Procrastination

Procrastination 1 Procrastination Joshua Freeman February 17, 2010 Dr. Ken Farenick Procrastination 2 Procrastination In life there are many ways to avoid success, and a sure common way is to procrastinate. Everyone procrastinates. Yet some individuals do it more than others. What is procrastination' According to wikitonary.org, procrastination is defined as the act of postponing, delaying, or putting off, especially out of habitual careless or laziness. Procrastination is something that I deal with daily. A typical question I ask myself is “Why Must I Procrastinate”' With years of suffering from this problem I have gathered information, solutions to once and for all overcome this problem. Why do we procrastinate' We procrastinate because we feel like there is always tomorrow. As procrastinators it’s like we sabotage ourselves by choosing paths that will hurt our performances. When it comes to procrastination there are feelings of guilt, anxiety, and powerlessness. Difficult task are frequently put aside because they feel too overwhelming. We may look at a task and feel there is too much that needs to be done in order to accomplish it. The sense of being overwhelmed distracts us, enabling us from taking the first step to accomplishing our task. Sometimes we may put things off because we are afraid of failing. There may be previous experiences where things did not fair to well, such as writing a paper. We may feel we did a great job, but the professor saw different. So, when the next writing assignment comes along, we Procrastination 3 may avoid working on it to avoid the fear of failing. Procrastination also produces fear of not being perfect. We may spend countless time and effort seeking perfection that there is not any progress made towards important goals. Personally, I often have feelings of self -doubt when it is something that I have never done or achieved. For example, I have been out of school for seven years, I knew in my heart getting my degree has always been my goal. I began to procrastinate on choosing a school, then with the enrollment process, later with my financial-aide. I didn’t know what to expect because things are always changing. Leaving my comfort zone and not knowing how I will be perceived by professors placed a lot of anxiety on my heart. According to Henrik Edberg these feelings I felt are a-part of human nature. We naturally stray away from things that seem hard and drift towards those tasks that appear to be simple. The fear of being successful can sometimes make us procrastinate. We may fear success because we assume others will request more from us after we are successful at a task. Therefore, we try to maintain control by avoiding any commitment or involvement. How to overcome procrastination Overcoming procrastination may be challenging, because we have learned that it is not something that started overnight, it starts small and builds itself up. However, returning to a more dependable lifestyle is possible. Certain strategies can help avoid procrastination and the problems that are associated with them. Procrastination 4 Get Organized: Prepare a schedule. List task for each day and check them off once they are completed. Put things away, once we are done with them. This will defiantly keep our homes and work places organized. Set Goals: Set goals that are reasonable. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, set a goal to go to the gym at least twice a week. Choose to eat healthy, instead of a burger choose a salad. Set Priorities: Write down things that need to be done, place them in order of importance. Have discipline: Allow the desire for success to out-shadow the desire to put things off. Have positive thoughts: Speak encouraging and motivating words to yourself. Place thoughts in your head saying the task will be accomplished. Get Started: Once the first step is started, everything should fall into place. In conclusion, whenever I find myself giving into the urge to procrastinate, I will remember the feelings and predict how I will feel the next day when things have piled up. So therefore, I will do every strategy to avoid procrastinating. References Stop How to Stop Procrastinating: 7 Timeless Tips by Henrik Edberg. Procrastinating, July 2003 Poonam Sharma, Ph.D. Steel, Piers (1996). "It's about Time: The 6 styles of procrastination and How to Overcome them.". Penguin Group. http://www.drsapadin.com/about_time.php. Retrieved August 18, 2009.