Is procrastination important? How is it useful?
Let’s imagine the situation: at first we really want to do something important, to implement some ambitious plan. Then we instantly “burn out”, calm down, and incredibly quickly find a reason to postpone the matter. As a result, the beginning of work for a long time just hovers in the air. And only when all the deadlines are burning, enlightenment comes — we, doing everything in a hurry, criticize ourselves for irresponsibility or even get depressed. Should we fight it or learn to use it?
The ability to procrastinate, I could compare with a time bomb with a faulty mechanism, this is a terrible quality, because of which we can postpone the non-delayed. Procrastination refers to one of the mental traps that impedes living a full life, enjoying every moment of it, and that is why it causes growing interest, both from the psychological community and from people far from psychology.
There are many types of procrastination: daily, neurotic, academic, compulsive. All of these species are different, but the problem is essentially the same. Rather, these species describe situations in which the phenomenon of procrastination looks different and leads to different consequences. But we will take a deeper look at the two types that are already open, and the two types into which I divide procrastination. Usually, procrastination is divided into two main types: decision making procrastination and action execution procrastination. All types of procrastination, which I listed at the beginning, belong to these two main types.
I divide it into other types: productive procrastination and unprofitable procrastination. We will call productive procrastination, through which we lose nothing, and sometimes we get. Unprofitable procrastination, this is the property of Homo Sapiens, to postpone problems that require immediate resolution. If everything is clear with unprofitable procrastination, then productive procrastination is much more difficult to describe. Suppose that person X has a problem that does not seem to require an urgent solution, he puts it off for later, and then he finds a solution to this problem, or even better the problem was solved by itself. But with such “wonderful” decisions it is worth being very careful.
You may have, quite a reasonable question, how to distinguish the extent of the problem and determine your further behavior, because in the first and second examples, at the initial stage, the problem seems insignificant. That is why it is better to solve ALL problems immediately. Even if the problem is small and it seems to you that it relates more to productive procrastination, we can never be sure of it. Any procrastination as a phenomenon is negative. Yes, sometimes our laziness gets away with us, but we cannot predict the situations when this will happen.
There are many points of view on this problem. I suggest you to familiarize with the basic theoretical approaches in the study of procrastination:
Theory of temporary motivation by Piers Steel.
Canadian professor of psychology Piers Steel explains the cause of procrastination by excessive impulsiveness of a person. He also notes two main aspects that reveal the likelihood of manifestation of procrastination. The first aspect is that tasks that are more likely to succeed will be completed first. The second aspect is that people usually underestimate the result, and therefore prefer to make a choice in favor of momentary encouragement. Steel uses categories in these aspects as equation variables.
The equation U = E x V / I x D shows how strong the motivation for completing tasks will be.
There are five variables in the equation:
• U (Utility) — the subjective usefulness of the action;
• Е (Expectancy) — probability of receiving a reward;
• V (Value) — the value or estimated reward for completing a task;
• D (Delay) — time until receipt of the award;
• I (Impulsiveness) — level of impulsiveness.
According to the proposed equation, a person chooses useful tasks, those that simultaneously provide high chances of success.
Psychodynamic study of procrastination.
According to this theory, people postpone the execution of tasks that pose a threat to the ego. When the Ego recognizes a threat from a task, it blocks the execution, thereby protecting itself from a possible threat.
Behavioral direction
The essence of this theory is that the behavior of procrastination is fixed in a person because there are examples of successful completion of cases with a long delay, when the execution was postponed to the last moment, and then it was done as soon as possible. According to the concept of behaviorism, forms of behavior in a person are formed automatically under the influence of a carrot or stick. In the case of procrastination, successful examples of procrastination form the behavior of delaying execution at the last moment.
As you can see, I am not the first to come up with the idea of productive procrastination. The reason why productive procrastination is not applicable to life is very clearly described in behavioral direction.
There are many reasons for procrastination and I don’t think it’s worth listing them, they are already known to us. It will be better to pay attention to how you can deal with procrastination. In my opinion, the only effective way to defeat procrastination is to prioritize tasks. You can do it yourself, based on your feelings, or you can use the equation of Pierce Steel. It is also worthwhile to control your thoughts and desires, as a person loves to “mask” procrastination very much. When a person wants to postpone the implementation of an important task, he finds himself easy tasks, which are easier to cope with, but of which less benefit. It can also spoil the mood, because we understand that we have a serious task that we do not perform.
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