She rushes furiously to finish her English assignment. The speech should have been so simple to complete, so why start on it when it was first assigned? Besides, she was overwhelmed with work for her other classes. Midterms start next week, and there are study guides that must be completed. That work was due before her speech, so she figured she would work on the assignments in the order in which each was due.
It turns out that plan of action was a mistake - a mistake that costs more than it first appears.
While the other assignments were due before her speech, none took the same amount of time that writing her speech required. Now she is in a panic as she tries to find the perfect topic, find her claim, and find her voice.
According to Psychology Today.com, twenty percent of people are “true procrastinators” – those who consistently avoid work and routinely put off unpleasant tasks. The web site continues by stating that procrastination is a learned behavior. If this behavior is learned, then how does it happen? For me, this behavior started when I was in high school. Though my homework and studying were not complicated, I preferred to hang out with my friends discussing the latest gossip or to talk on the phone with my boyfriend.
I could have easily been the girl in the above anecdote. I routinely put off unpleasant tasks. Now, as an adult, I often fall victim to procrastination. Recently, I have avoided grading my yearbook proofs. Because of the extreme amount of work these proofs require, I have found other activities to occupy my time.
But how does this avoidance make me feel? Stressed out and frustrated. And, the longer I wait, the more unpleasant the task becomes.
Facebook, Twitter, cable TV and other forms of entertainment continue to distract Americans and lower our productivity. How many yearbook pages could I have edited in the time that I read through my friends’ statuses on Facebook? But, let’s be truthful. We cannot place blame on social media or TV. We, the procrastinators, are the ones at fault.
Though several research documents state that procrastination comes from a lack of self-discipline, others would disagree. Many high school and college scholars state they work best under pressure and that they often submit their best work when they work under a deadline. I, too, used to believe that I worked best under pressure.
Unfortunately, the writing center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill diagnosed procrastinators as people who are often self-critical perfectionists. These two traits, while not necessarily unhealthy, cause true procrastinators to further delay.
If you fall into this category, it is high time for you to tackle who you really are – it is high time to stop this behavior. We must set realistic deadlines and no longer delay the work we should be doing today. Turn off the TV, get off the couch, disable the internet, turn off our electronic devices and get to work. Doing so will make us feel better about ourselves, our work and our end result.
