All of us have an aim in life if you are a student studying in a college you have to complete your assignments on time, if your exams are approaching, you will promise yourself that you will do your best to prepare for the exams, so that you can have a good score. If you need a job, then you want to prepare for a job. Actually, we desire as soon what we want to achieve but we don’t really do what we ought to. There’s an inherent feeling that tells you not today but tomorrow, for now it’s okay to relax for a while on Instagram, watch a comedy video on YouTube or Facebook. while we put off things for tomorrow, we end up wasting time. Whereas today and tomorrow never arrives. There is an English word termed as Procrastination.
Why do human procrastinate
In this article you will get to know psychology behind
procrastination and find the real solution
In this article, I am not giving you any motivation because
I believe that motivation is a short-lived phenomenon. If you feel motivated
after watching a video and start working powered with that motivation you will
work well for the next few hours or for few days but then the motivation would
come crash down, and you stop working.
We need to dig deeper, think about the things you procrastinate about, when you have prepared for an exam or for a job interview you procrastinate. But have you ever procrastinated while scrolling on Instagram or while watching a comedy video on YouTube. NO Never!
We procrastinate for an office project or for exercising, basically we procrastinate when it is something important. Something that requires a lot of effort. Either physical, mental or emotional effort. we want to replace that task with something that is easier and more interesting for us such as browsing on social media or watching a film.
Here deadlines play an important role. If there is deadline
for our task wherein, we need to finish it before the deadline we procrastinate
until we reach the deadline. Suppose we have to make a presentation and submit
it tomorrow, even this morning, you will feel like procrastinating and
scrolling through Instagram only for 5 minutes before you are being the project and
we are very familiar with how the 5 minutes turn into hours but before the
deadline anyhow you have to complete your work. when it is time to sleep, you
start making the presentation, you stay awake the whole night and work on it
till last minute. In second scenario, what happens when there are no deadlines in
that case procrastination may continue infinitely.
Procrastination is not only about lifetime regret, but it also brings
in stress, anxiety and depression as well. the thing you want to do and the
thing you are doing, if there is a huge gap between the two things will be a mental
conflict within you that is called cognitive dissonance.
There are four theories behind it-
- Expectancy theory
According to this theory the motivation of a person to do a task depends upon the expectation of the person with the result. If there is low chance of getting success, then there is less motivation for a particular work
2. 2. Need theory
There are three
types of needs of people-
Need for
achievement
Need for affiliation
Need for power
If you are given a task that matches your psychological
needs, you will be more motivated to do it
3. cumulative prospect theory
4. Hyperbolic Discounting Theory
This theory basically tells that we want to work for those work, which have the rewards and can get immediately as compared that we can
get after some time.
According to this combined theory i.e. Meta theory, you will get the motivation to work, when your personal need matches the work and the reward of the work. When except that you can actually do the task and win the rewards. When the reward you get after completing the task is higher than your reference line and the rewards means something to you and finally you want the reward as soon as possible without much delay.
What is the solution
The solution to avoid procrastination can be found in these theories. Behind the procrastination there might be several reasons like low expectation, different needs and fear of failure the thing is that once you understand these causes and use it to identify the reason you procrastinate, why you put off working on things you should not, then you can cure a solution yourself.
First of all, empty your thoughts and take a pen and paper and ask yourself why you are procrastinating and write down the cause. The half solution is to identify the problem. If you are preparing for a long-term project and the reward seems very far-fetched then you need to divide the process into small steps. After each step, give yourself a small reward so that you can get some instant gratification. If you are scared about taking an important decision, if you are afraid of failing then remember that not trying is worse than failing. We scared that if we fail, what would the others say so stop thinking about others, do whatever you love!
