Epiphany Das, Class III
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Picture this. You have an essay due at 11:59. You “start work” on it at 11, but barely get a sentence in by 11:30. And even being aware that you only have half an hour to get it done, you still allow yourself to be distracted by your phone. To many of us, this scenario may seem too familiar. In fact, you might even experience this constantly. If it is, you are not alone. Out of 45 discipuli interviewed, 95% claimed that they would consider themselves procrastinators. So why is this the case?
Procrastination. Is it synonymous with being lazy? Why do we do it? How do we prevent it? First, let's talk about the term itself.
Procrastination is literally defined as “the action of delaying or postponing something”. When you receive a set deadline, the first instinct for many is to say “I have time, I’ll put it off until later”. However, there are many more layers to it than just putting it off. One of the worst parts about procrastination is the guilt you may feel after. It is your acknowledgment of delaying an important task for your own gratification. The time that you spend not working is most likely occupied by playing video games or scrolling on social media. But what if you are occupying your time by completing a task just as debilitating?
I interviewed a discip from Class III about their experience with procrastination, and they explained at one point how they would clean their entire house and perform other chores, before even thinking about doing their homework. I thought this was interesting since homework, in my opinion, does not take as much exertion as tedious house chores. So back to the initial question. Why do we do it? Why would we inflict so much pressure on ourselves? The short answer is, it’s not your fault…entirely.
According to an article by the Washington Post, “If a task feels especially overwhelming or provokes significant anxiety, it’s often easiest to avoid it.” While this may seem obvious, we don’t usually think of it like this. More often than not, you’re probably blaming yourself for it. But, it’s not simply laziness; it is caused by so many other emotions and subconscious thinking. We are constantly burdened with the anxiety of not fulfilling our expectations of the job we want to accomplish. If it helps, think of it like this: You actually care more about the quality of the work, rather than just getting it done.
There is a multitude of other reasons why you might be delaying a task. You could genuinely just be an easily distracted person, which still, is not your fault. You could have trouble finding importance in the very task itself; which, in our terms, is simply not seeing why school work even matters. You could have external factors impacting you, such as depression or ADHD. You could also just not be a procrastinator, like the 5% of discipuli I surveyed. The takeaway from this is that you need to recognize which one of these you are, and if you truly seek improvement, you can become that 5%.
Now we approach the ultimate question - How do we stop procrastinating? To those who are not affected by procrastination on a daily basis, the answer to this may be simple. “Just get it done.” But it’s a bit more complex than that; once you fall into the endless cycle, it’s incredibly difficult to get out. While it may seem ineffective or unnecessary, practicing self-love and self-care is an overwhelming suggestion by psychologists. If the reason you are procrastinating is because you lack confidence in your results, increasing that confidence can successively increase your motivation. Another piece of advice is to improve your daily routine. This is even more difficult to achieve since habits are hard to break out of. However, if you find your procrastination to be impeding on your mental health, it might be time to switch up what you are used to.
All in all, while it seems impossible to overcome, procrastination is not ingrained in humans. The most vital part of ridding yourself from it is to understand why you do it. Think - what is your interfering factor?