Write your opinions on Procastination
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Everyone procrastinates. We put things off because we don’t want to do them, or because we have too many other things on our plates. Putting things off—big or small—is part of being human. If you are reading this handout, however, it is likely that your procrastination is troubling you. You suspect that you could be a much better writer if only you didn’t put off writing projects until the last minute. You find that just when you have really gotten going on a paper, it’s time to turn it in; so, you never really have time to revise or proofread carefully. You love the rush of adrenaline you get when you finish a paper ten minutes before it’s due, but you (and your body) are getting tired of pulling all-nighters. You feel okay about procrastinating while in college, but you worry that this habit will follow you into your working life.
You can tell whether or not you need to do something about your procrastination by examining its consequences. Procrastination can have external consequences (you get a zero on the paper because you never turned it in) or internal consequences (you feel anxious much of the time, even when you are doing something that you enjoy). If you put off washing the dishes, but the dishes don’t bother you, who cares? When your procrastination leaves you feeling discouraged and overburdened, however, it is time to take action.
This long word literally means putting “forward” to “tomorrow”; for it is derived from the Latin word, eras, “tomorrow”, and prefix pro, “before” or “forward.”
Of course it is sometimes necessary and wise to postpone a decision or an action, where hasty conclusions would be foolish; but “procrastination” always means putting things off tomorrow which ought to be done today.
It is the fault of dilatoriness and laziness, that leads us to shirk the doing of present duties and inclines us to defer them to some future time.
Thus the fault of procrastination is just the opposite of the virtue of punctuality. A punctual man takes care to do what has to be done exactly at the right time; the dilatory man never does anything at the right time, but always wants to put it off till tomorrow, or next week, or next year.
Procrastination, if it is not firmly checked, soon grows into bad habit, which at last makes the punctual performance of daily duties impossible. It may be due to sheer laziness, and disinclination to work when work seems inconvenient; or it may be due to the illusion that there will be plenty of time in the future to do all we have to do.
This is an illusion, because when we think thus we forget that, even if we shall have more time to-morrow, we shall have more to do then—not only to-morrow’s legitimate work, but today’s work which we have neglected, as well.