Know why I am doing a series
on this?
What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Procrastination?
CONTENTS
Procrastinators, anyway, will they read this?
Is there anyone who doesn’t procrastinate?
Does procrastination have any advantages?
Is it good for society to procrastinate?
Are procrastinators a problem?
Are procrastinators under stress?
Why do people get into the groove of procrastination?
Is procrastination a disorder?
Are parents and teachers responsible for procrastination?
Can procrastination be prevented?
How to overcome procrastination?
Procrastination is
not a problem but a symptom. Scores of training programs are run for both
students and executives to overcome it. After they receive several tips, they conclude
that none of them will work for them. They are right because the tips work well
for those who want a solution and not for those who are using procrastination
as a mechanism to overcome their deep-rooted problem. This is something What
Psychologists Don’t Talk About Procrastination?
Introduction
Many people consider a headache as a problem. But it is
only a symptom of an underlying problem. The problem may lie in the cardiovascular,
musculoskeletal, digestive, or nervous systems. Only medical professionals know
the difference and can make differential diagnoses.
Similarly, procrastination has been misunderstood, time
and again, as a problem though there are telltale signs of it being a symptom
of several underlying problems (We shall consider this later).
It is equated with laziness, stress, anxiety, lack of
goals, lack of time management, and now they are trying to link it with a lack
of mental health.
How far are these true?
Should parents be concerned about their children’s lack
of interest?
Should companies spend millions of dollars on training
their employees to gear them up?
Should psychologists be insensitive to the predicament
of people at large?
Let’s try to answer these questions.
Procrastinators, anyway, will they read this?
Those who are good at procrastinating don’t even click
on the link because they think they never need it. They are right. It is not
them who need it but those who can’t tolerate them, at home or work.
Procrastinators don’t think they are postponing things.
They have a lot of genuine reasons for it.
Some people may even think that procrastinators lack
decision-making skills. However, procrastinators are decisive in not making a
decision.
Is there anyone who doesn’t procrastinate?
If you take any normal population, almost 80% of them
appear quite active doing their regular chores. Does it mean that they don’t
procrastinate?
To be active on one task, you will have to postpone
doing several other tasks. If I am late for work, I may have to skip my
breakfast. If the time is up, a person may stop doing his work and put it off
to the next working day.
So, technically, no one is there who doesn’t
procrastinate!
Does procrastination have any advantages?
Procrastinators rarely fall prey to cyber crimes because
these criminals thrive on creating urgency like “This offer is available only
for a few minutes!” or “You have won a lottery and you will lose it if you
don’t pay processing fees”. They don’t jump with joy when they see discounts
offered. They are also cautious of emotional manipulation like “We are sending
food and medicine to the disaster-affected areas!”
They don’t give in easily to threats like “We will
arrest you!” or “We will cut your connection!”. They would rather cross-check
information than impulsively give in to it. They will think ten times before
taking up fake job offers. Anyway, they are not dying to go to work in the
first place. They are reluctant to partake in online romance. They will think a
hundred times before investing in high returns.
Is it good for society to procrastinate?
Sometimes procrastinators avoid situations that might
lead to disasters or accidents. I have come across several cases where people
have been saved from certain death because of their lack of decision-making.
I only wish that all terrorists, criminals, addicts, and
aggressive were at least a little good at procrastination!
Millions of people would have prevented their suicides
if they had prolonged their hasty decisions.
Uprisings, riots, strikes, lockdowns, protests, etc.,
occur infrequently if a majority of people procrastinate. That way a community
would be a peaceful place to live.
Who hates procrastinators?
There are sets of people who hate procrastination.
Marketing and sales personnel, advertisers, rabble-rousers,
politicians, propagandists, leaders, managers, etc., cannot tolerate people who
postpone their decisions as they want quick results.
The whole education system is geared up for a result-oriented
approach and anyone, who doesn’t adhere to the rigorous routine, is looked down
upon.
Trainers, motivators, mentors, psychologists, and almost
all professionals are against these people.
Parents and teachers are fed up with students who keep
procrastinating.
Confidence tricksters and scamsters abhor
procrastinators because they don’t fall into the trap easily.
Are procrastinators a problem?
Yes, to the extent that the
procrastinators are not at all reliable. Whenever you tell them to do something,
even when they say they will do it, you are not sure whether they do it or not!
At home and workplace,
procrastinators become a nuisance to others.
Especially during
emergencies, their presence becomes redundant.
When time management
becomes an essential part of a group task, procrastinators become a problem.
Almost all procrastinators
lack thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving skills. In addition, like
everyone else, they too lack over 100 other skills mentioned by me as ‘What are 64 NAVA VIDYA or 64 New Skills?’
Are procrastinators under stress?
Like many other terms used
in psychology, the word stress has been misused considerably, as I have pointed
out in detail in ‘What is Stress?’
There are only three types
of stress: Eustress, Neustress, and Distress.
Psychologists and others
would want to insist that procrastination is a manifestation of distress but the
procrastinators are in a state of neustress and are trying to avoid both
distress and eustress.
The following diagram helps
in understanding this.
Their level of arousal is
restricted to wakefulness, drowsiness, or sleep. Procrastinators don’t want to
get active or excited. And this is what irritates everybody.
Why do people get into the groove of procrastination?
One reason is their past
experiences. Irrespective of how much
ever they tried, they ended up in failure. So, why bother?
Unrealistic expectations
from others put them off. One student told me that he could never satisfy his
parents’ ambitions for him. Even when he scores in distinction, his parents
want him to score a cent percent.
Fear of success haunts them
more than fear of failure. It is easy to succeed but you have to struggle to
maintain the success.
Their needs are being
fulfilled. They don’t have too many wants. See ‘What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Happiness?’ and ‘What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Choices?’
They have poor
organizational skills and they feel that the tasks at hand are too much for
them to handle. Essentially, their time management, self-management, and personal efficiency are lacking.
Students who depend on
procrastination should learn to overcome laziness.
They have a poorly
developed value system.
None of the 21 executive functions of the brain are effectively developed in
them.
Their learning ability is
not yet fully developed. This will be considered later in ‘What
Psychologists Don’t Talk About Learning?’ They don’t understand that ‘We must Learn Skills to Thrive’.
Their self-awareness is lacking to the extent that they prefer to take
revenge against society through self-deprivation.
Their LAMP (Leadership +
Attitude + Motivation = Performance) is not lighted either because they don’t
allow others to light it or refuse to borrow it. (See ‘Light Your Own LAMP’). Please be cautious as these terms are misunderstood and misused. (See 'Are we overselling Leadership?', 'ATTITUDE CHANGE', and 'What is MOTIVATION?')
Is procrastination a disorder?
It is not.
However, most
procrastinators don’t sit idle. Some of them may have digital dependency (See ‘Helping youngsters to overcome digital dependency’) or substance abuse.
Over time, some may develop
lifestyle diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, sleep-related problems, etc., due to their inactivity.
Lack of goals may lead to
frustration in some procrastinators, and as indicated elsewhere, frustration is a type of distress.
Neustress in itself is not
a problem but nature insists that we go over eustress and distress once in a
while to ward off the ill effects of prolonged neustress. This inability to
tackle eustress and distress is what makes procrastination a potentially
dangerous condition for the individual.
Just like so many disorders
being classified under “anxiety and depressive disorders” (previously called
neurotic disorders), a day will come when even procrastination will be
considered under the same category.
As it is, chronic
procrastination is now being associated with “anxiety, depression, low
self-esteem, ADHD, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and other mental conditions”.
(See “Why You Put Things Off Until the Last Minute”). Laypeople will never know what is
lurking behind procrastination.
Are parents and teachers responsible for
procrastination?
My research has shown that prolonged
eustress leads to neustress, prolonged neustress leads to distress, and
prolonged distress leads to anxiety.
Parents are partly responsible as they provide the child with everything before the arousal of a need. Their intention is to ease the process for the child but its effect sometimes boomerangs.
The diagram below illustrates the motivation cycle. For more details see
‘Can we live without Goals?’.
Children should learn with
effort at all stages of the cycle to obtain satisfaction for their needs. Identifying
the goal, determining the goal-directed behavior as to whether it needs
approach or avoidance, comparing the goal with the need, and finally obtaining
satisfaction – all these stages have to be individually strategized by the
child while the child is maturing to learn.
However, modern parents
rarely allow the child to seek stimulation.
For instance, they are fed
each time depending on the clock rather than whether the child is hungry or
not!
Pacifiers, walkers,
playpens, etc., hamper the baby’s natural ability to learn the skills to tackle
the environment.
Modern toys hinder the child’s
growth and development.
The purpose of schools
giving assignments and homework is defeated when parents become active
participants.
The greatest victims are
curiosity, learnability, and creativity.
Teachers are supposed to
impart skills to children but schools everywhere are more concerned about
completing the syllabus rather than identifying the skills. For instance, every
school teaches mathematics but rarely do we find students who have
developed the thinking skills necessary for it.
Schools rarely know that
they can impart eight interaction skills through their language syllabi.
Hence, procrastination is
more a symptom of a lack of learning relevant life skills rather than a problem
itself. If we don’t take care of the symptoms, then it would lead to a serious
problem.
Can procrastination be prevented?
Time and again I have
insisted that we can 'Prevent Depression Through TDS' (Thoughts, Decisions, and Solutions).
However, none of the thinking skills are learned by the individual either as a
child or as an adult. This leads to procrastination initially and to probable depression
gradually. So, it is wise for us to prevent depression by identifying
procrastination as early as possible and overcoming it.
What psychologists don’t talk about procrastination
is that it has become widespread and is conquering the young population at an
epidemic proportion.
You can’t turn a newspaper without reading about suicide
and no news bulletin ends without informing us about suicide. If children are
committing suicide just because they are unable to do well in exams or are stuck
in a romantic relationship, then there is something seriously wrong going on in
the way we are dealing with things.
There is a definite toxicity in the environment and it
is leading to consciousness pollution.
Parents and teachers are the ones who can easily
identify procrastination in youngsters. Rather than encouraging passivity among
students, they can take the help of psychologists to ward off the danger.
Psychologists should work
more toward prevention rather than on counseling and therapy. It will benefit
millions of children. That way they can help society in defusing the hazardous situation.
If psychologists don’t take
action now to prevent procrastination, then there will be many more "zombie
cities" all over the world. Watch the video below, if you don’t believe it!
How to overcome procrastination?
The following aspects will help in overcoming procrastination. The same steps are depicted in the figure below.
1.
Proper Planning
2.
Goal Orientation
3.
Increase Personal Efficiency
4.
Focus on the task
5.
Befriend the threat
6.
Collate Resources
7.
Engage in Positive
Thinking
8.
Overcome Fear of Failure
9.
Learn to relax
10. Create internal reward systems
Summary
To understand
procrastination properly, we should first try to analyze the behavior of the
procrastinator. All of us keep postponing things to do but we compensate for
it. Procrastination prevents us from making hasty decisions and prevents us
from possible dangers. However, a procrastinator is hated by almost everyone
because they are unreliable. They have neustress and hate to get active or
excited. People who want to avoid certain situations try to use procrastination
as an excuse. Though procrastination is not a disorder, prolonged
procrastination may be associated with psychosocial problems. In a way, parents
and teachers are partly responsible for this predicament but measures can be
taken to prevent and overcome procrastination. This is What
Psychologists Don’t Talk About Procrastination?
Know why I am doing a series
on this?
Let me know if I am wrong. I have started this series because there
are hundreds of things psychologists don’t talk about. I feel that it would
benefit everyone if they did so. I hope at least now, they will make a
beginning.
This is an attempt to bring to the fore what has been hidden for a very
long time.
What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Exam Warmup?
Previous:
What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Time Management?
What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Self Management?
What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Personal Efficiency?
What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Value System?
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