Procrastination: Its Causes and Solutions

In March 2017, I took a short course called “SME Lending”. There were 2 modules of this course: in-class study for a week and online study for a month. After finishing the class, students were assigned 3 exercises to be submitted within a week later and 2 assignments to be submitted within 1 month later. I felt that I had a lot of time. Thus, I delayed reviewing the lessons and finishing the exercises and assignment. A few weeks later, “Oh, My God”, the deadline was approaching. I felt overwhelmed and there were too much lessons. Finally, I was unable to finish the exercises and assignment. As a result, I did not get certificate. This is because of my PROCRASTINATION.

What is procrastination? According to Wikipedia, “Procrastination is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a later time. Sometimes, procrastination takes place until the "last minute" before a deadline.” For me, I would give similar definition like that “it is the process of delay doing one task due to the inability to do it or the feeling of less importance of it.

Procrastination happens to everyone and I believe that it is really difficult to kill such behavior. It needs the strong commitment and continuous practice to reduce it. Before we can find solution to reduce such behavior, first we should know the root cause first.

Based on my experience, there are TWO root causes making me to delay doing my tasks. First, it is related to the knowledge in order to perform the tasks well. Because I want the perfect result, I usually tell myself that “I should do more research on related topic so that I can do my tasks very well.” And sometimes, I tell myself that “it is ok”. Thus, I waste my time to do useless things like surfing internet to get more idea (in deed it is not related to my tasks). Sometimes, I spend time playing Facebook and game. Finally, the deadline comes and I still feel I could not do the tasks perfectly. The second root cause is that I don’t put much important on the tasks. This makes me feel bored and don’t like what is I am doing. Thus, I just use my time to do another thing that I like and I end up doing nothing for the main tasks. This is what I experienced before and I hope you can find it useful for you though you may experience the difference.

What possible solution to reduce the procrastination? There is only one solution: Commitment. We need to tell ourselves that we need to finish our tasks longest before the deadline or on the deadline. This senses of commitment should be in our head everyday “I need to escape from procrastination”. This will help remind us of what we should do and should not in our daily tasks. Besides, we can follow a few activities to build the good habit:

-          Planning a head: write down what we should do today in the morning.

-          Prioritization: list down what is important and what should do first.

-          Review the result: check out what we have achieved at the end of the day. Explore whether we have put off any important tasks or not.

-          Relax and seek consultant: if you feel really bored with the tasks, relax and do what is your hobbies. And if you still feel not well yet, seek consultant from your supervisor or people you trusted.

No one is perfect and no one can avoid procrastination. If we can practice reducing such bad habit regularly, one day we can kill it and build the good habit in me. What we need the most is “Commitment”. Let’s reduce procrastination together.