Procrastination: what is it, its causes, how to stop postponing things for later

In our material you will find information about what procrastination is, its causes and how it differs from laziness. We also talk about ways to combat procrastination and what the benefits might be.

What is procrastination?

What does postpone mean? This is simply putting things off until later. The meaning is in the word itself – in Latin “pro” means “instead of” and crastinus means “tomorrow”. This tendency of a person to waste time by avoiding doing something and focusing his energy on meaningless tasks is called procrastination. It can even cause psychological problems. And people who are prone to the process of putting things off until later are procrastinators.

In psychology, procrastination is considered people’s emotional response to unpleasant tasks. Moreover, procrastinators often tend to regret when they postpone important things, but they still cannot get rid of this unhealthy habit and do not know how to deal with it.

According to statistics, 15-25% of humanity says they tend to procrastinate, and most of the time, procrastinators are students.

reasons

There are many reasons to postpone things until later. For example, the inability to make decisions and set priorities, fear of everything new and any changes, lack of understanding how to start doing something, fear of failure or, conversely, success.

The reasons for procrastination in psychology lie in the ordinary fear of failure, because when a person experiences anxiety, his psyche postpones doing important things. Additionally, the reason people procrastinate is because two areas of the brain are in opposition. One of them, the limbic system, is responsible for emotions, and the second, the prefrontal cortex, is responsible for decision-making.

Differences from laziness

Many people believe that laziness is no different from procrastination, but this is not true. How not to confuse them? Laziness is a refusal to take responsibility and start work, while procrastination is considered a temporary loss of motivation to take action. If a person is just lazy, then, most likely, he will not even take up the task at hand, and the procrastinator will understand the need to complete it, but at the same time he will postpone it for later and often, getting down to business at the last moment.

A lazy person may not feel remorse for not completing tasks or refusing to take responsibility for something, and procrastinators will also be stressed and anxious when they realize they have deadlines, but they also cannot overcome procrastination.

How to fight

How can you stop being subject to this desire and not postpone everything for later? 20% of adults suffer from chronic procrastination and don’t know how to deal with it. Let’s talk!

The backward planning method is one of the most effective ways to combat psychological procrastination. It was invented by psychologist Neil Fiore in 1988, and the method involves creating your own schedule that includes only pleasant things. This way your daily plan will evoke positive emotions, and against this background it will be easier to include mandatory and not very attractive responsibilities.

A psychological trick like correctly formulating your tasks can also help. For example, if you need to write an article, set yourself the goal of writing a few pages and reading additional literature. This way, responsibilities won’t seem daunting and impossible.

It will be helpful to try to divide your tasks into short periods of time, giving yourself time to rest and gather your strength before starting. Give yourself mini deadlines, for example, set alarms for 25 minutes of work and five minutes of rest. The main thing is not to break them and then you will develop a habit.

Additionally, instead of doing anything, you need to understand what bothers you the most and eliminate these factors. Lock your phone or set a passcode for applications you don’t need at the moment, promise yourself that you’ll open a long-awaited TV series or your favorite book only after work is done. This will also give you the motivation to finish things quickly.

Don’t forget to praise and reward yourself for the tasks you complete, and don’t forget to organize your workplace so that you enjoy being in it.

Benefits of procrastination

According to two scientific theories in psychology, procrastination may even have some benefits. Therefore, American entrepreneur Paul Graham is sure that there are three types of procrastination: you do nothing, you do something less important, you are busy with the most important thing. And it is believed that the last option is more profitable than the others, because then you do something more ambitious, instead of something not so important. This thought is called positive procrastination.

Stanford University professor John Parry also distinguishes regular procrastination, which consists of prioritizing important matters, followed by less urgent tasks. Therefore, a true procrastinator will prefer to last things on the list and at least get something done.

What to read about fighting procrastination?

Recently, the problem of procrastination has become especially relevant in the modern world, largely due to the abundance of distractions. There is a lot of useful literature in this regard that will help you understand everything more deeply.

1. “The Easy Way to Stop Procrastinating” by Neil Fiore
2. “Don’t Put It Off for Tomorrow” by Timothy Pychyl
3. “Less but better. You don’t need to work 12 hours a day, but you need to work with your head.” Martin Biaugo and Jordan Milne
4. “Willpower” by Kelly McGonigal
5. “No postponement!”, Leo Babauta