Class Reflection: Procrastination
We all procrastinate. Procrastination is one habit we tend to develop to become part of us, but it can be unlearned. When we get a large chunk of task to do; like writing an essay due in 2 weeks, working on a deliverable at work, or maybe a personal project that we think will have a greater impact in the future but need to be worked on now (in the present), we look for some form of relief — A break or doing something fun to take the stress/workload off our mind for a while.
We can avoid procrastinating by breaking down large tasks into smaller tasks and start doing them. Once we get started on something, we are typically able to keep going with it. Most people think procrastination has to do with time management — People who fail to manage their time effectively tend to procrastinate.
This isn’t true. Procrastination is about managing emotion, not time. What do you do the moment you have an important thing to do? Watch a movie, or do something fun, right? You feel like this important thing can be done the next day or some other time.
Using myself as an example, I just finished my Micro-course on procrastination, and as I do for other courses, I write an article to see how best I understood the course. Today, after finishing my Micro-course on Procrastination, I felt lazy to start typing my article.
I thought to myself; I can do this later at night. Right now, I need to go to my friend’s room to talk about something interesting or watch a movie because it’s really been a hectic week for me.
I couldn’t stand up. I sat to think again, if I leave my table to talk with my friend, we will go for dinner later, and I may decide to sleep off after that. Tomorrow is the weekend, and Saturdays are days I try to complete my clients’ work since I combine school with work.
And girl, you just finished a course on procrastination. WTH!
I sat back to write this article. And I’m glad I’m doing that right now.
You see, procrastination is an act of unnecessarily postponing decisions and actions, and it comes in two forms: Procrastination with a deadline and procrastination without a deadline. I had no deadline for writing my class reflection article, and if I didn’t do it today, I might not write anything anytime on procrastination because I will be taking a new course.
We also need to understand why we procrastinate. There are a lot of reasons. A few are:
- Setting abstract goals
- Outcomes that are in the future: What if I fail?
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Anxiety
- Perfectionism
- Depression
- Lack of motivation, energy
- ADHD
- Fear of evaluation or negative feedback.
When we procrastinate, we lack/fail in many things academically, socially (interpersonal relationships), financially, and even health-wise. You know doing a certain thing will help you have a profitable outcome but delaying to do it is what makes you procrastinate. And the result can be guilt, which ultimately compounds the stress.
You fail to write your college essay, the deadline passes, and you see your friends who had decided to apply to the same school with you all get in because they had submitted theirs on time. You feel bitter. You may apply to another school on your list, but knowing that you might have also gotten in brings guilt and bitterness.
To avoid procrastination, we can learn to set SMART goals that will help motivate us to finish our tasks at hand. We can also ignore the emotion to do something pleasurable and just get started on our supposed task. After completing a task successfully, the feeling you get is fulfilling, isn’t it?
That’s how I feel now, coming to an end with my article.
You can watch this short video on how to set smart goals.
Thank you for reading! ;)
