I have two questions I would like you to ponder:
1. Are you guilty of saying, “I’ll do it in the morning!” when it comes to daunting tasks?
2. Out of the thousands of times you said you’d do it in the morning, did you actually do it?
I’m willing to bet your answers above were 1. Yes 2. No. And I’m sure you have some well thought out excuse as to why you could not get the said task done in the morning. Procrastination is a bad habit that we all possess and it could be dangerous to us in our every day lives.
Think back to a time where you procrastinated on a task you felt was tedious. A great example could be a class assignment. How many times did you find yourself up at 3am finishing an essay you knew about for months?
Procrastination happens in two stages:
1. The Build Up: Once you know about an assignment, you begin to prioritize its importance compared to all of the other things you have in your life that must be completed. During the build up, your window from when the assignment was given and to when it is due, begins to close. Then you will begin to experience stage two.
2. The Crash: This stage can make or break you. Here is where you experience the 3am paper writing to get the job done or you fail at completing the assignment and disregard it entirely. The longer the build up, the bigger the crash.
Prioritizing and decision making happens everyday on many different platforms. Whether it be in the classroom, in the office or on the field, a decision has to be made. Do I handle this now? Or later? The key is to actually handle it and in a timely fashion to avoid stress and potential failure.
There are multiple methods to avoiding the dangers of procrastination: use a calendar to keep track of when assignments/projects are due, schedule your time to work on said projects or create a to-do-list.
The point is, there are many ways to avoid procrastination but the trick is to find what works for you!
What are some ways you avoid procrastinating? Comment below and let us know!
