The Vicious Cycle of Procrastination

How does it work and what can be done to get out of it?

Wait! You shouldn’t be reading this because it is quite likely that you may have more important things to do. However, if you have somehow found this, it’s okay to waste a few more minutes. (Fundamentals of Procrastination, 101) Come along, keep procrastinating and accompany me on this journey of becoming a professional/master procrastinator.

Now, before I start to explain how vicious the cycle of procrastination is let me first walk you through the mind of an already proven procrastinator.

It’s been more than two weeks that I have been planning on preparing for an exam. Still, I am yet to open the book or read a single line. I have been constantly telling myself that they are still more than two months to get myself prepared so, there is no reason to rush. ‘Let’s enjoy some free time, watch some Youtube videos or maybe some random stuff on Netflix.’ And as I was following the daily rituals of a professional procrastinator, an ‘extraordinary’ idea hit me to write an article about procrastination, while procrastinating. Wow. Procrasti-ception. (Those who couldn’t get the reference, you guys need to watch more movies of Christopher Nolan.)

Lately, I have been day-dreaming a lot, even at the time of writing this. Also, I have been giving myself excuses to not do the necessary things, which are needed to be done. Well, there is no denying that I am enjoying it but every once in a while, a part of myself tells me that I should only be doing the important stuff rather than listening to irrelevant podcasts, watching every video that pops up on my timeline or even writing this piece. However, it feels safe to be procrastinating because I have the ‘legit’ excuse (which every other procrastinator also have) that there is still a lot of time!

Although I know that I don’t have much time, yet the very notion that I have enough time is acting as the best catalyst on this journey of mine to become a professional procrastinator.

So, how this vicious cycle work and what can be done to get out of it? (I’m still working on it though!)

To answer this, I have figured out an example for you guys. Let’s say that today is June, 1st and I have to write a paper, which is to be submitted no later than June, 30th. So, what a normal person would do? Most likely, he would divide the work and would do it on daily basis. As a result, he would end up writing a quality paper and would submit it before the deadline. However, I am not a normal person, neither any other procrastinator. Thus, I would somewhat follow the following pattern.

As you can see, there are four major phases/steps of this cycle. The first stage, Do Nothing, is where you say to yourself, ‘not today but tomorrow’ and in no time, you reach the second stage, where you feel the need to start but again you say to yourself, ‘from tomorrow!’. You keep delaying it until you reach the last stage and start to feel powerless. Thus, you do the work of a month in 2 to 3 days and end up producing a poor quality paper and eventually getting negative results.

Moreover, I find it quite interesting that procrastination happens without giving ourselves a clue of its existence. For instance, last night I was doing research for a paper but ended up reading the Wikipedia page of Michael Oher, an American football player, and it had nothing to do with the thesis. I mean, sometimes, I just open YouTube for some lecture but ended up watching the Evolution of Hip Hop culture in Pakistan and whatnot. (I’m not sure about you but I have done this on several occasions) Therefore, it is quite a task to avoid procrastination because it can be in any form and it can affect us in multiple ways.

The irony of the time is that I have been procrastinating about how to overcome procrastination and it is as absurd as it sounds. However, I am not alone because you better believe me that they are thousands of procrastinators out there, commenting on videos on YouTube and suggesting ways to stop procrastination, while they are still procrastinating themselves. (Too much to digest, I know.)

So, how can we break this cycle or get out of this misery?

I believe I have the answer, not sure about the validity of it though. Last night, I was listening to this TED Talk by Tim Urban, in which he explained the underlying psychology of procrastination (Well, even watching that video was itself procrastination but yeah, never mind!) In this talk, he explained that the biggest difference between a procrastinator and a non-procrastinator is the presence of a ‘Instant Gratification Monkey.’ I know, it may sound a bit weird but to keep things simple and short, let me say that there an ‘Instant Gratification Monkey’ is someone, who stops/interrupts our brain from making rational decisions. Now, that monkey works in a simple fashion by helping us in extracting gratification/happiness by doing leisure activities at the time when we’re supposed to something more important. (For watching that video of Tim Urban, click here.)

Thus, the best way to break this cycle is to get rid off that ‘Instant Gratification Monkey’ because unless our brain is free to make rational decisions, it is not possible for us to get things done on time.

To conclude, I must admit that procrastination is a real issue, which should be addressed. The other day, I read a great article on this subject, Leveraging Procrastination, and it explained perfectly that procrastination can affect us in a lot of negative ways and can even impede our self-development. So, there is a need to work this out and the best way to do so is by allowing our brain to make rational decisions, without being getting interrupted by any stimulus.

In short, value your time because it is never too early to do something but it can, sometimes, be too late.