
oneself only worsens the mood. Depending on the emotional personality of the
individual, the feeling of guilt could be manageable or unmanageable. When
procrastination starts weighing down on one’s life, one must start taking
external help for structured approaches to break the loop of procrastination.
Ten helpful principles
This blog post
proposes ten principles which are fairly simple in logic but complex in terms
of behaviour for an individual to control, overcome and eliminate
procrastination.
Openness
The first step
in beating procrastination is being open; open about the required actions and
the likely consequences. Openness also includes taking a broader view of life
than a myopic view of just one event. For example, starting an exercise regimen
should not be seen allocation of 30 minutes a day but rather as a component of
total lifestyle. We tend to receive inputs all the while. One should be open to
receiving them, analysing them and absorbing them, including those that seem to
be critical.
Reflection
The second step
in overcoming procrastination is being reflective; understanding one’s own
reluctance to apply oneself to the task even though the requirements and
consequences are known. One must figure
out whether it is a question of time and effort or of mood and ambience.
Figuring out the reasons for procrastination is the most important step towards
conquering procrastination.
Clearance
The third step
relates to carefully identifying the obstacles in the path that are related to
one’s own body, mind and personal ecosystem. Releasing greater time out of the
limited time available could be the most effective way to overcome the barriers.
Uncluttering of one’s assets, be it home, desk or inbox could be one way; in
some cases, becoming an early morning person could be the solution, and in some
cases being a night owl could be the answer. In all cases, being ahead of the
curve in terms of time and effort is the key.
Dive-in
In most cases,
the unknown does give trepidation, even to the otherwise accomplished
individuals. Learning to ride a bike or drive a car is a simple example. Until
one faces the challenge of balancing on two wheels or driving through a crowded
street, the first move is necessary to address the concerns squarely. The
moment the first step is successful, trepidation leads to exhilaration, and
exhilaration leads to further execution.
Perseverance
Not in all
cases, dive-ins help; in a few cases there could be failures leading to
deepening of negative emotions and moods. Perseverance backed by an evaluation
of what went wrong and execution of a remediation plan is the answer. However,
it is easier said than implemented. This is one area where help from the
immediate environment would be very helpful. Openness to seek help would be
important, though.
Right-sizing
Failure is
often related to aspirations being far more than what resources can support.
Having more on the plate than what can one chew is one of the primary triggers
for procrastination. One would be better off doing a few things right rather
than staring blankly at a long laundry list of things to do. Unmanageable
projects intimidate any person. Researchers eventually discover that a simple
pilot experiment or a synopsis of the research project provides greater
confidence than trying to execute a mega experiment or script a thesis right
away.
Celebration
While activity
is never an achievement, celebrating key activities reinforces one’s ability to
overcome procrastination. As one sets about constructing a huge website, developing
a homepage itself deserves a celebration. Celebrations linked to successes
trigger the androgen, serotonin and norepinephrine receptors in one’s brain to
elevate one’s mood. Positive mood is the most important aid to overcome
procrastination. Celebrating results is, of course, the ultimate success in
overcoming procrastination.
Optimization
Perfection has
a place but not everywhere, every time. Perfection is also contextual. In the
early phases of conquering procrastination, perfectionists would need to
reappraise their penchant for perfection. There is an insightful quotation in
journalism: “You can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page”. An
optimized result that can be celebrated is worth more than a perfect aspiration
which may never see the light day.
Self-motivation
Self-motivation
is the last of the final two steps in decisively overcoming procrastination. Ability
to forgive oneself for one’s failures and motivate oneself for next success is
important in the fight against procrastination. As Mahatma Gandhi said thoughts
become words, words become behaviours, behaviours become habits, habits become
values and values become destiny.
Ecosystem
The ultimate
support and insurance for eliminating, and even avoiding procrastination, is an
ecosystem that supports all the above principles. Having right friends and
right colleagues who operate in an environment of decisiveness, timeliness and
goal orientation is an extremely important determinant. At times, one would
need to move to a better environment as a systemic antidote to procrastination.
Posted by Dr CB Rao on May 08, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment