They are always late with the delivery of work projects and payment of utility bills ... They forget to cash out gift certificates and often are not at the scheduled meeting ... It is customary to say about such people that they are irresponsible, lazy and unreliable. This is partly true. But the main reason these individuals do not have time to do everything on time is procrastination. What is it, let's try to figure it out just now.
What it is?
The term "procrastination" was formed from the Latin word, where pro- means ahead, instead, and crastinus - tomorrow. That is, in psychology, this concept indicates a person’s tendency to constantly put off important and secondary matters “by tomorrow”, to fade away from solving assigned tasks and problems, and to avoid fulfilling obligations undertaken earlier. Experts say that often this condition becomes a mechanism to combat anxiety, anxiety, when an individual is worried that he will not be able to complete the task or is unable to complete it. In addition, they distinguish three criteria on the basis of which procrastination is defined as personality behavior: delay, inefficiency and futility.
According to statistics, 20% of people suffer from this psychological problem. For them, the normal working condition is procrastination. What it is? In simple words, this is a situation where, instead of fulfilling a plan, a person is distracted by various trifles: he wipes a computer monitor, removes pieces of paper from a table or reads a note in a newspaper.
Appearance of the phenomenon
Procrastination is often called the plague of the XX century. But in fact, people were exposed to it many centuries ago. The earliest mention of “putting off important things until tomorrow” is the sacred texts of the Indian Bhagavad-gita society, created before our era, as well as quotes from verses by the famous ancient Greek poet Hesiod. However, at that time the concept did not stand out in a separate psychological category.
When did the term procrastination appear? This happened only in 1977: in the specialized foreign literature for the first time they described the phenomenon and gave it a definition. And already in 1992 they began to study it in detail thanks to the English scientist Noah Milgram, who drew the attention of his colleagues to the problem. As the most striking example, he described the process of writing term papers and dissertations by students: the assignment begins at the extremely set time, when it is no longer possible to postpone or there is a clear threat that it will not be finished.
Symptoms
If you dig deeper, you can draw the following conclusion: a similar state of mind and body makes life much easier. So procrastination: what is it? In other words, this is a simplified version of existence, when it becomes less stressful and responsible. Experts identify the main symptoms of a psychological phenomenon:
- Inspiration and readiness to proceed with the task .
- The emergence of the desire to "jump" from the solution of the global problem .
- Fading enthusiasm - pushing the matter to a later period. The appearance of criticism of oneself and the subsequent excuse.
- The decline in motivation continues - the question is postponed for a critical period.
- The problem remains unresolved or is passed on to the shoulders of colleagues. A person does not admit that he did not cope.
The most interesting thing is that procrastination is cyclical in nature: the symptoms, they are also stages of the process, are repeated with all subsequent deeds. The phenomenon is not a disease, sometimes it is just a lifestyle or banal insecurity in oneself and one's own strengths.
Main reasons
There are a lot of them. But psychologists were able to identify the main reasons that make a person a chronic procrastinator:
- Lack of motivation: unloved job, uninteresting business, low salary.
- Perfectionism and procrastination, when the individual seeks to do everything perfectly. He until the last moment studies even the smallest details, all the same remaining unsure and unsatisfied with the result. As a result, the problem remains unresolved.
- Lack of knowledge and existing skills. A person doubts the correctness of actions, since he did not do this before, did not encounter a similar problem.
- Existing phobias. There are a great many of them: fear of change, fear of failure, to feel disappointed or to hear criticism, and even a thrill of success.
- Inability to plan a schedule and sort the list of cases into importance categories.
The above factors in most cases lead to the development of this condition. But it should be remembered that, depending on the characteristics of the behavior and nature of the person, procrastination will also appear. Its causes lie deep in the mind and can be individual.
The appearance of procrastinators
To determine the individuals most affected by this condition, psychologists often use the popular method. Procrastination or a tendency to it is diagnosed in such people:
- Gray mice. Such individuals are accustomed to be the "average" in the team. They are sure that they are deprived of talents, their makings are undeveloped, and positive character traits are not pronounced. Therefore, they often listen to the opinions of others, are subject to influence from the outside. It’s easier for them to stay in the shade than to be individual. They doubt their abilities and knowledge.
- Thrill lovers. Such individuals deliberately put off everything at the last moment, since they cannot live without adrenaline. They like the feeling when the heart is beating furiously in the chest from the realization that there are only a few hours, minutes until the decision is made.
- Irresponsible. These are either the so-called nihilists who simply do not need anything in this life, or cowards trembling before important decisions, or weak-minded people without an inner core and lack of elementary self-education skills.
Other individuals can also be procrastinators due to certain circumstances, characteristics of upbringing and character.
How is procrastination different from laziness?
Many identify these two concepts. In fact, laziness and procrastination are completely different things, although in many respects they are similar and inseparable. The main difference is the presence of activity. If laziness is a person’s desire to do nothing, but just rest, lie, sleep, then procrastination is an activity aimed at any little things, just to avoid the fulfillment of the main, global action. It is hard to blame procrastinators for not doing anything, because in fact they were busy - just not what they needed. Such individuals make excuses for solving other equally important issues.
The Canadian scientist Pierce Steele has been researching the phenomenon for many years, discovering new facets that hitherto hid procrastination. Books written by him answered the question of why people prefer to put things off indefinitely. To do this, he derived the formula: U = EV / ID, where U is the desire to do something equal to the product of the expectation of success (E) and the value of completing the activity (V), divided by the urgency of completion (I), multiplied by personal sensitivity to one or other activity (D). According to his findings, individuals postpone the performance of tasks if they do not bring instant success - material gain, praise, promotion. That is, lovers of pulling rubber love to live in the current day, hour, moment, and do not care about the future.
Effects
Procrastination is not a disease. Despite this, it requires some therapy, as the aggravation of the problem leads to serious trouble. The fight against procrastination is necessary, otherwise, due to a chronic shortage of time, a person will be in constant stress and anxiety. Limited time also causes mental and physical stress. Such an individual can be nervous and angry, because very often he forgets to satisfy his basic needs for food and sleep. He develops a sense of guilt, he loses productivity and in many ways his potential remains untapped or unfulfilled.
Gradually, a person loses the ability to organize. He begins to be late all the time, with difficulty getting used to changing circumstances, losing control of time, preferring to do whatever, but not what is really necessary. At the initial stage of development of procrastination, an individual aggressively reacts to changes in the work schedule, constantly shifts the blame for its failure to others. Subsequently, the situation can develop in two ways: the first is a tense breakthrough before the deadline, which will lead to complete exhaustion and aggravation of the problem, the second - the matter will not be argued, causing the appearance of depression and poor health.
How to overcome procrastination?
Each case is individual. Only after a conversation with a patient can a psychologist recommend effective methods for a specific situation. General recommendations are as follows:
- Become aware of the problem. This is the most difficult step, having completed which, it is already possible to outline a fight strategy. Remember: if you cannot change the situation, change your attitude towards it.
- Learn to plan, create a to-do list for every day. First, write down even the little things up to the exact time of the assignment.
- Think about the result. It can be a bonus, promotion, gaining credibility. Such a train of thought will become motivation and force you to act.
- Catch yourself on procrastination. As soon as you feel that you are swinging away, punish yourself with an extra step.
- Do not plan global. Start small.
- Know how to refuse. If you are not initially interested in a problem that needs to be resolved, say so directly. Give other people the opportunity to tackle that issue, and take something else for yourself, but as much as possible suitable for you.
Remember that modern
psychological literature describes in detail
how to defeat procrastination. A book on this topic should become a desktop: buy it and read it every time before going to bed.
Eisenhower matrix
One of the most effective methods to combat procrastination. It looks like four squares that are formed when the axes “Urgent - Not Very Urgent” are crossed vertically and “Important - Not Essential” horizontally. Put this picture in your business diary and distribute current affairs in its cells in accordance with the degree of their importance. At the same time, important and urgent issues should include those problems that are urgent. Without their solution, further steps will be useless. For example, an urgent call to a regular customer, moving the meeting to another time. Important and non-urgent are those things that will become global in the near future: planning a new project, holding a meeting.
The problems are urgent, but not very important - these are those that do not bring you closer to the goal. You need to solve them, but this will not affect your work schedule. These include congratulations on the birthday of colleagues, the reception of unexpected guests, and so on. As for unimportant and non-urgent matters, this category is the most capacious. This can include everything that is nothing, but at the same time insanely interesting and desirable: watching a series, a computer game, chatting with a friend on the phone. If you organize the work in accordance with the matrix, then you will be successfully defeated procrastination: what is it, you will forget. Remember that you have one life. And spending time on unnecessary things is luxury and stupidity.