Bradyn Shock
Dr. Bernard Gallagher
English 1002
November 9, 2015
The Root of Procrastination: Laziness Mental Issue? Procrastination, as most people know 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. Laziness is often 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? In his article, “Are Procrastinators Just Lazy?” Timothy A Pychyl (PhD) tries to get to the bottom of this question.
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If one is happy, then it is reasonable to assume that he/she would be living a productive life. If happiness is measured by how well one manages stress, then there are two possible answers. If a person does not handle stress well, then they will allow the stress to take over, which would ruin productivity. If a person handles stress well, then they have a higher percentage of productivity. Chrisoula Andreou explores this idea further in her article “Understanding Procrastination”. She states that people who exhibit procrastination regularly are caught in what is called a “preference loop” (184). A preference loop can be described as an endless cycle where decisions are repeated over and over again with the same results (Andreou 188). Is it possible, then, to say that some people actually prefer to procrastinate, adding unnecessary stress to their objective? The answer, in short, is yes. Dr. Pychyl writes in his article “Savouring the Flavors of Delay” “Only some forms of delay are truly problematic.” (28). Some people, Pychyl argues, actually thrive in the pressure that procrastination brings, stating “…all procrastination is delay, but not all delay is procrastination.” (Pychyl 26). Choi and Moran also agree that this form of procrastination is valid in their article, “Why Not Procrastinate? Development and Validation of a New …show more content…
"Understanding Procrastination." Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 37.2 (2007): 183-93. Web. 2 Nov. 2015. .
Choi, Nam, and Sarah Moran. "Why Not Procrastinate? Development and Validation of a New Active Procrastination Scale." Journal of Social Psychology. 149.2 ( 2009): 195-212. Web. 2 Nov. 2015. .
Ferrari, Joseph R., and Juan Francisco Diaz-Morales. “Procrastination and Mental Health Coping: A Brief Report Related to Students.” Individual Differences Research 12.1 (2014): 8-11. Ebsco. Web. 2 Nov. 2015
Jackson, Todd, Karen Weiss, and Jessee Lundquist. "Does Procrastination Mediate the Relationship between Optimism and Subsequent Stress?" Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 15.5 (2000): 203-12. Web. 2 Nov. 2015. Pychyl, Timothy. “Are Procrastinators Just Lazy?” www.psychologytoday.com. Sussex Publishers, LLC, 24 Jan. 2010. Web. 2 Nov. 2015
Pychyl, Timothy. "Savouring the Flavours of Delay." English Studies in Canada 34.2/3 (2008): 25-29 & 5. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
The “On Laziness” essay, written by Christopher Morley argues that philosophical laziness is a beneficial trait to possess. He illustrates this by using techniques such as humor, formal diction, and irony to convince his audience that is made up of lazy and industrious people.
Procrastination in terms of weakness of will has only been recently discussed in philosophical discourse. According to Richard Holton, weakness of will or the lack of willpower is defined as acting against one’s values or when one is too easily able to reconsider their intentions. Procrastination, by definition, is the act of avoiding completing tasks often until rearing that deadline. Procrastination has commonly been viewed as irrational and has held a negative connotation, partly due to being considered a willful act by an individual. Procrastination, like other aspects that resemble a lack of willpower, is naturally attached to the concept of weakness of will by not only laymen, but also theorists and philosophers. Only recently has procrastination
Procrastination: “to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done” (Webster, 2017). Tim Urban gave a TedTalk in February 2016 entitled “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator”. In this TedTalk Urban described what about him makes him a master procrastinator, and came to the conclusion that procrastinators must have different brains than non-procrastinators. Urban supported this conclusion by talking about the two different types of brains. In the non-procrastinator’s brain there is a rational decision maker, and in the procrastinator’s brain there is a rational decision maker and an instant gratification monkey that can only be controlled by the panic monster. Now to most,
I am a procrastinator and I have been ever since I was a child, which I am sure many others have been as well. As a child, I would put off my work mainly because I did not want to do and wanted to occupy myself with something else, rather than to sit there and actually do the work. When this happened, of course, the work would either be done in the morning, at night, or it would not be done at all. In his article, “The 5 Most Common Reasons We Procrastinate,” written for Psychology Today, Shahram Heshmat (2016), “The lack of imposed direction that’s become common in the workplace might contribute to the increase in procrastination” (para. 4). This is something that was more prevalent in my freshmen year of high
Procrastination comes from the thought of an individual knowing that they can do the same job at a later time. Everyone has been guilty of procrastinating because it is a human fear that no one can escape. To procrastinate is to put off or defer until another time, in other words it may mean to delay (Marano). In Psychology Today, Hara Marano said “twenty percent of all humans identify themselves as chronic procrastinators” (“Marano”). Procrastination is a human behavior that every college student has experienced at some point in his or her educational paths. For some college students, procrastination is a minor issue, for other college students, procrastination is a way of life that results in stress and could possibly be easily be avoided. Why? Procrastination can be broken down into three categories: how someone is considered a procrastinator, characteristics of a procrastinator, and how to escape procrastination.
Pychyl, T. (2011). Procrastination: Oops, where did the day go? Psychology Today, 44(5), 58. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Like an experienced politician, Christopher Morley composes his essay and weaves his words in such a way that causes his readers to believe and support his claim that laziness is not the weakness that we currently recognize it to be, but rather it is an important asset to have. In “On Laziness”, Morley utilizes a casual tone, combines complex diction with simple syntax, and uses examples that allow for a sense of logic, leaving the reader no choice but to consider his claims, and maybe even believe them.
This piece of writing gave more and deeper understanding how other facts have effects on our life as procrastinators. In this research, I came to very important information. This new idea I never imagined that was connected to my behavior as a procrastinator which was "Procrastination is a psychological phenomenon that extends broadly in society. Ferrari, O’Callahan, and Newbegin (2005) reported that 61% of the population display some form of procrastination, of which 20% do so in a chronic manner (e.g., routinely late for deadlines and postponing impor-tant tasks daily or weekly)" (Mun ̃oz-Olano, J. F., & Hurtado-Parrado, C. 2). As I mentioned before procrastination is not the same as laziness. Procrastination has to be with our psychological
Just as they are standing face-to-face with each other, I am standing face-to-face with procrastination. I encounter difficulty managing my time with just about everything I do; I always wait too long. Throughout high school I was never in a hurry to get any of my work done. The work was easy to me, so if I waited until the last minute to do anything, it wasn’t hard for me to finish. I could always take my time to get everything done and still get a good grade in high school. Even if the work was harder and took me a little extra time, my teachers were all very lenient and accepted late work. My high school was very easy and allowed me to get into the bad habit of procrastinating.
...rs tend to overestimate the degree of unpleasantness of a task” (Lay, 46). Procrastination is a problem that when left unchecked can cause serious problems in every aspect of a person’s life. The solution for students can be as easy as sticking to a goal or as hard as denying themselves a prize when they missed the deadline on a project. The type of solution a person uses depends on what works best for that student, but a schedule to help stay goal positioned never hurt.
The definition of procrastination according to Solomon & Rothblum is the determined delay of the start or completion of a task (1984). Procrastinators will also differ from those who do not procrastinate in numerous ways. An example would be that procrastinators often fear failure, strive for perfection, may be slightly pessimistic and more anxious, which may become worse when they realize they are procrastinating (McCown & Johnson, 1991) or when deadlines are approaching (Tice & Baumeister, 1997). The personal and realistic problems that result from dysfunctional procrastination are predominantly acute in academics, as the inclination to put off school-related tasks often result in challenging levels of stress (Solomon & Rothblum 1984), on the whole the end of the academic semester would be the peak (Tice & Baumeister, 1997).
Procrastination can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life because procrastination is the thief of time. When you keep putting off things, they keep piling up and getting in your way of achieving other things. Then you have missed opportunities, frenzied work hours, feel stressed, guilt and resentment; you find you are being overwhelmed easily because there is just so much to do.
The definition of procrastination is: the action of delaying or postponing something. Tim Urban, who conducts a speech called Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator for TED in 2016, explains that every human is a procrastinator- some more than others. I agree with everything he says in his speech because I can connect with every piece of evidence he claims, mostly including that there is a “Panic Monster” that pops up in your brain when you are close to a deadline and haven’t gotten anything done, especially when it comes from why I’m always so stressed out about school. There are two different kinds of procrastination: deadline and non-deadline. (Urban, 2016) Everyone that I have ever met is a procrastinator
Some may see procrastination as healthy, such as active procrastination. Although good effects appear from procrastinating, stress is a larger effect. Stress causes a few illnesses. Procrastination is a bad thing that generally occurs in everyone when short-term benefits are the only outcome people see. Procrastination is hard for me, mainly because I have a bad habit of waiting to do an assignment closer to its due date when I put off worrying about my work.
Most humans have habits, habits in which they do simply because if they do not do them they feel uncomfortable. Procrastination is one of those habits that not all, but most people suffer from. Procrastination means to put off key things to do less important things that could possibly wait. It has been proving that all most everyone procrastinates, but procrastination does not determine what type of person one is. Procrastination is like a virus or a bad cold that does not want to go away. If one does not stop the problem it will get bigger; therefore, if people do not control their procrastinating they will start to do it more. However, the worst time to procrastinate is in college. College students often forget hoe important time is. Being a procrastinator can lead to several different outcomes. Procrastination can led to either good or bad outcomes. It all depends on the person doing the procrastinating. Procrastination is not always meant to happen; sometimes it simply happens because a person is too busy. Procrastination has both good and bad causes and effects, can cause failure, and bad decisions.