Procrastinating? It okay just don’t do it next time
Amity Institute of Behavioural and Allied Sciences Amity University Madhya Pradesh
Dr. Vatsal Priyadarshi Pandey, INN/Gwalior, @vatsalthebest
Procrastination is a form of behaviour that humans have been very good. Be students or any working professional it is a common behaviour that tends to dominate our life.
Although it’s a common behaviour, it has far reaching effects on the productivity. For instance students procrastinates often procrastinate when it comes to academic assignments, employees procrastinate when it comes to mundane official tasks while administrators, quite specially the case of India, procrastinate in initiating important matters pertaining to orders or memos.
However, much of the work has been done till on the academic settings yet its prevalence is huge in day-to-day lives. Explanations for the emergence of procrastination differ depending on the standpoint scholars take. From an individual difference perspective, procrastination is a trait that is associated with other personality variables.
During early 21sth century psychologist started defining individuals into certain basic characteristics markers which were common among all individuals. The variations in these markers tend to define a person. These markers are called traits and a common example is conscientiousness. A person high on this trait tends to be meticulous and very responsible.
Thus, on grounds of common sense one could say that procrastination will surely be the last thing you could find in conscientiousness person and indeed researches have shown that lack of conscientiousness is a common thing among people who tend to procrastinate. Another common trait to explain an individual is neuroticism which is common among people who are impulsive, people who tend get upset easily and are usually moody.
Here again, a person who’s impulsive would in turn will procrastinate. This is to say he might indulge in different endeavours on impulsive grounds while he might go impulsively towards a goal while abandoning another in the middle thereby delay things irrationally. Thus, people with procrastination problem might be impulsive and should ascribe to be more responsible especially in terms of decision making.
It is quite prudent to conclude that certain individuals tend to procrastination more than the other. However it is not wise to say that one has to be a different person altogether in order to stop procrastinating. The key is the self realization before one misses the bus. One has to understand that procrastination is inevitable and that one will procrastinate later or sooner. Yet one should make attempts to correct those mistakes when one realizes.
It is possible that an impulsive person might indulge in an endeavour in an unplanned way which might push the current task behind. But one should make reminders which might remind a person not to procrastinate. Reward yourself for not procrastinating on a task. This might motivate one to do task instantly.