Procrastination: causes and methods of overcoming

“Tomorrow I’ll start another life,

Tomorrow I’ll start a lot over again,

Tomorrow I will risk breaking with the past

Tomorrow I’ll drop everything that bothered me ... "

These are words from the ironic and once popular song “Tomorrow” performed by Yuri Antonov. It also says that such reasoning is familiar to people and, unfortunately, typical. Indeed, most of us often put off “for tomorrow” fulfilling various tasks and achieving any goals. The author of this song hardly understood that he very succinctly and vividly described such a thing as procrastination.

Procrastination is called human behavior in which there is a constant pathological procrastination of cases for later or their replacement with unimportant and insignificant activities. It is generally accepted that procrastination is a young phenomenon and is inherent only in our century, the digital and high-tech century. But in fact, it exists for a long time and is described by ancient philosophers, writers and scientists. And the word itself is first found in dictionaries of the 16th century. Scientists have studied this phenomenon not so long ago.

In terms of etymology, the word procrastination is a tracing-paper of the English word procrastination (procrastination, procrastination, delay). And if you look at the meaning of the Latin word “procrastination”, the following picture emerges: “pro” is translated as “for”, “for the sake of”, and “cras” or “crastinum” - “tomorrow” and “tomorrow”.In simple words, procrastinating means postponing the implementation of important, primary, urgent tasks and tasks to a later date. At the same time, a person understands the consequences of his behavior, knows that this can create troubles and cause failures in different areas of life, but still he does so and can not do anything about it.

We describe one of many examples of procrastination. A woman needs to see a doctor, for certain reasons. On her free day, when the right doctor leads the reception and she knows this, she suddenly finds a lot of household chores: cleaning, going to the store, ironing, cooking dinner, darning socks ... She does anything, just does not go to the doctor. So the day goes by and in the evening, tired of things that could wait, the woman understands that the clinic is about to close and the visit to the doctor will have to be postponed. Although this particular thing was much more important than the rest.

Specialists studying procrastination identified and described its main types:

• Household procrastination implies a permanent delay in the performance of everyday household chores, because of which the daily routine and lifestyle can be disrupted. Cleaning of the home, buying food and other necessary things, cooking, washing and ironing, fixing any problems, minor and urgent repairs, delaying sleep and waking hours, carrying out hygiene procedures and other things are postponed.
• Under neurotic shelving hides the regular delay in making fundamental life decisions, such as the choice of education, place of residence and work, the organization of personal life, marriage and the birth of children.
• Academic procrastination means constant postponement by schoolchildren of homework, students writing essays, reports, coursework and any other types of work, preparing for tests and exams, etc.
• Procrastination decision making happens when a person understands that it is very important to make a decision, it is necessary to make it, it is extremely significant and a lot depends on it, but it nevertheless pushes this issue and tries not to solve anything for as long as possible.
• Compulsive procrastination is the constant transfer of different things, that is, behavioral procrastination in everything plus procrastination in decision making.

But there is a simpler structural description:

• procrastination in the performance of tasks;
• procrastination in decision making.

During various postponement of cases "for later" a person experiences certain emotions, in this regard, psychologists emit relaxed and intense type of procrastination.

Relaxed procrastinators regard their duties as negative, therefore, they are avoided in every possible way, deny and hide from them. And they concentrate their attention on other activities that bring pleasure, entertainment and pleasant sensations. Thus, they sacrifice real life to the satisfaction of only the sensory side of their personality. They shy away from the work that will still have to be done, but they don’t feel the excitement due to the deadlines. They are calm and relaxed and do not feel guilt and shame because of this.

Other feelings prevail intense procrastinators. They are under constant pressure from the burden of duties and the timing of their performance, which is why they experience a lot of negative emotions. Such people supposedly constantly need relaxation and reassurance, as they are not confident in their abilities, do not know how to concentrate on tasks, think in advance that they are doomed to failure and failure. But at the same time, they are still full of plans, which, as a rule, are unlikely to be implemented. They just want to give themselves a little time to relax, gain strength and rush into battle, but this only leads to additional stress, because the stated deadline for completing the work expires and there is a feeling of guilt,anxiety and fear. All this entails a series of endless procrastination and setbacks, a constant pushing back of tasks and plans.

Tense procrastinators because of their infantile behavior, they often fail not only in the educational, professional and financial spheres, but also in their personal lives, creating many problems in relationships with people. Since they often do not know what they want in life, cannot determine their goals and systematically achieve them, they feel extremely uncomfortable with people who are purposeful and self-confident. This provokes the appearance of depression in such individuals, they become locked in themselves, close themselves from the outside world, move away from life in society and break off contacts with relatives and friends. There is such a classification of types of procrastination: chronic and temporary (non-chronic).

Chronic, in turn, is divided into:

• procrastination avoidance (avoiding procrastinators are unsure of themselves, avoiding unpleasant work and its final assessment gives them the opportunity to reduce their anxiety, since they are scared by the very fact of considering their work and evaluating it, even if it is positive; approaching the deadline leads to even greater increased excitement and emotions);
• procrastination in decision making (indecisive procrastinators are practically incapable of making any decisions on specific dates, mainly because of the fear of being mistaken, doing something wrong);
• excited procrastination (in this case, a person deliberately delays the execution of tasks, since he wants to experience an adrenaline rush: delay in completing a task is a kind of challenge to his abilities).

The first and second type (avoidance and indecision) experts refer to a passive type of procrastination, and third (excited) - to active. The difference between them is in the final results and in the degree of satisfaction with them. This means that active procrastinators deliberately ignore the timely completion of tasks, wanting to experience the thrill, and not at all because they cannot and are not self-confident. On the contrary, they are very confident in themselves, because they know that, despite taking the deadline to the extreme, they can do everything in time and do the job successfully. Such conduct of business turns them on and makes it possible to admire oneself to some extent. But passive procrastinators are the exact opposite of active ones and start their own affairs because of insecurity and weak abilities.

Psychologists are talking about another separate type - a certain antagonistic procrastination, the essence of which is the opposition of a person to the social system imposed on him against his will, the denial of all rules, regimes and terms. In this case, a person is absolutely not satisfied with the order established in society, but he cannot change anything around him.

In their studies, psychologists describe various causes of procrastination. Let's consider them in more detail.

• Beliefs that cause fear of failure and fear of success. In this case, the person subconsciously seeks to postpone the task, as he is not sure that he will succeed, and is afraid that as a result of this he will become the object of ridicule and condemnation from others. He is sure in advance that he will not cope or will cope poorly or mediocre, therefore, he will not try, as he does not see the point in this.
• Perfectionism. Perfectionists strive for excellence in everything. Focusing on the little things, they strive to bring the matter to an ideal state.Limited time periods do not scare them, as a rule, they ignore them, since it is much worse for them not to do their job perfectly, without the slightest blot. Perfectionism itself is a good quality, the main thing is that it does not become a cause of delays or a complete rejection of work because of the belief that it will not work out perfectly.
• Low self-esteem and self-doubt. This psychological state of a person leads him to the conviction that he will not be able to complete a job or task, since he is incapable of anything, he has no talent, abilities, skills, insufficient knowledge, etc. Therefore, he decides that there is no point to waste strength and energy on a deliberately disastrous business.
• Unruly and independent disposition, the spirit of contradiction and confrontation. Persons with such a character (they can also be called nihilists, anarchists and rebels) demonstrate to the outside world their unwillingness to obey, reject the rules enforced by society. Procrastination in this case acts as an instrument of conflict provoked by a thirst for freedom from the programmed life of society.
• Inability to prioritize. When a lot of tasks are set for a person, he begins to take on everything, as a result, a person has difficulty concentrating and distributing forces, and he simply stops doing everything. He follows the path of least resistance, deciding that all the same, everything will not be in time.
• Lack of self-organization. Everything is simply explained here. A person does not know how to properly allocate his time, because of which there are constant delays and delays.

• Unpleasant and boring work, which a person does not like at all, often causes procrastination.
• Lack of motivation. Knowing that at the end of the work we will receive a good fair reward, we strive for faster and better quality work. If it is known that the amount of work is large, it will take a lot of time and effort to complete it, and according to the results of the contractor, a reward insufficient in his opinion will be expected, then he will not try to complete this work on time and in high quality. Since there is no elementary interest, and if an actual dislike of a particular job is added to this, a double nourishment of procrastination is formed.

If you regularly notice signs of laziness, a state of apathy, constant postponement of important things, narrowing your attention, a decrease in level or a complete lack of self-organization and punctuality, or the presence of other similar bad habits in yourself or in your children, then it’s quite possible that your family lives and thrives procrastination syndrome.

The psychological feature of procrastination is that it is often based on frustration. Perhaps once you were greatly deceived, suffered a serious failure, and this traumatized and scared you. Be sure to understand the root causes of why you procrastinate. Perhaps the main role here is not laziness at all. In any case, excessively high indicators of the scale showing the level of your self-sabotage must be lowered. Otherwise, you yourself will later bitterly regret the wasted time and missed opportunities.

Experts have made many conclusions about the consequences, the pros and cons of procrastination. There are no pluses in it. Therefore, it is important to know that procrastination leads to negative consequences, and remember which ones.

Constantly procrastinating you can:

• reduce the efficiency of their work;
• lose the opportunity for career growth or even lose their place of employment;
• create serious financial difficulties for yourself;
• Conflict with relatives, friends and co-workers
• "Earn" chronic fatigue syndrome due to regular sleep deprivation, insomnia and nervous strain;
• become irritable, fall into prostration and depression.

At work, a person is distracted frequent coffee and tea parties, smoke breaks, chatter with colleagues, personal phone conversations, correspondence in messengers, sharing funny photos and videos and viewing them, visiting social networks, reading news feeds and social events on the Internet, computer games, etc. All this can lead to untimely execution of orders or to their complete non-fulfillment. As a result, you can get a reprimand, a fine, lose bonuses, be demoted or even dismissed.

After a long hard working day, many people prefer to relax by lying on the couch, “sitting” on the Internet or watching TV. Favorite TV shows, computer games, social networks create a huge illusion of relaxation, they not only do not give a good rest to your body and brain, but, on the contrary, tire them even more. And also they do not give the opportunity to carry out some household chores, which then accumulate, and deprive family members of each other's attention. Thus, native people move away with time, small insults and understatements accumulate, an atmosphere of tension and misunderstanding is created. As a result, everyday troubles and problems in family relationships appear.

Advice to change work that does not bring joy is too radical and few dare to take such a step. Moreover, it will be meaningless if the problem lies not in the work itself, but in the absence of self-organization and excessive anxiety.

There is no panacea that completely eliminates this problem once and for all, no, but there are some ways in which you can stop completely succumbing to procrastination, increase labor productivity and income levels, which may result in full satisfaction with life and getting rid of fears and psychological barriers.

Very important bring all your affairs to the system on paperthen in real life it will be much easier and easier for you to navigate them. In this matter, first aid will be provided by a simple and effective Eisenhower matrix. It is a table consisting of four fields. In the upper horizontal line write “urgent matters” and “non-urgent matters”. Left vertically - “important” and “unimportant”. Thus, four groups are obtained: “urgent important matters”, “urgent unimportant matters”, “non-urgent important matters” and “non-urgent unimportant matters”.

In the upper left field, “urgent important” records all urgent, “burning” cases and performs them immediately. As a rule, this happens by itself. In the "urgent unimportant" you can bring in urgent cases (for example, replacing a burned out lamp in the toilet), but not threatening either health or life, the failure of which will not entail terrible consequences. “Non-urgent important matters” - These are the fundamental life tasks and goals that lay a perspective on the future and give meaning to existence. And it is this category of cases that is extremely prone to procrastination. Therefore, try to make every planned goal motivated.

And the last category of cases is "Unimportant and non-urgent." These include all nonsense, on which a person is inclined to spend most of his time.It is these “deeds” that immerse people in an endless vicious circle of procrastination and divert their attention from other groups of occupations and duties, and especially from non-urgent, but very important matters that are necessary for a person’s personal growth and success.

It’s not enough to just set some goals for yourself by listing them. It is necessary to distribute them so that it becomes clear what means will be needed to achieve them and how much time will be required. Goals can be defined as a whole for life, for the next few years, for the next year, month, week, day. When you will clearly understand what your goals in life are, what they mean to you and what is the point in them, then the picture of your present and future will be clear and clear. And you will no longer be lost in meaninglessness and aimlessly wandering in the emptiness and monotony of days as a procrastinator.

Also it is important to learn how to count your strength. Only in this way can one reasonably approach the issue of achieving goals. If you pound yourself and run out of breath before you achieve something, then this again can throw you in a whirlpool of procrastination. And try to have a good quality rest, so that the body and brain are truly unloaded and charged with positive emotions and new powers.

Sign up for development courses, engage in self-education, read high-quality literature, engage in creativity, spend time with family, with children.

Cultivate hard work in yourself. Human psychology is such that labor is often perceived as an enemy imposed by the system. But it is important to realize that work is the basis of success, without good, nothing good can be achieved in life, therefore you need to treat him like a friend and try to love.

You need to understand that an empty pastime, a series of endless entertainment and senseless vanity do not bring any benefit. Moreover, they bring harm and damage to a person’s personality, taking precious time from him and depriving him of the opportunity to improve himself.