Procrastination. Everyone knows what does it
mean - it is a horrible habit which disturbs us when we are trying to be productive.
We have a whole week to comment on presentations of our friends for the English
course? That’s great! Let’s do this! but not now… I think that Sunday at 10 p.m.
will be a much better time to do it. I will be well rested and after the whole
week of studying and working I will be older (and, therefore, wiser). I believe
that spending the whole evening on Wikipedia reading random pages is the best
activity I can do right now - it’s both fun and intellectually stimulating.
And then comes the moment when you finally go to bed and feel this shame that you wasted another day doing nothing, but reading a lot of information about nothing and which you are going to forget tomorrow. But, hey, Zen Buddhists are studying nothingness all the time! Maybe I am a reincarnation of a Zen master? I even love Zen jokes! And there is one really smart:
And then comes the moment when you finally go to bed and feel this shame that you wasted another day doing nothing, but reading a lot of information about nothing and which you are going to forget tomorrow. But, hey, Zen Buddhists are studying nothingness all the time! Maybe I am a reincarnation of a Zen master? I even love Zen jokes! And there is one really smart:
“A Zen student went to a temple
and asked how long it would take him to gain enlightenment if he
joined the temple.
"Ten
years," said the Zen master.
"Well,
how about if I really work hard and double my effort?"
"Twenty
years."
As we can see, working hard on something is much more destructive than working at your own pace. That is great that I spend a whole evening on Wikipedia reading Zen jokes - I feel much smarter and calm.
Yeah… but secretly, deep inside your mind you know that you have wasted another day and you are only trying to explain yourself.
Ok, I have wasted this day, but tomorrow I am going to do every task because I want to have a free weekend. I promise.
And this happens again. And again. And again…
And now it is Sunday evening, 11:40 p.m. and you have to comment on eight presentations. Oh, and write your own too. You hate yourself at this moment. But somehow you finished everything you had to do in 15 minutes (everything you wrote is a garbage but that does not matter, right?). Afterwards you told yourself that this is the last time you did something like this.
You wake up the very next day and see some new presentations. “Great! Let’s do this!… but not now , I think that Sunday at 10 p.m. will be the perfect time to do it…”.
Sounds familiar? You are not alone! Many of us have this kind of problem.
In the video below Tim Urban explains in a funny way how procrastination works. It can help you with dealing with this problem.
As we can see, working hard on something is much more destructive than working at your own pace. That is great that I spend a whole evening on Wikipedia reading Zen jokes - I feel much smarter and calm.
Yeah… but secretly, deep inside your mind you know that you have wasted another day and you are only trying to explain yourself.
Ok, I have wasted this day, but tomorrow I am going to do every task because I want to have a free weekend. I promise.
And this happens again. And again. And again…
And now it is Sunday evening, 11:40 p.m. and you have to comment on eight presentations. Oh, and write your own too. You hate yourself at this moment. But somehow you finished everything you had to do in 15 minutes (everything you wrote is a garbage but that does not matter, right?). Afterwards you told yourself that this is the last time you did something like this.
You wake up the very next day and see some new presentations. “Great! Let’s do this!… but not now , I think that Sunday at 10 p.m. will be the perfect time to do it…”.
Sounds familiar? You are not alone! Many of us have this kind of problem.
In the video below Tim Urban explains in a funny way how procrastination works. It can help you with dealing with this problem.
Some questions:
1. Are you a procrastinator? Why do you think so?
2. Do you have some special method of dealing with procrastination?
3. What was the worst/funniest moment of your life caused by procrastination?
Comments
There was a time when I was procrastinator, but I'm not anymore. I try to be most productive as I can and in fact I tend to do stuff that I don't like and are necessary first. It results in having more free time, I guess. There is no point in delaying work that must be done. For example when it comes to studying, I'm always trying to do it as quickly as I can, so then I have free evening and I'm able to do some sports, play games or read books.
There are moments in life that change your attitude. When I was younger my father gave me book called "Rich dad, poor dad". It has changed my point of view in some way. Then I read some other books like "Getting things done", "the power of habit" and some others - it also made me who I'm today. When I was young, my mother was always learning me to be put together and well organized. That's how i deal with procrastination - is it a sense to delay something that must be done anyway? Making dirty job first makes your day easier/better after.
During high school my life was a bit different. I remember when I was having a test from Polish language and it was ultra boring. I was waiting as long as I could to start preparing for it. Result? - Night without sleep. I don't recommend it if someone still does it on University.
My method of dealing with procrastination is being still busy with chores. I'm making one thing after another so there is no time to think about doing it later - I believe that most of us can I agree that 'I'll do it later' is almost same as 'I'll never do it'
A lot of bad moment where caused by procrastination - usually the result was night without sleep or waking up at 3 am.
I don't remember any funny moment caused by procrastination - have you got such memory?
I don’t think that there are any special method for dealing with procrastination. If you become older and mature It is normal that you are giving up this bad habit of posteponing. You have less time and if you will try to do this it may be harmful for you.
I remember a few situations that I haven’t even started to study for a test and the day before it teacher said that it will be next week so leaving studying for the last evening was a great idea :D
The worst moment of your life, it's when I should be finishing my work. I had a deadline for this project, and I all the time kept putting it off. And on the last day I worked all day, otherwise, they wouldn't be paid.
I never had any exceptional situations due to procrastination, of course stress and last minute work but nothing unusual. I always managed to get everything done on time anyways :)
Yeah, i'm trying to motivate myself,i'm doing that in a way like, if i learned something, how much money i would get after.
Can't remember something funny, but as i said, 5 years ago, i felt that everything went wrong because of sweet procrastination(homework -> bad mark -> arguing with parents -> taking my computer back and so on)
I'm responsible person and when I have to do something or someone asks me to do something and I promise him to do it then I know that I have to do it just not to disappoint this person.
Sometimes when I have a lot of work and tasks I like to use sticky notes to note down and stick around my tasks.
The good way to fight the procrastiation is to note down all tasks you need to do and then start doing them from the easiest one to the hardest one. In some special case, change the difficulty of tasks as a parameter to the importance.
The funniest thing is that I promise myself to start commenting form Monday but every weekend I make this mistake. Only the idea that someone postpones it as well cherishes me
Yes, definitely. I'm a procrastinator. I put off a lot of stuff (homework, etc).
No, I don't really now fast and easy methods to get rid of procrastination. Except for deadlines, when it's a matter of life and death that you finish the project. I think happy people don't postpone anything. They make right choices and don't have anything (or have, but little) things that they don't like to do in their life. If I'm right, then the best way to stop being a procrastinator is to change life dramatically.
Since I don't really have an issue with procrastination, I'm not sure I should advise on dealing with it, but I will give it a shot: maybe splitting a task into smaller parts will help? Feeling a satisfaction from achieving something each day is a good motivator.
I've heard about the "Rich dad, poor dad" book but I haven't read it. If it really that good I will check it.
I would say I don't have any particular method. It's just that when you getting older you start to use your brain more and figure out that is not the best long term strategy.
I remember that once I had a sleepless night before exam. WORST. THING. EVER. I have told myself "never again" and I can tell that I've learned an important lesson from this situation.
Well I also don't remember any funny moment caused by procrastination. I was just curious if anyone had such moment.
Situations like this you have mentioned are great and bad for true procrastinators because they will wait another week before studying :D
I don't think I can remember any funny situations caused by procrastinator. Usually it's stressful and I'm quite bad at dealing with stress so it doesn't end up well :P
In my opinion , the best way to avoid procrastinating is to have things planned and to define milestones that have to be reached in order to finish particular task.
As many people here mentioned, the worst thing is that I had to sit up till late night finishing projects just before deadlines because I was to lazy to start working on them early enough.
2. Full acceptance. Just relax and let it come to you.
3. Can't really thing of anything.
Have you ever heard about a concept called mental hygiene? In short, always work bad, sometimes procrastinate good. It's important to find balance in life. Being wound up all the time can lead to a lot of bad stuff, so it's healthy to set aside one day of the week, say a Sunday, for doing absolutely nothing to do with work.
I think the best way to deal with procrastination is to be busy all the time. The self motivation is also important.
The worst for me is when I start watching a new TV series. If its good enough, I am able to spend day or even a whole weekend watching it. I feel terrible after that. I know that I waste so much time on something which is not important.
busy. If I have a work to do or very specific occupation i am good to go, but as soon as i let myself a little free time like: i have 2 days for that then as always i do it last minute because i had to use that free time to pleasure myself... I can't fight it right now. I need to change something in my life.
1. Unfortunately being a procrastinator often happens to me. As far as I’ve read about this kind of behavior, more than 80% people declares to have such problem. After such “general” introduction explaining I’m not the worse and only one, I can tell you, when procrastination “happens” in my life. It is always connected to long-term obligations, no matter at work or at home. If there is even small possibility to do something later, I generally fulfill the duty in the latest acceptable term. Taking into consideration being very busy, hard-working mum of three small kids, I always find justification to such behavior…
2. The only one effective method is to agree with someone to control the progress and to point earlier date to the given obligation. If another person does it for me, it always helps me and this is the only one possibility to avoid procrastination. I just always keep the promises, that’s why it is successful way in my case.
3. The worst moment in my life caused by procrastination happened on last Friday. It concerns my colleague’s procrastination, because he didn’t change his car tires for winter. We were in business trip driving to the airport in the morning and it was snowing…. As a result we had serious car accident on Toruńska street in Warsaw. The car is totally destroyed, fortunately we were lucky having no health problems. But I told my colleague I would never go with him anywhere again, because - driving his car with summer tires in December - this time he exaggerated with his procrastination.
I have never had that problem so I don't have method against procrastination. In my opinion self motivation is the most important because we have to organize our work everyday.
I don't remember any situation which would base on procrastination.
I don't have any special method of dealing with it. I just have a lot of work to do, so I can't let myself be unproductive for too long.
I don't remember any funny moments, but it has led me to many sleepless nights. Now the biggest problem for me is not procrastinating, but forgeting the stuff I have to do until the very last moment.
I don't remember any funny moments. I have bad memory:(
That is, until "the week before" shifts into Sunday 23:59, and I realize its not "next week" but "in 3 days"/"on wednesday"/"in few hours". I can't say it's good, because pulling an all-nighters too often can't be good for your health, but I also can't say its definitely bad, since it gives me room for unexpected events that I can squeeze into my timetable.
The other thing is, that I couldn't live having a full-time job, that includes going to work at 8am and going back at 4pm, cause in most cases, if its nothing like manual labor, or some other "assembly on conveyor belt", you have to sit and pretend you are working after you've done your job.
My method do at least try to deal with it, is to constantly think about it. Some day (that is further than, like 3 days from deadline), I will kick-in "motivated mode" and will do something for hours, or even few days. Of course, after some hard work, there needs to be some(i.e a lot of) relaxation time, after which I will once again get motivated.
Well, for the funnier moments - since I'm supposed to write my thesis, our corporate server room is shining now more than ever, and all of our servers are updated to newest versions, as well as I have already twice rearranged the cables under my desk, dusted off all of my laptops, and uninstalled some useless apps from my phone and PC. I don't have to mention that my thesis has no errors, as it contains no phrases, as it has no words, as it doesn't even exist, but at least my work space is clean now more than ever.
Sure, I'm trying to stay motivated. Usually I don't have trouble with short-time deadlines, my procrastination concerns things without deadlines :)keeping yourself busy helps a lot
I don't remember specific example, but as you can guess all of results of procrastination are the bad ones.
I don't have any special methods of dealing with it, but going to the gym encourages me and sometimes a self-made motivational speech.
I have to say that all of situations like learning to some exam or preparing a presentation few hours before deadline was very stresful for me. Fortunetely from few years I don't have such problems. :)
Why do I think that the procrastinator? The paragraph above is still relevant. And, probably, that I have not yet painted ten illustrations for tomorrow. Well, Well, the night is long. And if I start to talk about the session and how I gave it, then this will be the book.
It's hard for me to deal with this problem. But sometimes the alarm clock on the phone helps a lot, dividing tasks into pieces and interest. But there are tasks that we love and want to do, not because we have to finish them. Usually, it's most difficult to sit down and start to do it. But if you persuade yourself and start doing it, even Armageddon will not be able to tear you away from it.
Well I am procrastinator but I'm working on me :) My method of dealing with procrastination is simple - I have always TODO list. I'm trying to have list on every day, week, and month. I have not any funny moment in my life caused by procrastination. I have many bad moments but I keep these for me
My method of dealing with procrastination is being so stressed out about the deadline that I work as crazy just to do the job.
I don’t think that I have had any special moment caused by procrastination.
I think that Netflix is the worst thing in the universe, when you’re a procrastinator :D. Or nah, the worst thing when you’re a procrastinator is Game of Thrones, definitely. I was able to watch this all days.
Same with Breaking Bad. You see, I’ve seen a lot of TV series, and that means I’ve had too much of free time ;).
I've never failed too with procrastination but I want to have a peaceful life without night dramas caused by an important project :D
So I'm procrastinator too but I'm ready to fight with it!
Yeah I know... We want to do our stuff as fast as possible but we have power to do it only a night before the deadline. Such a horrible curse!