Pros and Cons of Procrastination

Do you have a challenge persuading yourself to work on an important task?

Maybe every time you have a job to do, that’s when you want to load the dishwasher, reply your messages or watch videos online before putting your hands on the job. If this kind of thing sounds familiar, then you might be struggling with procrastination.

Procrastination is the delaying of things you should do in an attempt to serve your willpower. We have four types of procrastination that affect four types of people.

1. Anxious procrastination. Some of those who procrastinate are those who take up more work than they can handle, leaving no room for fun and relaxation. Such people end up feeling stressed and anxious. As a way of dealing with these feelings, they procrastinate their work since they can’t work under such forces.
2. Fun procrastination. Fun procrastinators prefer engaging in something fun other than deal with long, boring, and tedious tasks. Fun procrastinators look for anything that can distract them in a pleasurable way every time they have a demanding job to complete.
3. ‘A lot of time’ procrastination. Many of us procrastinate because we know the deadline. Why would you start a task when you have weeks to work on it? Having a lot of time to handle a job typically results in procrastination.
4. Perfectionist procrastination. Most perfectionists find themselves procrastinating as they always criticize their work. They dread the thought of producing low quality work. Therefore, they end up procrastinating most of their work.

We all procrastinate knowing and unknowingly, but some people seem to have made procrastination a habit hard to quit. Now, the question is, is procrastination a problem that needs to be addressed? Let’s look at some problems associated with procrastination.

• Wastage of valuable time. We all have dreams and goals we want to achieve. But, if you don’t use the time you have to meet them, then as blunt as it may sound, you may not accomplish them. You can borrow, save, and share money and other resources but not time. Time wasted can never be recovered.
• Portrays lack of discipline.The inability to carry out your work as required shows a lack of self-discipline and self-control. Imagine producing shoddy work after days or weeks because of procrastination. It just depicts a lack of seriousness and may even lead to an employee/worker being fired.
• Procrastinators may struggle with problems such as the fear of making mistakes, low self worth, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, etc. This kind of negative emotions can affect one’s ability to perform.
• It can result in poor academic performance-very true! When a student procrastinates and runs out of time to read, he/she may fail tremendously.

It is worth mentioning that procrastination is not laziness, and it shouldn’t be confused with relaxation. Procrastination only possesses a problem when it gets in our way of achieving what we want. Therefore, procrastinating also have various benefits, as explained below.

• It helps to make informed decisions. More than often, we procrastinate because we are not sure how to handle a task, which is the right thing to do. Instead of exhausting your mind and ending up not being productive, it’s best to procrastinate and embark on the task when you have done your research, and you’re sure on what to do.
• It allows you to clear other things on your to-do list. Active procrastinators can use the time of delaying a significant task to handle other tasks. In the end, other jobs will be dealt with, and they’ll be left with the major task they were procrastinating, and they will have no choice other than to work on it.
• Gives a boost of energy. When you’re almost approaching deadline, and your tasks are not cleared, you will automatically face the fear of consequences. Your body will naturally realize adrenaline, a feel-good hormone that reduces pain enabling you to handle challenging or undesirable tasks.
• Procrastination makes you work faster. Since you are rushing, working under pressure, and using the minimum amount of time left to finish the task, it will require you to increase your speed. Therefore, procrastination can help learn how to work fast.

Takeaway

Procrastination can be a significant problem if it keeps you from achieving what you want. It can deny you the chance to perform and even cause mental issues like depression. However, procrastinating has been associated with several benefits, such as making a better decision, clearing other tasks, etc. Therefore, how you beat your procrastination is what determines your gain or loss or in other words, if it will be a con or a pro.

Also read: 10 Easy ways to feeling grateful

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.