Procrastination: causes and ways to overcome

“Tomorrow I'll start a different life,

Tomorrow I'll start a lot all over again

Tomorrow I will risk breaking with the past,

Tomorrow I will give up everything that bothered me ... "

These are words from the ironic and once popular song "Tomorrow", performed by Yuri Antonov. It also sings that such reasoning is familiar to people and, unfortunately, typical. Indeed, most of us often postpone "until tomorrow" the implementation of various tasks and the achievement of any goals. The author of this song hardly understood that he very succinctly and vividly described such a thing as procrastination.

Procrastination is called human behavior, in which there is a constant pathological postponement of things for later or their replacement with unimportant and insignificant activities. It is generally accepted that procrastination is a young phenomenon and is inherent only in our century, the age of digital and high-tech. But in fact, it has existed for a long time and was described by ancient philosophers, writers and scientists. And the word itself is first encountered in dictionaries of the 16th century. Scientists have begun to study this phenomenon not so long ago.

In terms of etymology, the word "procrastination" is a copy of the English word "procrastination" (procrastination, delay, delay). And if you look at the meaning of the Latin word "procrastination", then the following picture emerges: "pro" is translated as "for", "for the sake of", and "crash" or "crastinum" - "tomorrow" and "tomorrow".In simple words, to procrastinate means to postpone the implementation of important, paramount, urgent matters and tasks at a later date. At the same time, a person understands the consequences of his behavior, knows that this can create trouble and lead to failures in different areas of life, but he still does so and cannot do anything about it.

Let's describe one of the many examples of procrastination... A woman needs to visit a doctor, for certain reasons. On her free day, when the required doctor is seeing and she knows it, she suddenly finds a lot of household chores: cleaning, going to the store, ironing, cooking dinner, mending socks ... She does anything but go to the doctor. So the day passes and towards evening, tired of things that could wait, the woman realizes that the clinic is about to close and the visit to the doctor will have to be postponed. Although this particular case was much more important than the rest.

Specialists studying procrastination have identified and described its main types:

• Household procrastination involves permanent delays in doing everyday household chores, which can disrupt the daily routine and lifestyle. Cleaning of the home, buying groceries and other necessary things, cooking, washing and ironing linen, troubleshooting, minor and urgent repairs, the time for sleeping and waking up, carrying out hygiene procedures and other things are postponed.
• Under neurotic procrastination hides the regular delay in making fundamental life decisions, such as the choice of education, place of residence and work, personal life, marriage and childbirth.
• Academic procrastination means constant postponement by schoolchildren of completing homework, students writing abstracts, reports, term papers and any other types of work, preparing for tests and exams, etc.
• Procrastination decision making occurs when a person realizes that a decision is very important to make, it is necessary to do it, it is extremely significant and a lot depends on him, but still pushes this issue aside and tries not to solve anything for as long as possible.
• Compulsive procrastination is the constant transfer of different affairs, that is, behavioral procrastination in everything, plus procrastination in decision-making.

But there is also a simpler structural description:

• procrastination in performing tasks;
• procrastination in decision making.

During various delays "for later" a person experiences certain emotions, in this regard, psychologists distinguish a relaxed and tense type of procrastination.

Relaxed procrastinators regard their responsibilities as negative, so they avoid them in every possible way, deny and hide from them. And they concentrate their attention on other activities that bring pleasure, entertainment and pleasant sensations. Thus, they sacrifice real life to the satisfaction of only the sensual side of their personality. They shy away from work that still has to be done, but don't feel anxious about deadlines. They are calm and relaxed and do not feel guilt or shame because of this.

Other feelings overwhelm strained procrastinators... They are under constant pressure from the burden of responsibilities and the timing of their fulfillment, which is why they experience a lot of negative emotions. Such people supposedly constantly need relaxation and reassurance, since they are not sure of their abilities, they do not know how to concentrate on the tasks set, they think in advance that they are doomed to failure and failure. But at the same time, they are still full of plans that, as a rule, are unlikely to be implemented. They just want to give themselves a little time to rest, gain strength and rush into battle, but this only leads to additional stress,After all, the stated deadline for the performance of the work expires and there is a feeling of guilt, anxiety and fear. All this entails a series of endless delays and failures, the constant pushing back of the fulfillment of tasks and plans.

Intense procrastinators because of their infantile behavior, they often fail not only in the educational, professional and financial spheres, but also in their personal life, creating many problems in relationships with people. Since they often do not know what they want in life, cannot define goals for themselves and achieve them systematically, they feel extremely uncomfortable next to people who are purposeful and self-confident. This provokes the appearance of depression in such individuals, they withdraw into themselves, close themselves off from the outside world, move away from life in society and cut off contacts with family and friends. There is also such a classification of types of procrastination: chronic and temporary (non-chronic).

Chronic, in turn, is subdivided into:

• avoidance procrastination (avoidant procrastinators are unsure of themselves, avoiding unpleasant work and its final assessment gives them the opportunity to reduce their level of anxiety, since they are intimidated by the very fact of considering their work and evaluating it, even if it is positive; approaching the end of the deadline leads to even more increased excitement and experiences);
• procrastination in decision making (indecisive procrastinators are practically unable to make any decisions within a specific timeframe, mainly due to the fear of making mistakes, doing something wrong);
• agitated procrastination (in this case, a person deliberately delays the completion of tasks, since he wants to experience an adrenaline rush: a delay in completing a task is a kind of challenge to his abilities).

The first and second type (avoidance and indecision) experts refer to a passive form of procrastination, and third (horny) - to the active. The difference between them lies in the final results and in the degree of satisfaction with them. This means that active procrastinators deliberately shy away from completing tasks on time, wanting to experience the thrill, and not at all because they cannot and are not confident in themselves. On the contrary, they are very confident in themselves, because they know that, despite taking the deadline to the extreme, they will be able to do everything in time and do the job successfully. This way of doing things turns them on and gives them the opportunity to admire themselves to some extent. Passive procrastinators, on the other hand, are the exact opposite of active procrastinators and start their businesses out of insecurity and weak abilities.

Psychologists talk about another separate type - a certain antagonistic procrastination, the essence of which lies in the opposition of a person to the social system implanted in him against his will, the denial of all rules, regimes and terms. In this case, a person is absolutely not satisfied with the established order in society, but he cannot change anything around him.

In their research, psychologists describe various causes of procrastination. Let's consider them in more detail.

• Beliefs causing fear of failure and fear of success. In this case, a person subconsciously seeks to postpone the task, since he is not sure that he will succeed well, and is afraid that as a result, he will become an object of ridicule and condemnation from others. He is sure in advance that he will not cope or that he will cope badly, or mediocrely, therefore he will not try, because he does not see the point in this.
• Perfectionism. Perfectionists strive for excellence in everything. By focusing on the little things, they strive to bring things to perfection.The limited deadlines do not scare them, as a rule, they ignore them, since it is much more scary for them not to do their job perfectly, without the slightest mistake. Perfectionism itself is not a bad quality, the main thing is that it does not cause delays or complete refusal to work because of the confidence that it will not be possible to perform it perfectly.
• Low self-esteem and self-doubt. Such a psychological state of a person leads him to the conviction that he will not be able to complete a job or a task, since he is incapable of anything, he has no talent, skills, skills, not enough knowledge, etc. Therefore, he decides that there is no point waste strength and energy on a deliberately disastrous business.
• Recalcitrant and independent disposition, spirit of contradiction and confrontation... Individuals with such a character (they can also be called nihilists, anarchists and rebels) demonstrate their unwillingness to obey to the world around them, reject the rules imposed by society. In this case, procrastination acts as an instrument of conflict provoked by the desire for freedom from the programmed life of society.
• Inability to prioritize... When a person is given many tasks, he begins to take on everything, as a result, a person has difficulties with concentration of attention and distribution of forces, and he simply stops doing everything. Follows the path of least resistance, deciding that it will not be in time anyway.
• Lack of self-organization... Everything is simply explained here. A person does not know how to properly allocate his time, which is why there are constant delays and delays.

• Unpleasant and boring workthat a person does not like at all often becomes the reason for procrastination.
• Lack of motivation... Knowing that we will receive a good fair remuneration at the end of the work, we strive for faster and better performance of the work. If it is known that the volume of work is large, in order to complete it, you will have to spend a lot of time and effort, and as a result, the performer will have insufficient remuneration in his opinion, then he will not try to complete this work on time and with high quality. Since there is no elementary interest, and if the actual dislike for a particular job is added to this, then procrastination is double nourished.

If you regularly notice in yourself or your children such signs as laziness, a state of apathy, constant postponement of important tasks, a narrowing of attention, a decrease in the level or complete lack of self-organization and punctuality, or the presence of other similar bad habits, then it is quite possible that in your family lives and flourishes procrastination syndrome.

The psychological trait of procrastination is that it is often based on frustration. Perhaps at one time you were very deceived, suffered a serious failure, and this traumatized and frightened you. Be sure to understand the root causes of why you procrastinate. Perhaps it is not laziness that plays the main role here. In any case, excessively high indicators of the scale showing the level of your self-sabotage should be lowered. Otherwise, you yourself will then bitterly regret wasted time and missed opportunities.

Experts have drawn many conclusions about the consequences, pros and cons of procrastination. There are no pluses in it. Therefore, it is important to know that procrastination leads to negative consequences, and to remember which ones.

By constantly procrastinating, you can:

• reduce the efficiency of your work;
• lose the opportunity for career growth or even lose a job;
• create serious financial difficulties for yourself;
• enter into conflicts with relatives, friends and coworkers;
• "Earn" chronic fatigue syndrome due to regular lack of sleep, insomnia and nervous strain;
• become an irritable person, fall into prostration and depression.

At work, a person is distracted. frequent coffee and tea drinking, smoke breaks, empty chatter with colleagues, personal telephone conversations, correspondence in instant messengers, exchange of funny photos and videos and their viewing, visiting social networks, reading news feeds and gossip columns on the Internet, computer games, etc. All this can lead to untimely fulfillment of orders or to their complete non-fulfillment. As a result, you can get a reprimand, a fine, lose your bonus, be demoted or even fired.

After a long day at work, many people choose to relax by lying on the couch, surfing the Internet or watching TV. Favorite TV shows, computer games, social networks create a huge illusion of relaxation, they not only do not give your body and brain full rest, but, on the contrary, tire them even more. And they also do not give the opportunity to perform some household chores, which then accumulate, and deprive family members of each other's attention. Thus, family members drift away over time, petty grievances and understatements accumulate, an atmosphere of tension and misunderstanding is created. As a result, everyday troubles and problems in family relations appear.

The advice to change a job that does not bring joy is too radical and few would dare to take such a step. In addition, it will be meaningless if the problem lies not in the work itself, but in the lack of self-organization and excessive anxiety.

There is no panacea that completely eliminates this problem once and for all, But there are some ways that you can stop being 100% procrastinated, improve your productivity and income levels, which can result in full life satisfaction and getting rid of fears and psychological barriers.

Very important bring all your affairs to the system on paper, then in real life it will be much easier and easier for you to navigate them. In this matter, the first aid will be provided by a simple and effective Eisenhower matrix. It is a table with four fields. In the upper horizontal line, write "urgent matters" and "non-urgent matters." Vertical left - "important" and "unimportant". Thus, there are four groups: "urgent important matters", "urgent non-important matters", "non-urgent important matters" and "non-urgent non-important matters."

All urgent, “burning” cases are recorded in the upper left field "urgent important" and they are carried out immediately. This usually happens by itself. In "urgent unimportant" it is possible to enter cases that do not tolerate delay (for example, replacing a burned-out lamp in the toilet), but that do not threaten either health or life, the failure of which will not entail dire consequences. "Non-urgent important matters" - these are fundamental life tasks and goals that pave the way for the future and give meaning to existence. And it is this category of cases that is extremely prone to procrastination. Therefore, try to make every planned goal motivated.

And the last category of cases - "Unimportant and not urgent". These include any nonsense on which a person is inclined to spend most of his time.It is these “affairs” that immerse people in an endless vicious circle of procrastination and divert their attention from other groups of activities and responsibilities, and especially from non-urgent, but very important matters that are necessary for a person's personal growth and achievement of success.

It is not enough just to set goals for yourself by adding them to the list. It is necessary to distribute them so that it becomes clear what funds will be needed to achieve them and how long it will take. Goals can be determined as a whole for life, for the next few years, for the next year, month, week, day. When you clearly understand what your goals in life are, what they mean to you and what their meaning is, then the picture of your present and future will be clear and clear. And you will no longer be a procrastinator, lost in meaninglessness and aimlessly wandering in the emptiness and monotony of days.

Also it is important to learn to calculate your strength... This is the only way to reasonably approach the issue of achieving goals. If you push yourself out and run out of steam before you achieve anything, it can again throw you into a maelstrom of procrastination. And try to have quality rest, so that the body and brain are really unloaded and charged with positive emotions and new strength.

Sign up for developmental courses, improve self-education, read quality literature, be creative, spend time with your family and children.

Cultivate hard work. Human psychology is such that labor is often perceived as an enemy imposed by the system. But it is important to realize that work is the basis of success, nothing good can be achieved in life without work, so you need to treat him like a friend and try to love him.

We must understand that empty pastime, a series of endless entertainment and senseless vanity do not bring any benefit. Moreover, they bring harm and damage to a person's personality, taking away precious time from him and depriving him of the opportunity to improve himself.