“Postponing is just as wrong as doing everything right away.” People who constantly put off important tasks are procrastinating. The brain forces such people into a vicious circle that tempts them to procrastinate again and again. They can get easily distracted, for example, while playing baccarat online.
Although many have already heard about this procrastination, only a few know about its impact on our daily lives. And especially how many people are affected by this.
People who repeatedly put off important work are not necessarily lazy. This behavior may be due to a lack of impulse control. Such people are easily distracted, sometimes because their brains have learned that putting off tasks makes them happier than completing them. One in five professionals procrastinates, not getting done what is important. Answering every request immediately is just as wrong, says business psychologist Florian Becker. There were several studies and interviews held about this topic. Because its impact is still underestimated. The professor of organizational psychology advises prioritizing tasks. This helps twice: against procrastination and also against purely reactive behavior.
What You Can Do Today Against It
How true is the oft-quoted saying: What you can do today, don’t put off until tomorrow?
If we look at the effects that occur when someone procrastinates, there is a lot of truth in the admonishing phrase because putting off important tasks for no reason leads to feelings of guilt, worry, and stress because you know that it is not right, for example, to unnecessarily delay the start of a project with a deadline.
What is the consequence of putting off and avoiding tasks?
Once, the bad feeling. Procrastinating also has harsh consequences. Studies show that people who constantly put off work are less successful at work because they accomplish less and, therefore, ultimately earn less.
Distractions with social media: Procrastination hurts people; many know that. So why do they keep deliberately avoiding important tasks?
Most of the time, we put off unpleasant tasks that aren’t fun but still need to be done. This knowledge creates pressure on us and leads to a vicious circle: Our brain learns that it can numb this pressure by distracting itself with another task that promises immediate success. Tidy up your desk – and it’s tidy. A post on social media – leads to likes by return. These successes release reward substances in the brain, and it learns a dysfunctional behavior pattern: when pressure comes, distract yourself with incidentals. Procrastinators have become accustomed to such behavior. Pseudo-successes keep them from the essentials. This is their problem.
What Are the Types
Younger people are more affected by procrastination than older people. Half of the students suffer from it, for example, because they don’t start studying on time and have a hard time with motivation. Fifty percent is a really big number. In the course of their lives, however, people develop strategies for dealing with certain situations. That’s why procrastination decreases with age. People with weak impulse control are also at risk. Such people are unable to control their momentary needs, even though they know they are harming them. Control always means sacrificing something at the moment in order to gain something in the future. Self-discipline is difficult but necessary, even against procrastination. Among adults, about one in five suffers from severe procrastination to the point that they are incapable of action. People with psychological problems such as depressive moods are also more at risk than others.
Higher risk of procrastination among highly qualified people
Are there occupational groups that suffer particularly frequently from procrastination?
Those who sit at welcome sources of distraction – that’s computers, cell phones, the Internet – are constantly at risk of procrastination. Assembly-line work tends to preclude this. The more independent and highly skilled the work, the greater the risk of procrastination. Many interrupt their work themselves: They read emails when they should be doing something else. They check what’s going on on social media and their smartphones. Every four minutes, knowledge workers are interrupted in what they are doing, predominantly from within. That’s how they lose more than two hours of working time per day.
When It Can Be Dangerous
A subjective quantity is a point at which those affected suffer and feel unwell. Objectively, it is reached when someone is no longer able to act at the workplace, for example misses deadlines. Anyone who regularly struggles to start an important task on time, which starts but then stops, or who delivers half-done things should know that these are alarm signs that procrastination is trying to take over their daily lives.
3 Tips to Follow
First, turn off anything that can be distracting. Disable pop-up messages on the computer, set fixed times to read emails, put the cell phone out of sight, and put it on silent. Second, discard false beliefs. Anyone who says they work best under pressure is subject to a dysfunctional belief system because it leads to starting too late. This is procrastination. And third, just start. This is a trivial but effective tool against procrastination because those who start something usually keep going.
Back to the beginning of our conversation: Do those who always do everything right away, i.e., don’t put anything off until tomorrow, have it easier?
No. Simply doing everything that comes up right away – that’s not a good approach either. The right approach is to prioritize, to consciously say no once in a while, or to push unimportant things to the back. Take a meaningful break instead of posting an unimportant message. Or to think carefully about what you’re going to do before you start. None of this is procrastination. If you always do everything immediately, you are purely reactive and externally determined and don’t get to do the things that are really important at all. This is just as harmful as procrastinating.
If you suffer from this or you know a person that needs help, it is always the easiest way to just talk about it. Let them know they are not alone or just lazy. For sure, no one should make a big deal out of it.
