Procrastination - what is it? Procrastination: Causes, Symptoms, Methods of Overcoming and Treating

They are always late with the delivery of working projects and payment of utilities ... They forget to cash out gift certificates and often are not on the scheduled meeting ... About such people it is customary to say that they are irresponsible, lazy and unreliable. This is partly true. But the main reason why these individuals do not have time to do everything on time is procrastination. What is it, try to understand just now.

What it is?

The term "procrastination" was formed from the Latin word, where pro means ahead, instead, and crastinus - tomorrow. That is, in psychology this concept indicates a person's inclination to permanently postpone "for tomorrow" important and minor affairs, to shirk from the solution of tasks and problems, avoidance of the fulfillment of obligations taken earlier. Experts say that often such a state becomes a mechanism to combat feelings of anxiety, anxiety, when an individual experiences that he will not be able to cope with the task or will not be able to complete it. In addition, they distinguish three criteria on the basis of which procrastination is defined as the behavior of the individual: postponement, inefficiency and uselessness.

According to statistics, 20% of people suffer from this psychological problem. For them, the normal working condition is procrastination. What it is? In simple words, this is a situation where, instead of executing a plan, a person is distracted by various trifles: wipes the computer monitor, removes paper from the table or reads a note in the newspaper.

The appearance of the phenomenon

Procrastination is often called the plague of the 20th century. But in fact, people were subjected to it many centuries ago. The earliest mention of "postponing tomorrow important things" is the sacred texts of the Indian society of Bhagavad-gita, created before our era, as well as quotes from the poems of the famous Greek poet Hesiod. However, at that time the concept did not stand out in a separate psychological category.

When did the term "procrastination" come about? This happened only in 1977: in the specialized foreign literature for the first time described the phenomenon and gave it a definition. And already in 1992 they began to study it in detail thanks to the English scientist Noah Milgram, who drew the attention of colleagues to the problem. As the most striking example, he described the process of writing students' coursework and diploma papers: the assignment begins at an extremely long time, when there is no time to postpone it at all or there is a clear threat that it will not end.

Symptoms

If you dig deeper, you can draw the following conclusion: this state of mind and body greatly facilitates life. So, procrastination: what is it? In other words, this is a simplified version of existence, when it becomes less tense and responsible. Specialists identify the main symptoms of a psychological phenomenon:

1. Inspiration And readiness to proceed to the assigned task .
2. The emergence of the desire to "jump off" from the solution of the global problem .
3. Fading enthusiasm - pushing the case back to a later period. The appearance of criticism of himself and subsequent justification.
4. The recession of motivation continues - the question is postponed for a critical period.
5. The problem remains unresolved or is shifted to the shoulders of colleagues. A person does not recognize that he has failed.

The most interesting is that the procrastination is cyclical: the symptoms, they are the stages of the process, are repeated with all subsequent deeds. The phenomenon is not a disease, sometimes it's just a lifestyle or a banal insecurity in yourself and your own strengths.

Main reasons

There are a lot of them. But psychologists managed to identify the main reasons that make a person a chronic procrastinator:

• Lack of motivation: unloved work, uninteresting business, small salary.
• Perfectionism and procrastination, when an individual strives to do everything perfectly. He till the last moment works even the smallest details, all the same remaining uncertain and dissatisfied with result. As a result, the problem remains unresolved.
• Insufficient amount of knowledge and existing skills. A person doubts the correctness of the actions, since he did not do this before, did not encounter a similar problem.
• Existing phobias. Their great number: the fear of change, the fear of failing, feeling frustrated or hearing criticism, and even fluttering before success.
• Inability to plan a schedule and distribute the list of cases by importance category.

The above-described factors in most cases lead to the development of this state. But it should be remembered that, depending on the characteristics of the behavior and the nature of the person, procrastination will also manifest itself. Its causes are deep in the mind and can be individual.

The procrastinator's face

To determine the individuals most exposed to this condition, psychologists often use the popular method. Procrastination or an inclination to it is diagnosed in such people:

1. Gray mice. Such individuals are used to being "average" in the team. They are sure that they are deprived of talents, their makings are undeveloped, and positive character traits are not pronounced. Therefore, they often listen to someone else's opinion, are subject to influence from outside. It is easier for them to remain in the shade than to show individuality. They doubt their strengths and knowledge.
2. Fans of thrill. Such individuals especially postpone everything at the last moment, since they can not live without adrenaline. They like the feeling when the heart is beating wildly in the chest from the realization that until the decision is made, there are only hours and minutes left.
3. Irresponsible. These are either the so-called nihilists, who simply do not need anything in this life, or cowards trembling before important decisions, or weak-minded people without an inner core and lack of basic skills of self-education.

Prokrastinators may be other individuals because of certain circumstances, peculiarities of upbringing and character.

How does procrastination differ from laziness?

Many identify these two concepts. In fact, laziness and procrastination are absolutely different things, although in many ways similar and inseparable. The main difference is the availability of activities. If laziness is a person's desire to do nothing, but only to rest, lie, sleep, then procrastination is an activity aimed at any little things, just to avoid the execution of the main, global action. Procrastinators are hard to blame for not doing anything, because they were actually busy - just not what they needed. Such individuals are justified, that they solved other, no less important questions.

Canadian scientist Pierce Steel has for many years explored the phenomenon, opening new facets that hitherto concealed procrastination. Books written by him gave an answer to the question of why people prefer to postpone business for an indefinite period. For this, he derived a formula: U = EV / ID, where U is the desire to do something equal to the product of the expectation of success (E) and the completion value (V), divided by the urgency of execution (I), multiplied by the personal sensitivity to that or Other activity (D). According to his conclusions, individuals postpone the fulfillment of tasks if they do not bring immediate success - material benefits, praise, promotion. That is, lovers of pulling rubber like to live the current day, hour, moment, and do not care about the future.

Effects

Procrastination is not a disease. Despite this, it requires certain therapy, since the aggravation of the problem leads to serious trouble. The fight against procrastination is necessary, otherwise because of the chronic shortage of time a person will be in constant stress and anxiety. Limited time also causes mental and physical stress. Such an individual can be nervous and angry, since very often he forgets to satisfy his basic needs for food and sleep. He develops a sense of guilt, he loses productivity and in many ways his potential remains undisclosed or unrealized.

Gradually, a person loses the ability to organize. He starts to be constantly late, hardly gets used to changing circumstances, loses control over time, preferring to do anything, not just what is really needed. At the initial stage of development of procrastination, the individual reacts aggressively to changes in the work schedule, constantly shifting the blame for his failure to perform on others. Subsequently, the situation can evolve according to two schemes: the first - a tug ahead before the deadline, which will lead to complete exhaustion and aggravation of the problem, the second - the case will not argue, causing the appearance of depression and ill health.

How to overcome procrastination?

Each case is individual. Only after talking with the patient, the psychologist can recommend effective methods for the current specific situation. General recommendations are as follows:

• Realize the problem. This is the most difficult step, after accomplishing which, it is already possible to outline the strategy of struggle. Remember: if you can not change the situation - change your attitude to it.
• Learn to plan, create a to-do list for each day. First, write down even small things up to the exact time of the assignment.
• Think about the result. It can be a bonus, promotion on the career ladder, gaining prestige. Such a train of thought will become a motivation and force you to act.
• Catch yourself in procrastination. As soon as you feel that you are shying, punish yourself with an additional matter.
• Do not plan a global one. Start small.
• Be able to refuse. If you are not initially interested in a problem that needs to be solved, say so directly. Give the opportunity to other people to take up that question, and take yourself something else, but as much as you like.

Remember that modern psychological literature describes in detail how to defeat procrastination. The book on this topic should become a desktop: buy it and read it every time before going to bed.

The Eisenhower Matrix

One of the most effective methods of combating procrastination. It looks like four squares that are formed at the intersection of the "Urgent - Not Very Urgent" axes vertically and "Important - Not Essential" horizontally. Draw this drawing in your business diary and distribute current affairs in its cells according to the degree of their significance. At the same time, important and urgent issues include those problems that can not be delayed. Without their decision, further steps will be already useless. For example, an urgent call to a regular customer, transferring a meeting to another time. Important and non-urgent are those that will become global in the near future: the planning of a new project, the holding of a meeting.

Problems urgent, but not very important, are those that do not bring you closer to the goal. You need to solve them, but this will not affect your work schedule. They include congratulations of colleagues on their birthday, the reception of unexpected guests and so on. As for unimportant and non-urgent cases, this category is the most capacious. Here you can include everything that is a trifle, but simultaneously insanely interesting and desirable: watching the series, computer game, chatting with a friend on the phone. If you organize work in accordance with the matrix, then you will be successfully defeated procrastination: what it is, you will forget. Remember that you have one life. And wasting time on unnecessary things - luxury and stupidity.