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Procrastination

U.

Welp, I'm back with another blog post when I should be studying. Oh well, there goes my Biology marks :P


Anyways, welcome back to another blog post folks. I have zero ideas why you are reading this, but hey, it's your life, do what you want, I'm not going to stop you. So today, we're going to be talking about something we all do often in our lives. Procrastination. Also, keep in mind I'm no psychology major. Just wanted to share some stuff.


Now, have you ever asked yourself why do you procrastinate all the time? Maybe it's your homework, stacking up endlessly as time goes by while you just sit there, telling yourself: "I'm going to start at 1 pm." But, when 1 pm comes around, you go: "Oh, it's already 1.01 pm. I think I should start at 2 pm instead." Then the cycle goes on and you'll do the homework on the last minute. 


Why do we procrastinate?


As it turns out, like everything else in nature, there's no easy answer as to why we procrastinate that often. 


First off, what is procrastination?


The word 'Procrastination' means the act of delaying or postponing something. Just like the example given before, let's say, you wanted to do your homework, but you end up mindlessly scrolling Reddit and laughing at funny captioned pictures for 2 hours, even though you know you should do your homework. This, my friends, is procrastination.


From success talks, you'll always hear that overly used quote, "Genius is 1% talent, 99% hard work." by our smarty German boi, Albert Einstein. And, he's not wrong. Hard work always plays a crucial role in everything we do, from prehistoric until the modern ages. Lazy to farm or forage for food? You'll die. Lazy to work or get your homework done? You're getting a lower salary or fail your tests. So, from here, we can see that procrastination isn't just a minor problem, it's quite detrimental to our goals and achievements. Procrastinate too much, and you'll never reach the finish line. And what happens when we never achieve our goal or reach our targets? We become stress, depressed, and in distressed.


Back to our main question. Why do we procrastinate?


Well, it turns out that there are a few reasons as to why we procrastinate on an assigned task. When met with tasks, we usually rely on our own self-control to push ourselves into doing said tasks. With the appropriate rewards, we're even more motivated to push ourselves and get the task done. For example, this is why many people are able to sit in front of their computers and play videogames 24/7, rather than going out, getting a job or a relationship. In videogames such as WarFrame, World of Warcraft or single-player games, the developers most likely would have a set drop table of loot for a certain entity, sometimes even the exact drop of said entity. So if you know that you'll have a 100% chance of getting that particular drop, compared to IRL things where you won't even know whether you stand a chance or not, it's more likely that you are more inclined to play the game simply because the rewards are guaranteed.


Besides, procrastination can be caused by a few common factors that most likely, most of us have felt before:



  • Rewards that are undetermined/ far in the future
  • Overwhelmed by tasks
  • Anxiety
  • Perfectionism
  • Fear of evaluation or negative feedbacks from others
  • Fear of failure
  • Lack of motivation
  • Optimism
We talked about the rewards part in the previous section, so let's go through some of the other factors. Anxiety is one of the major factors of procrastination to most of us if I do say so myself. The more anxious you feel about doing something, the more you delay doing said thing, right? Like asking out that friend of yours, or going to that interview. And as the time to make a decision shortens, you'll feel more anxious about that task, and end up procrastinating more, feeding into a feedback loop that might never end.

As for perfectionism, some people really don't like doing things unless they feel like they're in tip-top condition in doing so, attempting to give their 110% in the activity. As such, they would be afraid to make mistakes and end up not doing said activity, wanting it to be as flawless as possible. This results in a loop, combined with the fear of evaluation or negative feedbacks from others and the fear of failure, makes someone procrastinate even more. Though this feedback loop is not always negative, and can even push some to not procrastinate over their tasks, it highly depends on various factors, from anxiety, to how confident they are. But, summarizing this paragraph, you can't fail or get negative criticisms from others if your work is perfect enough, or simply, don't do the work at all.

Sometimes, having too much optimism is a bad idea. As we talked about in a previous post, The Optimism Bias, optimism is generally something you want to have in your life. It gives us confidence, self-esteem, motivation and the hope to pursue something. Sounds good, doesn't it?

"Then why do we procrastinate if we are optimistic? Thomas has never seen such bullshit before."

Now, now, calm down. Look at the last sentence of that paragraph. Confidence, self-esteem, motivation and hope. Here's an example of why optimism can be a factor in procrastination.
You have an assignment, its due date 2 weeks from now. Optimistic you look at the assignment given, and the time you have. "Meh, I'll finish this in 2 days. Let's just chill for now." 12 days pass, and you take a look at the assignment again. "Oh shit, there's too much stuff to do. I don't have enough time! Why didn't I start earlier?" Coupled with the previous factors, you might end up procrastinating even more, and eventually, not complete the assignment given. 

So, its quite obvious that procrastination is devastating to our lives. Here's the crucial bit.

How do we stop procrastinating?

There are a lot of ways to stop procrastination, so here are some simple ways that we can all utilize to improve our lives.


  • Finally completed that task of yours that you told yourself to do an hour ago? Reward yourself. Play some game or eat some cake or something. 

  • Feeling overwhelmed? Break that task of yours into smaller pieces. Looking at things from a different perspective will help with that sensation.

  • Don't know where to start? Try focusing on the important tasks first- homework that is due tomorrow, or assignments that are worth a lot of marks

  • Set deadlines for your tasks and have short-termed goals along with long-termed goals.

  • Learn why you procrastinate and attempt to stop it, maybe by removing that piece of distraction from your work area, or designate specific rooms for entertainment and work specifically.




All in all, we all procrastinate from time to time for certain reasons. But, it will be much more beneficial to our lives if we reduce the time of procrastination and place that time somewhere else, somewhere more efficient and rewarding. So, get out there and get productive friends! Though, do take a break from time to time, and don't overwork yourself.

Have a nice weekend.

(also, I've said the word procrastination too many times and it sounds weird to me now.)

Cheers,
Chua.






























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