There’s a feeling that most modern citizens usually have in their daily lives: procrastination. Sometimes you have planned a task, but somehow you can’t seem to kickstart your work. Eventually, it is delayed almost indefinitely, and you will have forgotten about it by then.
So why do we procrastinate? What are the core reasons which make people hold on to the task without executing it?
Let’s go through some reasons which cause procrastination.
What is procrastination?
Before we get into reasons that make you procrastinate, we need to understand the concept of procrastination. Procrastination is the behavior of postponing choices or actions unnecessarily. For instance, when you need to write a thesis but end up wasting time on social media despite knowing you should have been working.
Procrastination is damaging to people’s capacity to achieve their goals. It is generally linked to low marks in school or earning a lower wage at work. Furthermore, procrastination is linked to various problems, for example, stress or the deterioration of physical and mental health.
Reasons that may lead to procrastination
- Unclear goals
When people’s goals are imprecise or abstract, they are much more likely to delay than when their objectives are clear and well-defined. Goals like “be healthy” or “start exercising” are generally unclear and likely lead to procrastination. A goal like “go to the gym directly after work every Monday to practice pushups” is tangible and thus much more likely to motivate you to act.
- Control
You have influence over whatever task you’re working on when you procrastinate. Things can’t go wrong if you put them off. However, you can’t put things off indefinitely, unfortunately. While procrastination may make you feel as if you are in control at first, you will eventually feel a loss of control when your time restrictions limit your capacity to make better judgments.
- Anxiety
People sometimes postpone because they are apprehensive about a task they must complete.
Someone nervous about checking their bills, for example, may put off the action even though it will not solve the situation. This problem is exacerbated when a person’s anxiety rises as a result of their procrastination.
- Perfectionism
As a product of their perfectionism, people may procrastinate. Perfectionism can cause procrastination in many ways. For example, making someone delay a task in fear of making a mistake, or making them afraid of publishing their work with flaws.
- Being overwhelmed
Being overwhelmed by a daunting task is one of the most typical replies to the question: “Why do I procrastinate?”
The difficulty of a task can drive the nervous system to lose interest and avoid completing it altogether, remaining in its comfortable environment. When a quest for a more fun task begins, the difficult ones will eventually be postponed. As the deadline for the delayed task approach, it will induce anxiety and dread.