Defining Procrastination - Understanding Causes and Remedies

The term “procrastination” has been originally derived from “proscrastinare”, a Latin verse which means “in favor for tomorrow”. Procrastination can be simply defined as delaying of tasks intentionally. With time, this particular tendency turns into habit which can be really harmful for one’s career and life in general. The post below is all set to define procrastination with an analysis on its causes and remedies.

Technical Definition

The technical procrastinate definition as per the esteemed dictionaries refers to “intentional delay while performing a task” or “putting off some work willingly”, and this act of delay is mostly followed with the excuse of getting it done by the next day positively and as its said “tomorrow never comes”.

General Meaning

Basically, the procrastination meaning implies to wait till last possible hour when one has to work out something. Usually people procrastinate when they find the task difficult or simply they feel to do something else that time. For instance, rather than finishing the homework as they get back from school, many students would procrastinate & won’t start the assignments till it’s almost the bedtime.

There are several terms and words which have got similar meanings to procrastinate. These include the terms like “dawdle”, “postpone”, or idioms like “dragging one’s feet”. Yes, these synonyms might not be completely interchangeable with the very word “procrastinate, yet, these could be placed as a substitute in specific situations.

No discussion on procrastinate would be complete without the mention of its causes as an elaboration on the causes would help to understand the topic better.

Fear

Fear is one of the major factors behind procrastination, be it the fear of success or failure. Individuals who are scared to fail lack the confidence to attempt that particular task which they have been delaying intentionally. They find it easier to blame on failure rather than accepting their negligence to fulfill the assignment. They fear that they would appear to be incompetent that attacks their ego, leading them to postpone the work as far as possible.

Fear of the success might appear far fetched, yet this could be a viable cause for procrastination and is applicable for people who fear change. These individuals declare to be happy with their prevalent status and even though they are of high competencies and know that they can achieve a much superior position than the current one they feel reluctant to try for a higher scope. It’s because they are afraid of the change they have to face while trying for a better scope. They fear that they wouldn’t be able to adjust with new expectations and workload in that new place.

Overload & incapacity to prioritize

Sometimes it happens that when a person is too loaded with continuous work he cannot decide on the priorities clearly. He cannot fathom which one to finish first

and which one to check later - in such a situation the person may spend hours failing to identify between the urgent and not-so-vital ones.

The problem worsens especially in the fast paced and high stressed jobs where almost every work is urgent and the person becomes unable to decide which one to look first. It causes aversion and he turns out doing nothing instead.

Improper Time Management

It happens from 2 principle reasons- one is overconfidence in abilities and the other is overestimation of time available for completing the work. In case the individual is overconfident regarding his personal abilities, he might risk delaying an urgent task to some later date as he feels that given his superior abilities he can come up with the job just in time. But this is not always the scene and the person might well bear a false misconception about himself leading to an unwanted delay in the project.

Besides, sometimes people tend to overestimate the time available for the job, stretching the length of hours unconsciously. For example he doesn’t take into account the meal time, fatigue and the little breaks essential to keep his mind working effectively. He also undermines the possibility of any emergency situation in between which can eat much of the time, leaving little space to finish off the entire task.

Boredom

Sometimes an individual might take to procrastinate even if the job is mundane or boring for him. If a person doesn’t enjoy his work, he might well opt to do other works instead of that particular assignment which he finds relatively interesting.

Let’s look at the remedies now.

Eliminate distractions

If other interests are coming as a hurdle to fulfill the assignment, its better you either come out of that environ or else remove those distractions. In most of the cases these distractions are generally telephone or the internet- just make these inaccessible. Until and unless you need your cell or the internet for the job, it’s better to unplug them till you are finished with your assignment.

Break down tasks

It’s suggested that one should break down the work into more defined and smaller tasks. Large projects look overwhelming and intimidating too which discourages one from taking up the attempt for the fear of failure. But if one breaks them down, the smaller works are easier to manage.

Make it fun

If one finds the job too boring and hates it for that reason, it’s advised to spice it up with fun factors. The most common tactics are switching on cool music or munching on a favorite snack while performing the task.