Procrastination – « The action of ruining your life for no apparent reason. »
Sometimes because of anxiety, people delay the realization of the things they have to do. This happens because of a lack of self-confidence (they think they will not succeed), or they are afraid of the uncertainty of the result. In these cases, people usually do not have an overall picture of the task to be performed, they do not know the time required for it or it is a new situation and they do not know how to approach it – all these elements delay the initiation of the task.
« Mind Tools » is a web site, on which a team creates ressources to learn management, leadership and personal effectiveness skills. They make a difference between procrastination and laziness. For them, laziness suggest apathy, inactivity and an unwillingness to act. On the other hand they say that procrastination is an active process – we choose to do something else instead of the task that we know we should be doing. Usually procrastination involves ignoring unpleasant, but likely more important task, in favor of one that is more enjoyable or easier. So, the procrastination reduce productivity, makes us feel guilty and we can become demotivated and disillusioned with our work.
Procrastination seems to be an important problem, because we can see on internet many sites which are treating about this topic. Another exemple is the article written by Kendra Cherry (2019) called « The Psychology of Procrastination », on www.verywellmind.com. In this post she speaks about different reasons why people are procrastinating, referring to Ferrari, Johnson, and McCown’s (1995) article in which they say that students procrastinate because they tend to :
- Overestimate how much time they have left to perform tasks
- Overestimate how motivated they will be
- Underestimate how long certain activities will take to complete
- Mistakenly assume that they need to be in the right frame of mind to work on a project
What about those who don’t procrastinate ?
In the same article, Kendra Cherry cite Dr. Ferrari who says that « Non-procrastinators focus on the task that needs to be done. They have a stronger personal identity and are less concerned about what psychologists call « social esteem » – how others like us – as opposed to self-esteem which is how we feel about ourselves ». Dr. Joseph Ferrari is a professor of psychology and expert on the causes and consequences of procrastination.
Dr. Ferrari (2010) says that it is important to know which type of procrastinator the person is, to know how to manage it. According to him, there are 3 types of procrastinators :
* Procrastinators looking for thrills : they are people who trust themselves, who believe that they « work better under pressure ».
* The avoiding procrastinators : these are people who do not trust themselves and they are waiting for others to decide for them.
* The undecided procrastinators : these persons are perfectionists, they abandon their projects before finalizing them because they fear not being good enough.
However, youtube channels are also a rich ressource to have information about how to maximize your productivity. For exemple, Thomas Frank, in his videos, speaks about some tips that he is using : set yourself a goal to achieve, discover your biggest distractions, keep track of where you are wasting time, use productivity apps (e.g. To do list), identify crucial work and attack it first, look for shortcuts, visualize success and motivation, improve lifestyle factors, break tasks down into smaller parts etc.
If this tips are still difficult to apply, in the article written by Patty Onderko (2015) for www.success.com, she gives some advise to procrastinate positively:
- Do it intentionally: if you think that you need a while to let ideas percolate and let your mind wander, it makes more sense strategically to set a date and a time when you will start – schedule procrastination.
- Figure out why you are waiting: Are you afraid of failure or is your procrastination a way to communicate with someone?
- Don’t feel guilty : accept what’s happening and move on.
- Understand what « last minute » means: When you have enough time to finish something on time without compromising quality and stressing out yourself and those around you.
- Solve small problem: can spark your productivity for the bigger stuff.
In conclusion, procrastination can happen to a lot of people in daily life and specially to students. If we meet this problem, internet seems to be a helpful ressource to solve it. So we can keep some tips to « cure procrastination » : break down the steps to smaller tasks, keep the task small, set the bar low, hack pleasure from the experience of studying, use Parkinson’s Law* to your advantage (by assigning the right amount of time to a task, we gain back more time and the task will reduce in complexity to its natural state), understand your personality type.
* Parkinson’s Law – work expands to fill the time available for its completion, be deliberate with your study environment.
Words that i have learned : percolate (s’infiltrer) ; spark ( susciter).
References :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwsLuxlbY2w
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-psychology-of-procrastination-2795944
https://www.success.com/6-tips-to-be-a-productive-procrastinator/
Ferrari, Joseph & Johnson, Judith & McCown, William. (1995). Procrastination and Task Avoidance–Theory, Research and Treatment. 10.1007/978-1-4899-0227-6.
Book : Ferrari, J. (2010). Still Procrastinating: The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done.