Procrastination And Laziness Essay

The Root of Procrastination: Laziness Mental Issue? Procrastination, as most people define it, is the putting off of an important task for a certain or indefinite length of time. People who procrastinate often are, in some cases, accused of being lazy. Someone who procrastinates instead of studying, or accomplishing an important task at his or her job, for example, is often called lazy. Laziness is found in people who don’t accomplish many tasks on a daily basis, or are typically sloppy with their appearance and timeliness. The question that I hope to answer throughout the course of this paper is this: is the root of procrastination laziness, or is it a mental issue that needs addressing? To put the question in more practical terms, consider this hypothetical example. Suppose two freshmen enter the same

Pychyl states in his article “Procrastination and laziness share key attributes[,] such as the reluctance to act and a lack of strong motivation in dictionary definitions.” (1). Pychyl directs the reader to take a more philosophical approach to differentiating between the two words. There seems to be no concrete definition for laziness (Pychyl 2). The definiton of laziness, Pychyl argues, would be purely the opinion of the one labeling the accused individual (2). Pychyl implies that the key to discerning between procrastination and laziness lies in the motives of the subject exhibiting these traits (1). Pychyl explains that it is the morality of a person which determines if they are lazy (2). For example, if Student B did not care about his studies, and procrastinated solely for the enjoyment of playing video games, then by Pychyl’s definition he is lazy. If, however, Student B became overwhelmed with the workload of the day, and just wanted a few moments of relaxation right before going to bed, then his procrastination doesn’t stem from