Procrastination :A Psychological Epidemic

  Recognizing an issue often the first step to dealing with it. Here are some top warning signs that you are procrastinating! 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 You know what you what want and need to be working on, but you’re not doing it. Anxiety is a common result. 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐲 You always have a lot to do. For some strange reason, it prevents you from working on that one important thing! 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 Social media, colleagues, emails, and all the interrupts in life and work seem difficult to resist. You open your computer to do something, and suddenly you are lost in the news or the social media. 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 Sometimes, it is just hard to get started. “I’ll do it tomorrow,” but tomorrow never comes.” 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬 “Now isn’t a good time to do it because.…” It is surprisingly easy to talk yourself out of something you don’t want to do. 𝐀𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐬 “I can’t deal with that now. I don’t ...

  𝐋𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 Tasks that we perceive as low value, either in terms of fun or long-term rewards. When a task is unpleasant or boring, tie it with more enjoyable activities (“I’ll go knock out this project at the coffee shop while I grab my favorite drink”) or forcefully add artificial elements such as “no turning back” deadlines. 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 Unfortunately, personality plays a role in procrastination. Although it’s hard to control our personality, it is far easier to control our environment. The solution? Block out distractions by heading to quiet locations (like the library) and restrict yourself from time-wasting sites with tools like StayFocusd. 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 If you expect to complete a task easily, then you are less likely to procrastinate. This pillar is a bit more difficult to hack, but the best trick is to simply realize that the first step is often the most psychologically difficult. Just commit 5-minutes to try it out. Forcing you to get ...

  People commonly link procrastination to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other mental health concerns. The source of procrastination sometimes runs a little deeper than a difficulty regulating emotions. If you live with anxiety, for example, you might spend a lot of time worrying about what specific tasks involve or feeling nervous about what could go wrong. These kinds of fears can absolutely lead to delay. The link between anxiety conditions and perfectionism can also play a part in procrastination. When you don’t believe you can do something perfectly, you might feel anxious about doing it at all and continually put it off instead. Depression, which often wears away at energy and self-worth, can also involve procrastination. You might neglect certain responsibilities because you can’t muster up the motivation to complete them, or because you doubt yourself and your skills. Procrastination can also result from inattention symptoms of ADHDTrusted Source, like...

 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐀𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬 For students, procrastination is associates with a wide range of academic issues, such as worse exam scores, worse grades, having to repeat assignments, increased course failures, increased course withdrawals, longer study duration, and an increased likelihood of dropping out (rather than graduating). 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬 Procrastination is associated  with various employment and financial issues, like earning a lower salary, having shorter durations of employment, having a higher likelihood of being unemployed or under-employed (as opposed to working full‐time), and engaging in problematic financial behaviors (e.g., postponing paying bills or saving for retirement). 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬 Procrastination can cause various social issues, like fighting with important people in...

  You cannot rely on long-term consequences and rewards to motivate the Present Self. Instead, you have to find a way to move future rewards and punishments into the present moment. You have to make the future consequences become present consequences. This is exactly what happens during the moment when we finally move beyond procrastination and take action. For example, let’s say you have a report to write. You’ve known about it for weeks and continued to put it off day after day. You experience a little bit of nagging pain and anxiety thinking about this paper you have to write, but not enough to do anything about it. Then, suddenly, the day before the deadline, the future consequences turn into present consequences, and you write that report hours before it is due. The pain of procrastinating finally escalated and you crossed the “Action Line.” There is something important to note here. As soon as you cross the Action Line, the pain begins to subside. In fact, being in the middle...