What’s behind the habit of constant procrastination?

Procrastination, or procrastination, can cause many problems.

Why do people have this strong tendency to procrastinate? To understand it, we must try to understand what the phenomenon of procrastination is likeThis tendency that we sometimes manifest in our day to day that can be summarized in "leave everything for tomorrow".

Procrastination

Procrastination: what is it? The definition in itself is simple, it consists of postponing what we must do: to put the washing machine, to study for the language exam, the declaration of the income tax... But the mere act of delaying something is not procrastination, the concept of procrastination involves in its own definition an absurd delay, it is not postponing just because it makes sense in a certain context, it is do it irrationally, sabotaging our interests..

The person who lives obsessed with finishing any task at the first opportunity can be as dysfunctional as the one who leaves everything to the last minute, neither of them plan their time wisely. Overcoming procrastination involves making intelligent use of one's timeoriented to the achievement of one's goals. It is in the choice of what to do now and what to leave for later that procrastination lies, not in the procrastination itself.

But if we know that procrastination takes us away from our goals, why do we do it?

Its causes

It seems that there are both genetic and environmental factors that explain procrastination.

On the one hand, this is a common phenomenon in all cultures and times in history. It is a matter of a trend that affects slightly more men (54%) than women (46%) (54%) than women (46%), is observed more among young people and decreases with age.

According to scientific data, most of it is explained by genetics; however, the environment also plays a powerful role in our compulsive appeasement, However, the environment is also a powerful contributor to our compulsive procrastination. our chores. So much so that modern life has turned procrastination into an epidemic that has consequences at a personal and organizational level and even affects a country's economy.

According to survey data, 95% of people admit to procrastinating and one in four admit to doing it constantly. Procrastination is a habit and as such tends to last. One might think that it is due to perfectionism, never finishing things because of the obsession to make them perfect, but the truth is that the data indicate the opposite.

For a long time it was believed that procrastination and perfectionism went hand in hand.This error is explained by the fact that perfectionists who procrastinate are the ones who tend to ask for help in therapy (and that is where the data was obtained), but there are many other people who are perfectionists who do not go to therapy and who do not engage in the habit of procrastination. In particular, a much more fundamental role is that of impulsivity: living impatiently in the now and wanting everything right now.

The role of impulsivity

Self-control and delaying the reward have a lot to do with impulsivity, and impulsivity makes it very difficult for us to spend a bad moment for the sake of a future reward. Highly impulsive people tend to be disorganized, easily distracted, have difficulty controlling their impulses, find it difficult to be persistent, as well as to work methodically. This difficulty in planning and this easy distractibility make them perfect victims of procrastination.

Impulsive people try to get out of a task that causes them anxiety, distract themselves, push it out of their consciousness.They distract themselves, push it out of their awareness. Excuses and self-deceptions are common. This seems very logical, of course, as people generally try to avoid suffering. However, this is only logical if we look at things in the short term, because in the long term this leads to even greater suffering. Avoiding the unpleasant routine check-up at the doctor can lead to detecting prostate Cancer when it is already too late.

Sometimes the pressure of all that we have to do is so distressing that we give ourselves over to distracting tasks so as not to think about what is so worrying us. It often happens that we are doing something that deep down we know we should not be doing because there is something more important and priority to attend to. This means that we are not doing what we should be doing and that we do not enjoy that time of relaxation, because our conscience constantly reminds us of our obligations. our conscience constantly reminds us of our obligations..

However, impulsivity does not explain everything, procrastination is due to multiple causes.

The procrastination triad

Expectations, courage and time are the pillars that support this type of self-sabotage.

Expectation

Expectation refers to our confidence in achieving our goals and although procrastination is sometimes linked to overconfidence, the opposite is much more common. That is to say, if what we are pursuing we can't seem to take it on, we simply give up.. The impotence, the feeling of being incapable, leads us to stop making an effort.

This leads us to a state of decay and frustration known as learned helplessness, in which we surrender to circumstances because we believe we are incapable of changing anything and we stop fighting. This phenomenon is closely linked to depression.

In the end this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: believing that we will not be able to do it makes us give up. When we stop trying we effectively become capable and that confirms our beliefs about ourselves. It is a vicious circle.

Courage

Courage has to do with how attractive we find what we are procrastinating on. Usually our procrastination list is full of boring tasks like doing the dishes, learning those endless articles of the constitution or doing the Christmas shopping. As you might expect, the value of each thing depends on one's appetite, and some people tend to procrastinate more on some tasks than others. and some people tend to procrastinate more on some tasks than others.

As it is easier to put off something that we do not like, that does not motivate us, the less valuable a task is to us, the less likely we are to do it.The less value a task has for us, the less likely we are to do it. The lack of pleasurable value makes other more pleasant activities distract us and so we easily get distracted and evade ourselves in more stimulating things, postponing as much as possible the tasks that we find soporific.

The time factor

Time leads us to procrastinate because we we choose immediate gratificationBecause we are more tempted by a reward that materializes immediately, even if it is small, than to strive for a long-term goal, even if it provides us with greater benefit.

Impulsivity, which we talked about earlier, is what is behind all this, and some other traits linked to the impulsive temperament are poor meticulousness, low self-control, and a propensity for distraction.

Acting without thinking, not being able to keep feelings under control... leads to procrastination.... leads to procrastination. The time factor makes us view tomorrow's goals and rewards abstractly, so much so that it detracts from their reality. On the other hand, everything that has to do with today is more concrete and that makes it seem more real to us.

In conclusion

Procrastination is a deep-rooted habit that can cause great suffering, it leads us to distraction and takes us away from our goals.. It is closely linked to impulsivity and time management, it is influenced by the value of the reward we pursue and by the beliefs we have regarding our own capabilities.

Author's note: this article should have been published last month, but I have been procrastinating. In the next article I will discuss some helpful hints for overcoming this self-sabotage.

Bibliographic references:

• Steel, P. (2010). The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done. Canada: Random House Canada.