Procrastination

Procrastination

Procrastination is a universal everyday phenomenon that can seem little more

than clich‚, a small-talk joke or boast or complaint; we all do it, after all.

Yet a newly reported survey of students at a large urban university in the U. S.

is probably typical in that a majority (52%) of the students claimed a high or

moderate need for assistance with regard to procrastination which is more than

any other area of concern (www.info.wlu.ca). There are a great many causes to

the addiction to this thing called procrastination.

There are many underlying issues and causes of procrastination. Lack of

relevance and interest are two of the most common causes. While perfectionism

(having extremely high standards which are almost unreachable) is another.

Evaluation anxiety, ambiguity, fear of failure and self-doubt, fear of success,

inability to handle the task, lack of information needed to complete the task,

environmental conditions, physical conditions, and anxiety over expectations

that others have of you, are all very serious causes of procrastination.

Poor time management is a great cause of procrastination. Procrastination means

not managing time wisely. You may be uncertain of you priorities, goals and

objectives. You may also be overwhelmed with the task. As a result, you keep

putting off your academic assignments for a later date, or spending a great deal

of time with your friends and social activities, or worrying about you upcoming

examination, class project and papers rather than completing them.

There are quite a few people that have difficulty concentrating. When you sit

at your desk you find yourself daydreaming, staring into space, looking at

pictures of your boyfriend/girlfriend, etc., instead of doing the task. Your

environment is distracting and noisy. You keep running back and forth for

equipment such as pencils, erasers, dictionary,

etc.(www.wings.buffalo.edu/student-life/ccenter/Stress/procras.bro). Your desk

is cluttered and unorganized and sometimes you sit or lay on your bed to study

or do your assignments. You probably notice that all of the examples that you

just read promote time wasting and frustration.

Our behavioral patterns are another cause of procrastination. Getting started

on an unpleasant of difficult task may seem impossible. Procrastination is

likened to the physics concept of inertia - a mass at rest tends to stay at rest