This document discusses procrastination and its causes. Procrastination is defined as avoiding tasks that need to be completed, which can lead to guilt, inadequacy, depression, and doubt. Common causes of procrastination include poor time management, difficulty concentrating, fear and anxiety about failing, negative beliefs about one's abilities, personal problems, finding tasks boring, unrealistic expectations, forgetfulness, and perfectionism. The document provides tips for overcoming procrastination such as recognizing problems, setting realistic goals, rewarding task completion, and modifying one's environment to be more productive.

1. PROCRASTINATIONBy Alison Sanchirico

2. Have you ever seen the poster of a Polar
Bear lying on a slab of floating ice with
the caption, “when I get the urge to do
something, I lie down until the urge goes
away”?

3. Definition of Procrastination:
Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task,
which needs to be accomplished. This can lead to
feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression and self-
doubt. Procrastination has a high potential for
painful consequences, and it interferes with
academic and personal success.

4. What causes procrastination, and
how is it manifested in someone?

5. 1. Poor Time Management/Disorganization –
Not managing your time wisely, uncertain of your
priorities, goals and objectives. You might also be
overwhelmed with the task and as a result you keep
putting off your assignments for a later date. Having a
poor distinction between urgency and priority.
Procrastinators tend to attend to “comfort” tasks, which
are most convenient, interesting, or within reach. Priority
is sacrificed for convenience. As these tasks are being
attended to, other tasks begin to pile up, and soon a
backlog of tasks cry out for attention. The result is that
the procrastinator becomes subject tot the tyranny of the
urgent, is unable to establish proper priorities, and
constantly seeks reprieve from these stresses by attending
to tasks that are neither urgent nor priority.

6. 2. Difficultly Concentrating/Distractibility –
When you sit at your desk you find yourself
daydreaming, staring into space instead of doing the
task. Your environment is distracting and noisy, your
desk is cluttered and unorganized. It’s not surprising
to find a procrastinator explaining that a task is left
unattended to because “something else came up”.

7. 3. Fear and Anxiety –
You may be overwhelmed with the task and afraid of
failing. As a result you spend a great deal of time
worrying. Fear motivated procrastination usually
expresses itself as avoidance and the intense desire to
either delay performing a task or wait for its expiration
so that it no longer has to be dealt with.

8. 4. Negative Beliefs –
“I can not succeed in anything”, and “I lack the
necessary skills to perform the task”, may allow you to
stop yourself from getting work done.

9. 5. Personal Problems –
Financial difficulties, problems with a spouse,
significant other, or children, etc………

10. 6. Finding the task boring.

11. 7. Unrealistic Expectations and Perfectionism –
You set your goals to an unachievable level and when they
can’t be met, you feel like a failure.

12. 8. Forgetfulness –
Procrastinators assume they have an excellent memory
and they often insist that they remember even though
they appear to have forgotten, “Of course I remember,
I was just about to do it”.

13. 9. Perfectionism –
Most procrastinators do not think of themselves as
perfectionists. In fact, perfectionism can lead to “starts
and spurts” performance, meaning that an individual
goes on a spree, or attacks a task with great energy and
then slumps back in exhaustion after having
exasperated, irritated or alienated everyone around.

14. Food for Thought:
A. If you are given an assignment with no due date, what
do you do?
B. Do you wait until the last minute to do your personal
bookkeeping?
C. Is you gas tank on “E” before you stop at the gas
station?

15. How to Overcome
Procrastination:

16. 1. Recognize self-defeating problems such as
and anxiety, difficulty concentrating, poor
time management, indecisiveness and perfectionism.

17. 2. Identify your own goals, strengths and
weaknesses, values and priorities.

18. 3. Compare your action with the values you feel
you have. Are your values consistent with
your actions.

19. 4. Reward yourself after you complete a task.

20. 5. Motivate yourself. Dwell on success, not
failure. Break large assignments into small
tasks. Keep a reminder schedule and checklist.

21. 6. Set realistic goals.

22. 7. Modify your environment. Eliminate or
minimize noise/distraction. Ensure adequate
lighting. Don’t waste time going back and
forth to get things, have necessary equipment
at hand. Don’t get too comfortable, a desk and
straight-backed chair is usually best. Be neat!
Take a few minutes to straighten you desk, this
can help to reduce daydreaming.