Overcoming Procrastination 2

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Overcoming Procrastination:

Introduction:

Procrastination

or "task aversion" is the irrational delay of an intended course of action, evenwhile expecting to be worse off for the delay (comparetemporisation). The procrastinator deviatesfrom the task, usually in favor of another more enjoyable (or less unenjoyable) activity. Thisbehavior is pervasive throughout society - everyone procrastinates to some degree - but somepeople are so chronically affected as to be severely debilitated.Procrastination is typically caused by the association of pain or discomfort with the prospectivecourse of action; that is: stress. This may be physical (such as that experienced during hard labor or vigorous exercise) or psychological (such as in the form of frustration or anxiety). The task or thesituation requiring the task may be perceived as dangerous, painful, overwhelming, difficult,tedious, uncomfortable, or boring; basically, unenjoyable; that is: stressful. Once habitualized,procrastination can be triggered at any time. Procrastination can also be a symptom of a seriouspsychiatric disorder such as depression or ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder ), and may be greatly reduced when the underlying condition is properly treated.Traditionally, in the field of psychology, procrastination has been associated with perfectionism(a tendency to negatively evaluate one's own performance). However, research indicates thatperfectionists are not any more likely to procrastinate, though they feel worse about it when theyput things off.

[

citation needed

]

The word

procrastination

comes from Latin,

Pro

, "in favor of", and

Cras

, "tomorrow".Retrieved from "http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Overcoming_Procrastination/Introduction"

Consequences

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection<Overcoming ProcrastinationJump to:navigation,search Some of the Consequences:

•

Lost opportunities:

for example, somebody else buys thecar the procrastinator wanted because he put off making asimple phone call. Or somebody else patents an inventionthe procrastinator thought of first, because he never gotaround to patenting it himself.

•

Tardiness:

being late to meetings, showing up late at specialevents, and being late to pick up a date. Missing thebeginning of the movie at the theater, and getting bad seats,because the procrastinator did not leave the house on time.

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Missed deadlines:

from failing a school assignment by notturning it in on time to missing a flight at the airport becausethe procrastinator talked on the phone too long.

•

Irresponsibility towards others:

like failing to keeppromises because they kept getting put off until later. Or causing others to be late for their commitments because theprocrastinator didn't pick them up on time.

•

Lack of preparedness:

such as when the basement floodsunnecessarily because the procrastinator kept putting off installing a sump pump.

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Poor performance:

failing an exam, because the studentwaited until the night before the test to begin studying.

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Career troubles:

repeatedly missing deadlines on projects atwork, making promotion unlikely and potentially leading togetting demoted or fired.

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Unnecessary expenses:

like having to pay late feesbecause the procrastinator didn't pay the bills on time eventhough he or she had the money. Or having a huge liabilityfrom an automobile accident because the person at faultwasn't covered because he put off paying his insurance bill.

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Financial difficulties:

such as the inability to pay the billsdue to putting off generating new sales or finding newcustomers for the business.

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Medical problems:

like having to make a painful visit to thedentist to have cavities filled or teeth pulled because thepatient kept putting off brushing his teeth. Or having a heartattack because the victim kept delaying the start of hispersonal health program.

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Dissatisfaction about oneself

.

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Dissatisfaction of others about one's procrastination

. Aspouse may even end the marriage because his or her partner put off getting a better paying job as promised.Retrieved from "http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Overcoming_Procrastination/Consequences"

Characteristics

Procrastination can be seen as both a behavior and the lack of a behavior. The behavior is the actof turning away and doing something else in place of what the procrastinator should be doing. Thelacking behavior is of course the task or activity that the procrastinator should be working on, suchas homework. There are three ways to procrastinate: skip it, do it last, and escape.

1.

Skipping it:

here, even though the task is foregone forever, it is the program that is beingput off. When a person skips brushing his teeth, he is putting off his whole "keep the teethclean so they won't get cavities" program. It's like he is saying "I'll start brushing my teethtomorrow."

2.

Doing it last:

easiest / most pleasant / least unpleasant tasks tend to be done first. Whenthere's a big job to do, and a long list of things to accomplish in order for that job to becompleted, the tendency is to work on the simplest tasks. As long as the items on the listare getting done, the job

feels like

it is being completed, and the procrastinator lulls him or herself into a false sense of security. This approach becomes a problem when all the easychores are done but there isn't enough time left to complete the hardest tasks because theywere put off until last! Also, new alternative tasks may come up again and again, so that themain task is never started.

3.

Escape:

the procrastinator instead does something he enjoys doing, choosing short-termgratification over long-term gain, at the cost of the benefits he would receive from doing thetask he put off. This takes his mind off the (stressful) task he should be doing, or thesituation he should be dealing with. This can lead to a pattern of addiction, where the morethe procrastinator escapes, the more guilty he feels about not doing what he is supposed tobe doing, creating more stress to escape from, leading him to continue the alternate activityso he doesn't have to think about it.But procrastination isn't necessarily the mere lack of doing something, it is something that iscausing the procrastinator not to do it. In this sense procrastination isn't the behaviors done or notdone, but is a behavior unto itself. As a distinct behavior, procrastination can be characterized inseveral ways...

Procrastination as poor judgement

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At the core of procrastination is a faulty decision. Either the decision is made not to do somethingthat should be done, or the decision is made to do something else. Since that is the wrongdecision, and the person is aware of it but follows it anyway, that is poor judgement. If the personmakes the decision out of course with no thought to the outcome, then he is acting withoutthinking, and that too is poor judgement.

Poor judgement and laziness

Rest and relaxation is important to maintain health and to occasionally distance oneself from one's work so it can be seen more clearly or from a different perspective. Butrelaxation can be taken too far, and when it is, it's called laziness.When resting beyond the need to maintain health interferes with responsibilities or life dreams, that is another example of poor judgement. There is much debate as to whether a value judgement suchas laziness can be attributed to the procrastinator, since in many cases the procrastinator wishes to be active and productive but is held back by his or her own inability to followthrough.

Poor judgement and leisure

Whileleisureandrecreationgo hand-in-hand with rest and relaxation, and can provide therapeutic refreshment of body and mind, it becomes too much of a good thing when itinterferes with what a person should be doing.Playing is useful for learning and can provide exposure to new things, and is an important component of open-mindedness, butwhen it is engaged in to the detriment of things needing to get done, it is yet another manifestation of poor judgement. The procrastinator has chosen doing what he wants to doover what he has to do. It is often necessary to let work come before play. But leisuredoesn't have to be sacrificed completely: there's a section about scheduling fun breaksbelow.

Procrastination as being distracted

When something isn't enjoyable, it is very easy to get distracted away from it. Then theprocrastinator has something other than himself to blame. The more susceptible a person is todistraction, the more prone he is to procrastinate.If a person allows himself to be distracted, and the distraction is not warranted (that is, it isn't moreimportant than what he was doing), then he has implicitly made the decision to procrastinate: hehas chosen to do something other than what he intended to do.The less thought that goes into these choices, the harder they are to catch. The more distractingelements (people, toys, etc.) there are in a person's immediate environment, the more opportunitythere is for these choices to occur.

Procrastination as a phobia

An irrational aversion to something is aphobia. Not only can phobias cause procrastination, aphobia can be a component of procrastination itself and therefore go unnoticed as a phobia. Astrong and irrational aversion to something is usually a sign of a phobia.

Procrastination as bad habit

When the decision to avoid a task is repeated automatically--even when it is the wrong decision--making the wrong decision becomes habit; the decision maker has acquired a habit of making baddecisions. Keep in mind that a decision is implicit to every action taken, even if the person takingthe action did not consciously decide anything.Since habits are repetitive in nature, a habit cannot usually be overridden by a single decision: ittakes a new habit to do this. A simple decision could easily be overwhelmed by the force of habitand therefore may need to be implemented as a habit itself before it can compete effectively withthe old habit.

Procrastination as a complex

Unfortunately, procrastination isn't simply a habit, it is a complex pattern of recurring behaviorsincluding emotions, thoughts, and actions. Many of these are habitual, and in order to get rid of

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