In the words of Charles Dickens, “My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time”. The habit of deferring responsibilities is called procrastination, and it is the thief of time. It is a bane of good time management habits. Procrastination poses a very big threat to success. Many potentially great people have been imperiled, and have missed the opportunity of becoming successful because of this chronic, dangerous, and harmful habit.
What is procrastination?
The word procrastination originates from the Latin word ‘procrastinaire’ which translates ‘to forward till the next day. The prefix ‘pro’ means ‘forward’ and the suffix ‘cratinus’ means ‘till next day’, which came from the Latin word ‘cras’ which means tomorrow. So from all indications, it is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished. In other words, procrastination is the deferment of responsibilities for no tangible reason. One universal attribute of procrastination is that it can take place in any area of an individual’s life. The truth is that at a particular moment in life we have fallen victim to this chronic habit. We have at one time or the other procrastinated about keeping appointments, making decisions, taking action, doing house chores, attending lectures, getting up from bed very early in the morning, going on visitation on a rainy day, or quitting a harmful habit like smoking or alcohol, etc.
My experience with procrastination
Procrastination in relation to success is the deferment or postponing of some important tasks that seem difficult at the expense of your success. For instance, I have three tasks that seriously demand my attention. I have official tasks at the office to carry out. I am also a content writer and I must update my blog regularly. Finally, I am into web development, and thanks to Google. So I must dedicate enough time to programming, writing, and debugging codes.
Just lately, I found out that I have been procrastinating when it comes to content writing and updating my blog. In as much as I tried to meet up with my job responsibilities and my course content, I was deferring the responsibility of updating my blog. I started procrastinating thinking I have enough time to write and update my blog. Then before I know it two, or three weeks have gone by without any writing or updating.
This single act of procrastination had a very serious negative impact on my blog. Consequently, the bounce rate of the website increased, the Google ranking dropped, and the web traffic reduced tremendously. And finally, when I managed to write content it would be haphazard and lacked the in-depth analysis that my blog is known for. So when it comes to procrastination, no matter the perspective you are viewing it, it does more harm than good. It is the thief of time. Now let us examine the causes of procrastination.
Indecision
It is common to hear people say ‘let me think over it or let me sleep over it, even in matters that require immediate and urgent action. This is a clear case of indecision. Indecision is a hotbed for procrastination. It makes you defer or postpone actions. Quick decision making to a large extent determines how fast you will take action.
When an individual is undecided about an issue he or she will be unable to take action. Hence quick decision elicits prompt action, whereas the inability to make decisions leads to procrastination.
Fear of failure
Refer to my post on the infidelity of fear. Procrastination is one of the consequences of fear of failure. Let’s say your mind is a treasure box, and inside it is great potential, (treasures) that you must freely express or trade with for you to be successful in life. Now what fear does is that it closes this treasure box and buries these wonderful potentials and makes sure you don’t express them. This is one major reason why many are unsuccessful today. Not that they don’t have what it takes but because they delay or postpone taking action for fear of failure.
Chronic habit
Procrastination is more habitual than seldom. One of the causes of procrastination is the strong inclination toward a chronic habit like an addiction. The struggle to break away from the indulgence of such a habit is always fraught with procrastination when the urge becomes unbearable. For instance, an alcoholic or tobacco addict will always procrastinate about stopping the indulgence even when such a person knows the danger of such a practice. Then it has become a chronic habit that is very difficult to do away with. It is indeed a thief of time.
Overconfidence
Let me just chip this in here, overconfidence or obsession with excellence can cause procrastination. In a situation where you see yourself as being capable of accomplishing a task, you might keep on postponing such task until you perform the task to your own satisfaction.
This obsession with excellence or overconfidence makes you procrastinate or defer a task till the time you feel you can accomplish it perfectly. It makes you want to buy time until the time you feel you are capable. Procrastination is the thief of time. This stems from the fact that you cannot meet your own standard because of your obsession with excellence.
Distraction
Refer to my post on distraction. Distraction is also a major cause of procrastination. Distraction is anything that is not your intention. Whatever is not part of your vision is a distraction. I did say also that anything that does not contribute to your success in life is a distraction. It is also a distraction to do everything or to be everywhere at the same time. Therefore, it becomes procrastination when you are so much engrossed with trivialities or unimportant tasks as to postpone the difficult albeit important ones and allow the opportunity for success to slip out of your hands.
Complacency
Complacency is yet another cause of procrastination. Refer to my post on complacency. I did say that it is the feeling of smugness or calm satisfaction with your own abilities, achievement, or situation that prevents you from taking action. Complacency comes with the ‘I have arrived feeling’ a situation where one feels lackadaisical about improving his or her situation. It entails retreating to the comfort zone because one feels a sense of security. Procrastination is a thief of time as it can lead to putting off or postponing tasks that can improve one’s situation to a later date.
Stay tuned as we bring you the concluding part of the dangers of Procrastination. Till then;