Procrastination

You may delay, but time will not.
― Benjamin Franklin

This is an article written in response to ‘Weekly Prompts by Sarah.‘ This week’s prompt is Procrastination! Make sure you check out her blog, Notes and Notebooks here! She’s a great friend and a brilliant blogger.

Photo by Tuesday Temptation

According to Wikipedia, ‘Procrastination’  is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished by a certain deadline.

Etymology : pro- ‘forward’, with crastinus– till next day’ from “cras” -‘tomorrow’.

I’m a big believer in putting things off, In fact, I even put off procrastinating.
-Ella Varner

There is no use denying it, you have procrastinated at least once in your life. So, today I’ll be writing about my tested and successful ways to battle Procrastination. But seriously, don’t try practising any of them as I don’t think they are healthy ways of dealing with Procrastination.

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.
― Pablo Picasso

Tips to avoid Procrastination from the Queen of procrastination. (Do NOT follow)

1.I am a student and I mostly procrastinate when it comes to having to learn something for school. What I usually do is I pretend I’m teaching a student, complete with dramatic hand gestures and occasional scolding. Or when I’m even more stressed, I like to pretend I’m filming a Youtube video. I absolutely hate taking photos of myself, very aptly termed as ‘selfies’ and filming myself. So, I get it done in like half the time because I’m terrified of videos and would do anything to just get the damn thing done.

God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”
― St. Augustine of Hippo

2.Make a time table. Boring, I know. What I usually do is, I write everything that needs to be done in the form of a list and use a red marker to scratch them off when it’s done. Oh, the joy of striking items off a list is second to none.

Photo by Levent Simsek

3.When I have lots to do and I’m deliberately procrastinating, I envision myself doing something that I absolutely hate in the future and that gets me working right away! I hate some jobs so much that I’d go insane trying to do them. Just to make things clear: Hate as in, I hate the subject. I respect everyone and their occupations.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
― Abraham Lincoln

4. This is an extremely bad and highly unprofessional approach and even though I do it all the time, I would never recommend it to anyone.
Wait till the eve of the deadline. Once I know I literally have no time left, I start working out of fear. And it is not work for the sake of submitting it, I put my heart and soul into it and will stay up till 4:00am if that is what it takes. I’ll work on it till I think it’s perfect. I probably had a week long time but I’ll still wait till the last moment. This is an extremely bad way of accomplishing anything and I am trying to change it. But what can I say? It works for me.

If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.
― Rita Mae Brown

“In 2005, a study conducted by Angela Chu and Jin Nam Choi and published in the Journal of Social Psychology intended to understand task performance among procrastinators with the definition of procrastination as the absence of self-regulated performance, from the 1977 work of Ellis & Knaus. In their study they identified two types of procrastination: the traditional procrastination which they denote as passive, and active procrastination where the person finds enjoyment of a goal-oriented activity only under pressure.”
-From Wikipedia (yes, I read everything on Procrastination)

Apparently, Procrastination can also have a severe negative impact on those who practice or fall victim to it. Again, quoting Wikipedia, “Procrastination has been linked to a number of negative associations, such as depression, irrational behaviour, low self-esteem, anxiety and neurological disorders such as ADHD.”

A day can really slip by when you’re deliberately avoiding what you’re supposed to do.
― Bill Watterson,

I usually procrastinate to read or write. So, to be honest, even if I don’t do anything that benefits the work that has to be done, I still procrastinate productively. And I’m the kind of student that maintains a good rapport with my teachers. I might be the most annoying and disrespectful daughter (and sibling) at home but I’m an absolute angel at school. So, even if I procrastinate a lot, I still get things done. Being a night owl, I can stay up quite late and still wake up early for school. My lifestyle is very wrong and unhealthy but it does get things done. So..

That was all for this post! A huge thank you to Sarah for such an interesting prompt! I had great fun researching on procrastination while procrastinating on a school project. Make sure you check out her blog here! Thank you!

On a side note, this was something of a sarcastic article. While everything mentioned is true, in no way do they qualify as lifestyle or productivity tips. And if you’re wondering what the cats are doing here, I might as well admit I don’t know. I just loved how lazy they look(the tiger, especially) in the photos(from Pexels) and felt like including them.
And make sure you read the quote below, it’s one of my favourites! Stay safe!

You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
What mood is that?
Last-minute panic.
― Bill Watterson