Procrastination

Procrastination

Forms of Procrastination • Do you ignore a task by acting as if it will go away? The midterm exam is not likely to vaporize, no matter how much you ignore it. • Do you underestimate the work involved in the task or overestimate your abilities and resources in relation to the task? You tell yourself you grasp concepts so easily you only need to spend one hour when it would normally take six. • Do you deceive yourself into believing that a mediocre performance or lower standards are acceptable? You deceive yourself into believing that a 3.0 will be enough for you to pass medical boards, which prevents you from working to improve your GPA and may ultimately alter your career goals. • Do you deceive yourself by substituting one worthy activity for another? Suppose you clean your apartment rather than study for your exam. Valuing a clean apartment is fine, but if it is only important when you have an exam, you are procrastinating. • Do you believe that repeated “minor” delays are harmless? You put off studying for your exam so you can spend five minutes on social media but the five minutes turns into hours with no work accomplished. • Do you dramatize a commitment to a task rather than actually doing it? Do you take your books on vacation, but never open them, or do you decline an invitation, while not completing the work at hand? This behavior allows you to stay in a constant state of unproductive readiness to work—without ever working. • Do you persevere on only one portion of the task? You may study only board questions and never P rocrastination refers to the avoidance of specific work or tasks that need to be accomplished. However, this explanation does not begin to capture the emotions triggered by the word. For most of us, the word “procrastination” reminds us of past experiences when we felt guilty, lazy, inadequate, anxious or stupid—or some combination of these emotions.