The Art of Procrastination

 

Two separate incidents made me understand the effect of procrastination, one involved the President of Ghana, the other involved rice and 2 pieces of fish. 

 

I’ll start with the least important, so one morning I got an email asking me if I wanted to meet the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, of course I wanted to meet him, I’ve recently developed a zest for African politics, well her interesting economic growth anyway. I saw that there were 30 free tickets left, I got distracted and decided will visit the website again in 1 hour, went back to the site 30 minutes later all the tickets were gone!!!!!

As per the rice and fish incident, I’m still a bit bitter about it! So basically someone offered me rice and fish stew, and I said I’ll come eat it later, he kept warning me that people were eyeing my food, I didn’t act. When I was eventually ready, it was too late, some uncle had arrived hungry and he was offered my food, to add to the insult guess who had to serve him!!!! Sigh, well luckily I was able to save some for myself too; Christian or not it’s going to take me a long time to forgive that uncle.

These two incidents made me think of all the opportunities I have missed, it made me aware of the dangers of my procrastinative nature.

So what is procrastination? The avoidance of doing something which needs to be done - postponing until later what can be done now.

Procrastination goes beyond merely affecting a person’s progress, it can also affect a person’s mental wellbeing; it sometimes also involves feelings such as guilt, inadequacy, self-disgust, stress and depression. It can also destroy a person’s relationship with other people.

The reason why people procrastinate differ from one person to another., it could be inability to prioritize, inability to concentrate, fear of failure or fear of success, the list is countless.

Dr Joseph Ferrari, Ph.D a world's leading expert on procrastination: identifies three basic types of procrastinators:

• arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush.
• avoiders, avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.
• decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision. Not making a decision absolves procrastinators of responsibility for the outcome of events.

Which are you?

Some pointers to beat procrastination

• Figure out why you procrastinate, understanding the root of a problem is key to solving that problem.
• Identify goals you want to achieve and draw up realistic strategy about how to achieve them.
• Patterns of working vary from one person to another, adopt a pattern that works for you. For example, I have found that when I start my day at 5:30am instead of 7:30am I am more motivated to do things- I’m more inclined to get things done throughout that day.
• Time spent in preparation and planning how to complete a task is vital - but not to the extent that no real work gets done. BUT do not forget that- plans need to be flexible! -
• Boost your motivation. Dwell on your strengths, remember your successes not your failures.
• When you are get stuck, rather than stopping, try a different strategy.
• Remember it is better “to produce something rather than nothing”!

Next time procrastination comes knocking remember these words: “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone” ― Pablo Picasso

References

 https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/procrastination

 http://www.counselling.cam.ac.uk/selfhelp/leaflets/procrastination

 https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200507/why-we-procrastinate