Procrastination is something that practically everyone has dealt with at some point. Pushing work back and wanting to do it later is something that we’ve all done. Though, repetitive procrastination is a cycle that a lot of people find themselves stuck in, and it’s really hard to get out of the cycle and do things productively.
Procrastination has been blamed as one of the reasons as to why people aren’t able to turn in their assignments on time. People will stall and wait until the very last minute to start working on something, and the reason for this is procrastination. Holding back your work until the last minute will break productivity and could lead to you missing deadlines.
A lot of people who defend procrastination say that the time you finish a task is irrelevant, and what really matters is if you completed it or not. However, this isn’t the case, as procrastination can have other harmful effects. Alessandro Capcha, a student at Saugus High School said the following on the topic: “When I procrastinate, I can never stop. Sometimes I go the whole day not doing anything until right before I’m about to sleep.” Procrastinating not only sets you behind in your work, but it also interferes with your sleep schedule and personal life. It’s much better to finish work at a reasonable time instead of pushing it back to the point where you need to finish it late at night. Doing work at the very last minute can also cause an increase in stress, anxiety, and can make someone more prone to anger.
Many people believe that procrastination is a result of laziness or lack of discipline. Though, this isn’t always the case. Research shows that procrastination is unrelated to discipline. Dr. Tim Pychyl, a professor of psychology at Carleton University, wrote that “procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not a time management problem.” Pychyl and others argue that procrastination is rather the fault of people coping with a negative emotion. That could include stress, boredom, anxiety, etc. The idea that procrastination is mainly due to lack of discipline is a misconception.
