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REASONS WHY WE LIKE TO PROCRASTINATE

What is Procrastination?

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Procrastination (/prə, krastə’nāSH(ə)n/) is to “delay doing something until a later time because you do not want to do it, because you are lazy, etc.”.

Every one of us spend hours of our day simply avoiding our task at hand. Everyone procrastinates. Since the earliest time, people have been putting things off. Ironically, in order to research this topic, I procrastinated writing this article until I was getting pretty close at the deadline. We are all guilty of procrastinating at some point in time. From not doing our paper works, home works, or simply by ignoring our task at home until the last minute spending all our time surfing the internet or watching TV, we just somehow have this habit of putting things off. Have you ever wondered why people, particularly, teenagers procrastinate? This is where this article comes in.

As I dig deep about this topic. I’ve read an article about procrastination and why some of us tend to put things off. According to Joseph Ferrari, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at De Paul University in Chicago, and Timothy Pychyl, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. For them procrastination is a lifestyle, even though a maladaptive one. They don't pay bills on time.

"Telling someone who procrastinates to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just cheer up," insists Dr. Ferrari.

Procrastination is not a problem of time management or of planning. Procrastinators are not different in their ability to estimate time, although they are more optimistic than others.

Another reason is that procrastinators tell lies to themselves. Such as, "I'll feel more like doing this tomorrow." Or "I work best under pressure." But in fact they do not get the urge the next day or work best under pressure. They just protect their sense of self by saying "this isn't important." Another big lie procrastinators indulge is that time pressure makes them more creative. Unfortunately they do not turn out to be more creative; they only feel that way. They squander their resources avoiding.

Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that don't take a lot of commitment on their part. Checking social networking accounts such as FB, Twitter, or Instagram is almost perfect for this purpose.

There's more than one flavor of procrastination. People procrastinate for different reasons. Dr. Ferrari identifies three basic types of procrastinators:

  • Arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush.

  • Avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.

  • Decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision. Not making a decision absolves procrastinators of responsibility for the outcome of events.

There are many ways to avoid success in life, but the most sure-fire just might be procrastination. Procrastinators sabotage themselves. They put obstacles in their own path. Some of us procrastinate because we think we don’t have the ability to complete a task or to a good job. When we think that we don’t have the aptitude completing a particular task, and we doubt ourselves, and that will lead us to procrastination. STOP MESSING AROUND AND DO SOME WORK! NO TO PROCRASTINATION!

(Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200507/why-we-procrastinate)

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