Reasons why we PROCRASTINATE

Has there ever been time in your life when you may have decided upon doing a certain thing and ended up doing it after many days or month or years. Of you realise that you never ended up doing those things that you decided you would do ‘soon’.  I sure you must have! We all have done this in life at some point of time. That is what is called Procrastination.

I know a lot of people who may have even circulating their life around this kind of delaying of things and are not happy about it. One might not worry about it until this procrastination becomes a part of one’s life.

I’ve had people come up to me and tell me that things like, ‘it’s not that I don’t want to do it!’, ‘I know this is going to help me but I just don’t somehow be able to do it!’ That got me wondering about why we delay what we do know we want to do. Hence I found a certain reasons why one would attempt to procrastinate on things.

1. Lazy: When we hear the word ‘Procrastination’, the first word that may come to our head is ‘laziness’ almost as if both the words are interconnected or synonyms. But that may not be true. There is always a reason behind a person being lazy. One needs to find the underlying cause instead of putting in easier way and calling one lazy.
2. Your incapability: One would rather not do a task, if it doesn’t contain its strength. What good is a work when I feel ashamed embarrassed or not appreciated for. Don’t we all know that a dislike is generally toward a specific thing that we are not good at or that we feel would not help us in anyway? We are instead more inclined to do a job when it contains our strengths. Just do it: most of the people find themselves incapable of doing certain things. It doesn’t matter that you do a particular thing in a better or a perfect way. All really matter is that ‘you do it’.
3. Dislike towards the work: Isn’t it obvious that one be avoiding the task if it weren’t of your liking, though you know the work is important and may be necessary for your own mental or physical development.
4. Outcome: What is it in for me- is the question here. Any work is more appealing when it has a good gain. We have often come across words like corporate slaves or ‘I am a workaholic’. One may wonder, what is it in the man to love his job so much that he doesn’t have a personal life of his own. The answer is what we are discussing in this point. These are the people who have their joy in work. Because their work gives them their gain- it could be either monetary gain or social appreciation of their post or their satisfaction with the success that they achieve that makes them feel that they are ‘achievers’.
5. Important to us: Work that may give us an outcome may be more meaningful to us and we may be more motivated to do that particular task. But how often do we go and exercise or learn new thing though it may help us keep ourselves healthy. Because that is not what we feel is important to us in our list of Priorities. When you have thinks that you like, that you are good at and that gives you a gain, is that thing that you would be more inclined on doing rather that something that may just give you a good outcome but you have no value of that outcome.
6. Unknown- Vague work: One would rather choose to do a thing that he knows he may be good at, he may be getting his gains or that he will be appreciated for either now or later. What good would come out of a work, I am sure about what I have to do. A vague description of a any work creates anxieties or butterflies. We as humans are always worried or anxious about what will come next. Ever satin a roller coaster waiting for the big turn or the big loop. You almost have butterflies up to your neck, who’d like to roam about with the same feeling. Hence I understand it could be more convincing to self to do a task when the dimension of the task is clearly put.
7. Fear of Failure: Many people like the ones who asked me to help them out with the issues of procrastination had issues of starting to do it. There are people who would complete a task provided someone pushed them to get started. There has to be an explanation for these bunch of people too. And there is! The simplest of thing to do is to find out why one might me not willing to start or putting it in an easier way- what makes them not start something afresh? It’s always about the thought of what if they would screw up. Or if they have heard about people failing in the task. These are the people who may have also have failed once and are dreading to fail again. Failing demoralizes them and makes them weak in the knees for them to get started. This fear is something that doesn’t let them start. Though their thinking about themselves could be completely irrational and which is why they may end up doing good but may have difficulty starting.
8. Physical/ Mental Stamina: The person may actually be physically or mentally weak in their stamina to get themselves out in the court and start. This is one of the reasons in many tasks that require mental or physical strain to be taken. Hence one might not want to start a task and keep delaying it inspite of the fact that the task is essential and needs to be done. One might be tired physically and mentally by draining himself through other tasks which may also make oneself delay a decided upon task. In such situations, inspite of the decided task be important enough, it could be delayed. Giving the person medical attention to find out if there could be any problem would be of the essence.
9. Psychological issues: There are many such mental disorders that make the person lethargic and disinterested in their daily living. These disorders do not allow the person to feel motivated to do any tasks. Hence ruling out these disorders would make good sense.

So, the question here would be, ‘is procrastination good or bad?’. The answer is that as long as you are able to understand your issue about procrastinating something and as long as you know the price one shall have to pay for it, it is all okay.

So, the next time you procrastinate. Dig deeper. Coz remember, “the best way to get to do things is by actually doing it”.