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Moody Monday:: Procrastination

After spending six hours a day, or thirty hours a week at school doing academic work the last thing a student wants to do when they have free time is more work. In order to avoid this work students came up with a genius idea, procrastination.

Procrastination can be defined as any useless task that can be performed rather than the task at hand which must be completed. Some of the best ways to procrastinate may be by turning on the computer, or the television, or picking up that book you threw under the bed in seventh grade when you were procrastinating that book report.

The problem with procrastinating however, is that usually you can only do it for so long. Eventually the homework, project, or studying must be done. But, it seems that the human brain believes that if we procrastinate long enough the task at hand will suddenly disappear. So why is it that we continue to procrastinate if this magical disappearance never occurs?

Procrastinators are usually also defined as perfectionists. This can be linked to the reason that they procrastinate. If one does not feel confident in the work they are going to be doing they will find reasons to avoid it. Rather than do the work right away and risk it being wrong, a procrastinator who is a perfectionist will continue to put the work off.

Another reason people procrastinate is because they get more satisfaction in finishing a task at the last minute. When they complete the task at the last second a some procrastinators feel a sense of accomplishment. More accomplishment than they would had they done the assignment at an earlier time. In a sense, some procrastinators get an adrenaline rush simply from procrastinating.

As a human-being it is common to fear what others think of you. This fear may also be a reason for procrastination. Although, it may seem ironic the fear of what others think causes people to procrastinate. It sort of goes along with the idea of being a perfectionist. Someone who procrastinates in fear of what other think is afraid their work will not be done well. Instead of others judging them based on their ability now others are judging them on their lack of effort. Apparently these people feel it better to be seen as lazy then as someone who actually accomplishes their work.

Other people do not choose to procrastinate. Rather their reason for procrastinating is because they cannot make a decision. Some people spend so much time pondering what idea they are going to choose that all of this wasted time causes them to be procrastinators.

As a procrastinator myself, I am not quite sure my reason for doing this. I suppose it would be partially because I am a perfectionist and partially because I tend to worry about what other people will think of what I do. However, I think the main reason I procrastinate is because it is more entertaining than doing work.

Although, I may find sitting at the computer browsing social networking sites or watching the new episode of the Voice much more entertaining it is inevitable for both me and all other people that the work we assigned must eventually be completed. And in all honesty, it probably is better to get it done sooner rather than later. But, for all us procrastinators out there at least we can stick to the motto,”Better late than never”.