Why People Procrastinate?
Procrastination is the act of postponing doing tasks to a later time or date. It is said to be the single biggest threat to productivity. It is good to take a break, but procrastinating affects any chance of long-term success.
Every one of us goes through a bit of procrastination once in a while. Having said that, there are some chronic procrastinators, who start avoiding things just because they don’t feel like it, when work actually needs to be done.
We all have seen situations where five-minute breaks become a break of 60 minutes. It happens when we are really tired or have utilized our concentration on a mentally-exhausting work. However, sometimes we end up taking such breaks for probably no reason other than that we are tempted to do other unnecessary things. For such people, a five-minute internet browsing can easily convert to two hours on Facebook.
People don’t procrastinate instinctively
People don’t procrastinate instinctively. Many of them meticulously plan how they are going to do their tasks, but at a later time. Laziness is one of the main reasons for procrastination. However, some do it so that they can get a better deal from the “wait and watch” strategy.
Invariably, procrastinators will procrastinate and use various excuses to justify their actions (or rather inactions).
Some of the most common excuses that a procrastinator tends to give are −
Stress − They will say that they have been working for long hours and have become exhausted, which is why they end up taking long breaks. This is irrespective of the fact that majority of the time spend in working such “long hours” would be dedicated to idle net-surfing or gossip.
Fear − The fear of failure and intimidation of success, both can lead to procrastination. Some people give the excuse that they aren’t emotionally strong enough to bear the consequences of their wrong actions and prefer to not act at all.
Boredom − Sometimes people say that “they get bored” which made them haul all work to a later date. A genuinely bored person will look to do just about anything to get rid of it, instead of inviting it with some more inactivity.
The reasons, or shall we say excuses, for procrastination are always different for different people. This is only because people think and act differently. Not to forget their goals and expectations from life are different.
Note that everyone of us has this tendency to go through this phase of procrastination at least once in a week’s time. However, not everyone of us becomes a lazy work-shifter.
