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Procrastination (student syndrome) concerns people who have difficulty getting to work and constantly postpone the completion of a task "until tomorrow". This condition has recently been recognized as a mental disorder, but some people believe that procrastination is a smart excuse for those who feel like nothing. What exactly is procrastination and how do you distinguish it from mere laziness? What is the treatment of this condition? Is therapy always needed?
Procrastination(Latinprocrastinatio- postponement, delay), otherwisestudent syndromeis a pathological tendency to constantly postpone the performance of a given activity until later, despite the possibility of its implementation.Procrastinatorshave difficulties with starting work, cannot manage their time so that they can complete a given task on time, and they keep delaying its completion.
Procrastinationhas recently been considered a mental disorder. However, there are still those who believe that procrastinators are mere lazybones and attribute them to a lack of willpower and ambition. Nothing could be more wrong. According to the observations of researchers, this condition affects gifted (or perceived) people and usually young - most often students who study for exams at the last minute (hence procrastination is sometimes called the student's syndrome).
Procrastination - causes
According to psychologists, there may be many reasons for this ailment. Among them, the most common is the high degree of difficulty of the task and the associated fear of failure. The person concerned may avoid performing a task because, in their opinion, they do not have the necessary competences to perform it. In her opinion, this is tantamount to failure, which is associated with undermining and lowering one's own value. Consequently, the less chance it is of being successful, the longer it delays. This is especially true of perfectionists. Perfection is achieved by trial and error, and a perfectionist cannot afford the latter. Therefore, in order not to fail, he does nothing to complete the task.
What may seem absurd, the opposite situation may be the cause of procrastination, i.e. fear of success - fear that after doing the job,someone, e.g. a boss, will give us even more tasks, which will also be much heavier than the previous ones. Therefore, it will not be possible to meet them.
Other reasons for procrastination may be the lack of immediate results of a given job or an unattractive task. Then all attention is focused on more interesting work.
In turn, researchers from the University of Colorado in Boulder believe that the tendency to constantly postpone the performance of a given activity until later is in the genes. As they argue, genetically determined impulsiveness is to blame for everything. People who are characterized by this character trait are unable to focus, are easily distracted, and thus - postpone the work for later. According to American scientists, it is atavism - a return to the times when indulging in impulses could help in survival. However, not all of the ancestors' impulse decisions were correct. This led to the development of the ability to postpone certain matters in time. According to scientists from Colorado, procrastination is an evolutionary side effect of too hasty decisions made by ancestors.
Procrastination - symptoms
First a given person decides to perform an action. He has the ability and willingness to do so. However, at some point, for various reasons (but not laziness), she decides to postpone her execution in time, usually until tomorrow. The next day, he again decides to perform the planned activity later. In this way, postponing something "for tomorrow" lasts forever. It is true that this person is aware of the constant delay in carrying out a given activity, but nevertheless he does not intend to focus on him and continues to delay starting work. All because prolonging the performance of duties in time increases the feeling of discouragement and helplessness, which makes the task even more difficult to do than at the beginning. Meanwhile, he looks for an excuse for his actions. Finally, under pressure and stress, he gets to work at the last minute and completes the task literally before the allotted time limit. However, it is often the case that work is completed too late or not completed at all, with unpleasant consequences (e.g. being fired from work). Eventually, the person resolves not to do this in the future. Unfortunately, the pattern repeats itself with the next task.
It is worth knowing that procrastination is often associated with the so-called avoidant personality disorder - a personality disorder that manifests itself in extreme shyness and introversion. Such people react with anxiety when they find out that they are to take part in an important event,project or task.
Procrastination - treatment
First of all, it is recommendedpsychological therapy , the aim of which is to find the cause of the ailments, that is to explain why the performance of a given task is postponed. You can also force yourself to work and gradually overcome the difficulties that a specific action presents to procrastinators. To make things easier, you can take a few steps, e.g. break a task into several smaller steps, ask someone to help you get the job done (but not complete the task). It is also helpful to take care of the work environment, e.g. order on the desk. This is especially true for people who are easily distracted. It can also be a good motivation to come up with a reward for getting the job done. Some psychologists recommend that you focus not on completing tasks, but on starting them.