‘I’ll do it tomorrow’, a phrase that we say too often and even more often don’t follow through with.
The endless cycle of procrastination, again and again.
The word procrastination comes from the Latin procrastinare: “deferred until tomorrow”.
Each time we say ‘it will be different I’m definitely getting it done’ we feebly attempt to avoid the inevitable.
A common misconception about procrastination is that people are just ‘lazy’, however that is most definitely untrue.
In fact, procrastinating in itself can be the act of doing productive jobs, just not the one that needs to be done.
Additionally, after the procrastination period many people prefer the time pressure and adrenaline rush of completing everything justin time.
Yet, procrastination is not solely from having poor time management skills, but it's the lack of self-regulation and the inability to manage emotions.
It can be made worse by the constant demand from schools where pressure for achieving good grades is very high and a continual flow of deadlined work is set, impacting the student’s performance.
Procrastination might offer some short term benefits - namely, evading an assignment or unpleasant emotion.
But still, you can’t ignore it forever and when the job resurfaces, you find yourself stuck in the same situation as before.
Commonly, procrastinating and completing work or revision at the last minute becomes a habitual self-defence mechanism where an excuse of ‘I hardly studied’ or ‘I didn’t have enough time’ is always at the ready in the case of failure and your sense of ability is never threatened.
I spoke with a graduate with a psychology degree who explained how “many people engage in other activities in order to fill time up so that they ‘don’t’ have the time’ to do the actual assignment”.
She describes how procrastination can be identified easily as seeking pleasure eg. watching films or hanging out with friends, but it can also be disguised as chores, outwardly seeming productive, eg. deep cleaning the bathroom when it isn’t needed.
Some procrastinators are “perfectionists who commonly procrastinate when they don’t think they finish in time so won't bother starting or when an idea isn’t finalised so they find it difficult to carry out”.
People with adhd may procrastinate when they “struggle to overcome the emotional need for a diversion”.
It can often be a coping mechanism and occasion to a better result under time constraint.
Procrastination in of itself may not necessarily be a bad thing however in the long run it can produce harmful consequences, for instance, chronic procrastination.
This is very unhealthy when it becomes your go to answer it can affect your emotional and mental health.
Several studies have linked procrastination to depression, anxiety and overall poor mental health.
Therefore, even though procrastination is generally viewed as an adversity, it can also have positive effects.
However, we must always be careful and aware of it to avoid damaging our health and spiralling, increasing our stress levels while decreasing our well being.
