PROCRASTINATION: A GEN Z PROBLEM?

If you’ve ever put off a task that still had enough time for its deadline, by cleaning your room with a hype playlist playing along, it wouldn’t be fair to call yourself lazy. Cleaning and organizing your room takes effort and you also took the extra effort to pick up that hair clip that you had been lying under the bed for months. It's not like you were binge-watching The Vampire Diaries on Netflix. You were cleaning, something your mother would be proud about ;). If both tasks required effort, was it easier for you to clean your room because you could sing along with Olivia Rodrigo’s Deja Vu, or was it because you had no evaluation nor any expectations from yourself for the particular task? So you weren’t exactly idle nor did you waste time. Then what would you name this deviation? This is procrastination. Hold on, I know you’re wondering- procrastination…? That’s pure laziness! But as mentioned earlier, you weren’t exactly lethargic. Is procrastination more than just languorousness and bad time management? The answer is YES.

So if procrastination isn’t just about laziness, what is it about?

Procrastination is the conscious and voluntary delay of tasks. Your mom is shouting at you to stop playing video games and go study, but instead of studying, you decide to refine your guitar skills. You didn’t want to study, so you delayed it by playing the guitar.

How is it possible for someone to fall into this ludicrous cycle?

People tend to engage in this irrational cycle of chronic procrastination because of the inability to manage negative moods around a task. Thus, procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not a time management problem. It is a way of coping with challenging and apprehensive emotions such as anxiety, self-doubt, frustration, and beyond. The particular nature of our aversion depends on the given task or situation- which may be plainly unpleasant or something deep that relates to feelings of low self-esteem, anxiety, or insecurity. The momentary relief that one feels when they put that task off for later is what makes the cycle vicious. At this point you might be wondering- so if I procrastinate to feel better, how do I end up feeling worse?

Since you’re consciously putting off the tasks, you cannot eliminate the guilt. So why can’t you just avoid procrastinating? That is because of normal human nature to always seek short-term benefits, without thinking of the effects it can have in the future. Just imagine, you have twenty pages of homework to submit on Monday, but instead of doing bit by bit throughout the weekend, you decide to relax and pile up the entire work two hours before it has to be submitted.

Don’t do this.

The effects of procrastination, in the long run, can be as fatal as chronic stress, hypertension, and even cardiovascular diseases.

But how do I get rid of procrastination?

We must internalize that this vicious cycle is about emotions and not productivity. So the root solution is not downloading time-management apps or learning new strategies for self-control. The root solution has to be managing your emotions in a new way.

Since your brain looks for benefits, until it gets a better offer for not procrastinating, it would continue the loop forever. We must find a better reward than avoidance. We must try to live through those feelings of doubts and anxiety no matter how hard it gets and evaluate why we feel the way we do.

So, if you feel anxious while writing an essay since there is a presumed skill-set doubt, instead of avoiding the essay and ultimately making your essay facsimile, write the essay and question yourself why and when you feel the way you do. Is the cause something deeper and has something to do with issues in your personal or professional life or is it just an impulse of self-doubt?

Try forgiving yourself for past procrastination events and trust yourself for fighting the devil in you. Try cultivating curiosity about topics you might enjoy or currently enjoy and make an attempt to convert your temptations into inconvenience. Change the way you think. Instead of assuming that you’ll get the work done just before the deadline, finish the work beforehand, and then you can enjoy the day without worrying about completing your work. This way your work will be done beforehand and you can have a stress-free time too;)

ALWAYS REMEMBER THE BEST WAY TO GET SOMETHING DONE IS TO BEGIN.

Designer: Adya Bhari