Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Procrastination Is Self-Directed

What would you do if a delicious bar of chocolate were inviting you and you had just enough time to finish the dirty task of cleaning the bathroom before your guests arrived? Something had to go, right?

Those of us with stronger willpower would finish her latrine duty, chuck the bar of chocolate into a kitchen drawer for later enjoyment, and welcome her guests. But scratch that for those of us who are hedonists. We would enjoy the chocolate bar, welcome the guests, and let the chips fall where they may. After all, since we procrastinated until the last moment to do the cleaning, who cares if the bathroom stays a bit under approval? One can always clean up the next day, the next week, or whenever. There is more to life than tackling that dirty job.

I think every person procrastinates at one time or another, so the practice must be quite common. “Why?” should be the question to ask, here.

I would say, performance anxiety is a major cause. Fear of failure for any task stops us from beginning it. Still, most of the time, procrastination happens due to dysfunctional work habits and attitudes, dragging on its tail awkward rationalizations. Causing the listeners to roll their eyes, some of those rationalizations can be something like: “I didn’t mow the lawn because I had to chase the raccoons away from the garbage cans.”

In any case, procrastination is not that much of a pariah, unless it comes with self-blaming and feelings of guilt afterwards, but if we procrastinate as a habit regarding even the tasks we like to do, then we have a problem.

Aside from being a psychological problem, another cause for procrastination has to be low frustration tolerance. When we look at a task and see it to be not only difficult but also impossible to finish, we put off doing it, but isn’t this over-exaggeration?

Well, I should know. It is one of my surface reasons to put off re-writes. Every novel in my port or computer is begging for a rewrite, but I won’t tackle it. Why? I don’t want to go through such a long process. After all, life is short, and why not write another novel instead? I guess, what I procrastinate in doing shows how much I value my right to choose, and I may just be a picky procrastinator simply because, deep down inside, I belong inside the group of the hedonists. Writing the first draft is fun. On the other hand, re-writing a novel is hell.

In other areas, however, I don’t procrastinate. My practice of procrastination is limited only to those tasks I don’t like doing or those that seem to take too much time. Usually, in daily life, I attack stuff immediately. My motto is: Do it now.

I know if I don’t do things immediately, they will be forgotten naturally. Or they will be forgotten on purpose, just like my novels.

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Prompt: Procrastinate Now! Are you a procrastinator? What is your attitude toward procrastination?