Week 11 - Amratha Rao - Is Procrastination A Drug
Week 11 -
Is Procrastination a Drug?
Procrastinating, I’m sure, is a familiar term to all of us. In fact, the only thing consistent about me, other than my unfortunate height, is my procrastination. However, lately, my procrastination has reached new levels of chaos. Cramming in assignments like the GALE Essay and POAS on the days they are due are just a few of the disastrous outcomes of my procrastination. I’ve tried to cultivate newer and healthier habits to try and stop procrastinating, but none have ever been successful for longer than a few hours. This, I’m sure, is the case for many students and adults alike. So the question remains, why can’t any of us stop?
To understand this phenomenon, we’ve got to break it down. The word procrastination by definition means to “put off doing something.” Often procrastination can be associated with being lazy or unproductive, but this isn’t necessarily the case most of the time. We often replace pressing matters of urgency to do less urgent matters, which essentially soothes our consciousness. Instead of working on a high stakes History assignment, we might find ourselves doing a variety of menial things, like cleaning out cupboards or reading a book. Both alternatives still require a decent amount of effort and are productive to an extent, however the lack of time restraint and pressure offers us with a sense of relief, which is what makes procrastination so addictive.
While procrastination may make us feel good in the moment, it severely deteriorates our mental and physical well being. We know procrastination is a bad idea, yet we do it anyway. So every burst of relief comes packages of guilt that slowly eat away at us. Dr. Fuschia Sirois, a professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield, believes that the roots of procrastination stem from an “inability to manage negative moods around a task”, such as the pressure that comes with critical assignments.
It's important to address that procrastination is a short term solution. When we eventually have to complete the assignment, we are faced with a suffocating load of stress and anxiety which can add on to low-self-esteem. Procrastination has been deemed a “cycle, one that easily becomes a chronic habit,” making it addictive, just like a drug. It’s these habits that take control of our lives and navigate our well-being, subconsciously.
Getting rid of procrastination is going to look different for every single one of us. We’ve got to address the root of the issue, our emotions. Understanding our faults and confronting them can be a start. Self-compassion was proved to support “motivation and personal growth” which in return allows us to have a “buffer against negative reactions” like procrastinating.
Only we can take back our emotions and maintain control over our actions.
Hi Amratha! I have procrastinated writing this blog comment itself for almost 20 minutes so I certainly understand your pain. Oddly the only thing that has ever worked for me is to fill the time I’m procrastinating by doing something else. E.g. while procrastinating thing A I do thing B therefore I still end up getting work done. Its ingeniously efficient, although I often do end up staying up later than I should because of it. Your listing of the effects of procrastination certainly hit me deep inside and awaken emotions that should’ve stayed dormant. It is the stress of my massive amount of work as you say, and getting rid of procrastination certainly seems the only way to do it. I suppose in the end the only way is through the self compassion that you preach.
ReplyDeleteHi Amratha, procrastination is a problem that I'm sure many of us have to deal with every day. I myself definitely am a victim of it, and it is on the top list of things I try to control every day. However, similarly to you, I have tried many methods in an attempt to suppress it but none of them have worked. I know deep down that it is harmful to me and that I could get so much more done, but I still can't help but do it. I guess procrastination is a form of addiction in a way, you know it is bad for you yet you can't stop. I hope that all of us are able to find our own ways to combat it and overcome procrastination.
ReplyDeleteHi Amratha! I definitely agree that when I procrastinate, I more often tend to work on a more menial task or a lower-stakes, easier assignment that I know I can finish quickly, rather than putting off work completely. Similar to what Pranav described, I like doing my assignments in order of difficulty or effort and "procrastinate" one a large assignment by working on multiple smaller assignments to feel like I got work done. It is a really hard habit to stop once you begin doing it, and it gets even harder to go back to work after taking a long break. Your post was really interesting to read because I never really thought of procrastination as being tied to emotions. Self-compassion is not a solution I've heard of before, so I'll try that out sometime!
ReplyDeleteAmrata, procrastination was one of the main faults I wanted to reverse over quarantine. Especially during quarantine, it was not easy to convince myself to put something off because there was literally nothing to do. Something that helps me now to reduce my procrastination, do not get me wrong I still procrastinate but not to such an extreme extent, is to change my mindset about my work. The way I see it is that the earlier I finish my work the more time I have to do other things such as watching tv, chatting with friends, drawing something, etc. With hard work comes reward essentially. Hopefully, this mindset helps you reduce your procrastination.
ReplyDeleteHey Amratha, the problem of procrastination is one topic that I am sure pretty much all high school students can agree with. I have similarly faced so much times of English essays being due in two or three days and I have not started on even the introduction. However, no matter the countless times of such events occurring, I still somehow end up repeating my past mistakes and lay off important essays for weeks until they are due. I think it is because I am somewhat afraid to begin working on them, that I might be fearful of wasting a majority of my time as I often have no idea where to begin. Thankfully, I have finally began to address this problem, and I have began to force myself to begin working on projects not the days before they are due. Hopefully, I will end my addiction to procrastination by the end of this year, for good.
ReplyDeleteI think that one large issue is that a lot of other things are mistyped as procrastination. I, for one, don’t really procrastinate as much as I experience an aspect of executive dysfunction. Executive dysfunction is essentially a crippling inability to begin a task, normally coupled with an inability to do any task until a particular task or appointment is met. In layman’s terms, if you have an appointment at 2 pm, you can’t do anything until that appointment is done, or if you want to get up and shower, you cannot do an english assignment until you shower. It has me thinking a lot about how many times teenagers are typecast as “lazy” when there is a cognitive function that renders us physically incapable unless directly addressed. I think we fail as a society, to consider that the negative attributes we assign to people may have a far deeper reason and in turn, we as individuals are unable to address the cognitive misgivings that would make our lives far easier.
ReplyDeleteHey Amratha, procrastination is something I also suffer with on a daily basis. My New Year’s resolution each year is literally just to not procrastinate, but I still fail to achieve my goal every single time. Your blog is definitely a wake-up call in that I need to stop procrastinating especially since you explained how it can be severely damaging to both your mental and physical well being. Recently, I have found that if I play a playlist I really like and put my phone away somewhere, I procrastinate less, so I am going to try to do that more often and hopefully that will continue to work in the long-term too. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Amratha! I can relate to your blog topic on a personal level. Procrastination is something that I have struggled with for my whole school life and continue to deal with every day. A problem that I face is that I feel too lazy to do an assignment if it is not due yet. I would find excuses to take a short break or play for a bit and end up having to stay up late and lose sleep to finish that assignment before the deadline. Procrastination also causes me a lot of stress that messes with my mental health. This bad habit of mine is definitely something I want to work on. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Amratha, I completely relate to the fact that procrastination is extremely difficult to stop and I’m glad you discussed the reasons for why stopping is so difficult. In a video I watched on how to fix the habit of procrastination, the speaker mentioned that procrastination is easier to overcome if you just start the work that you’re supposed to do early on. Even though it is small progress, just starting it or working on it little by little can prevent putting it off to do last minute. I hope this somewhat helps, thank you for sharing!
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