Procrastination: A Hindrance to Success?

Successful people achieve the kind of success they have right now through hard work and patience. It is inevitable, though, that there were instances during their “striving moments” wherein luck played its cards and paved way their roads for success.  But, generally, it is just a matter of discipline and initiative if one really wants to achieve success.

According to most successful individuals, the best ingredient for a successful career is diligence.  Diligence is the human value of exerting efforts to fulfill a task without resorting to negligence or irresponsibleness. Surveys showed that not all successful people are highly intelligent with an above average IQ level. There are those who have not gone to the best universities or have not even finished schooling. There are those who are just high school graduates, yet they have the most booming businesses in the market. Hence, one can really say that success is defined mostly by attitude and passion – attitude to excel and be diligently passionate about it.

Not everybody, however, have the same mindsets when it comes to achieving success. There are those who are just too lazy to get up for work, while some lack the enthusiasm in their workplace. There are individuals who are contented not to do anything productive and, instead, prefer to do things, which are not only “unhealthy” but also adversely affecting their jobs such as sleeping too much, unimaginable hook-up time with the television, or too much partying.

Furthermore, there are individuals who love to procrastinate resulting to undone works and deadlines left in whim. Procrastinators like to do their tasks at the very last minute. They have this attitude of doing their tasks on a later date of the schedule which could result to low quality of work outputs due to cramming.  Accordingly, procrastination has now gained momentum as one of the favorite topics among recent research works, especially studies on human behavior. It is now becoming famous as a subject for study because some considered it as an interesting topic since procrastination is a natural part of human nature. If talked about, all people can relate to the state of procrastinating.

What is procrastination?

Studies showed that procrastination excuses no one. Everybody procrastinates – it is part of human nature. Accordingly, it is only natural among people to put aside their tasks and do it on a later time because for the simple reason of not wanting to do it at a specific time.  There are also those who love to cram and find cramming effective in fulfilling their various tasks. Meanwhile, procrastination does not necessarily mean that one is lazy or inefficient; they are just used to put off until the next day things that are supposed to be done now.

Scientific researches stated that procrastination is the act of postponing a certain thing to do (or task) to the point that one’s work becomes delayed.  There are many factors involve why people procrastinate. Firstly, some individuals lack self-confidence that they can really succeed in doing their work if they are just diligent enough to do it and finish it on time. There is a tendency among humans wherein, even from the very start, they are not confident enough that they can finish their tasks on time or to have it done flawlessly; hence, they resorted to intervening variables or “comforting things” around which can delay in the fulfillment of their jobs.

With all the latest technology and media’s influence, people easily get distracted from concentrating in their works.  This is often the reason why some people put aside their important tasks because they got tempted to do other things present in their surroundings that stirs their interest.  People lack focus in their workplace because of unnecessary interruptions brought by a fast-growing society.  Mood can also be another triggering factor why people procrastinate.  Individuals, especially artists, rely so much on their mood in order for their works to be effective. Painters, songwriters, novelists and dancers do not find it effective to do their crafts if their mood to do such is not present.  This often leads to put aside such work and save it for some other time when the mood is right.

If low self-esteem is one factor why people procrastinate, over confidence could also be deemed as another reason why people procrastinate. Notably, people with overzealous confidence often think of themselves as someone who can really beat the deadline at the same time producing high-quality work outputs. However, such case is not always applicable. Because of too much confidence that one can do his/her job even just for a short time often results to low-quality outputs because it is being done out in a hurry.

Too many workloads can sometimes lead to procrastination. Because of too much work, one cannot choose anymore which task should be accomplished first.  Because of frustration and pressure, one chooses not to do anything anymore. This is a perfect manifestation that one, instead, prefers to escape from the bulk of works that need to be done than face all of those.

Diligence is still the key

Although  some human behavioral experts claimed that procrastination has its own share of benefits because it gives time for men/women to relax and meditate before doing all their tasks, still it cannot be discounted that procrastination is generally not a healthy practice.  Although there are those who find it effective to have their jobs done in just a short time and loving the pressure of finishing such, still, procrastination should not be exercised regularly.

True enough that humans are all procrastinators in nature, but one should think that it is just a matter of managing your emotions and rising above from all the intervening factors around. One should take into mind, that if one really wants to succeed in life and in work, they should try to avoid procrastinating because, as tested by time, diligence is still the best key to success.