Producing an admirable piece of writing has two main
enemies, the first of which is coming up with a suitable topic. It was once
said on a very useful blog: “Writers and runners share a common challenge… it’s
often hard to get started.” [1]
(Once you do receive the revelation of a perfect topic, the
challenge of controlling yourself before getting to a notepad or a laptop
arises, but that in itself is a separate essay). Writing comes with a lot of
trial and error, and so after I completed a piece of writing that I was not
entirely proud of, I started thinking about how writers find inspiration.
It occurred to me that one usually writes about what they
are familiar with. It is often advised to write about something you know well,
or do well. And that is when I decided that I would write about
procrastination, which not only brings me to the title of this essay, but also
happens to be the second biggest enemy to producing an admirable piece of
writing. (Of course, social networking sites are the main allies to this habit.
That topic, again, however, belongs elsewhere.)
Let’s begin with a standard definition: according to the New
Oxford American Dictionary, procrastination is the “action of delaying or
postponing something”. Funnily enough, the example used to further explain this
definition reads: “Your first tip is to stop procrastinating.” Already, we can
see this is not a very desirable quality to possess, when people are being
advised to give it up. Then why do people procrastinate? And why, as far as I’m
aware, is this term being so widely and rapidly spread across the world?
Next, let’s take a tour of the mind of a procrastinator, or
at least their thought process. Typically when a task or an opportunity arises
and the deadline seems to be days and days away, one over estimates their
capacity to work effectively and puts the task off for a while “because there
is plenty of time left”. This stage is often referred to as ‘False Security’.
The next stage, and probably one of the biggest reasons behind the habit, is
laziness. This is the stage where even though getting a head start on the task
seems like a wise decision, you decide to prop yourself against the computer
screen and read blog posts on procrastination. Then come the excuses, where a
certain voice in your head tells you you’re tired, or busy, or not in the mood,
or not well, or just simply everything except in a position to start working.
Then comes the denial. There is barely enough time left to start working and
you know you’ve messed up, but you can’t admit it, so instead you settle to
wasting even more time by saying you still have time left. The only difference
between this stage and the first is that in the first stage, at least you’re
not lying to yourself. Finally, crisis strikes. This normally occurs on the
morning of the deadline or the night before. For some it may happen a day or
two in advance but the nervous breakdowns don’t normally hit a procrastinator
before that. This is when you share vows with yourself to never procrastinate
again, knowing all along that you’re most probably going to break this avowal
next time. [2]
Personally, when I procrastinate (which is too frequent to
track), I feel weak inside. I feel I have failed. I feel I have succumbed to
either social media, extensive, unneeded hours of sleep or laziness. How do I
overcome this? Well, its difficult, and I continually fail. If you ask anyone
who has completely overcome their habit of procrastination (if you can find
anyone), they’ll probably tell you it was through immense hard work,
determination and self-discipline. That’s the only answer. There is no
shortcut. There is no easy way out.
Procrastination is an inherent part of our personalities.
It’s human nature. It’s built-in. It’s a default feature. We make the
difference by choosing to suppress the desire to procrastinate. The purpose of
this essay was to shed some light on procrastination, and so keeping that in
mind, I conclude with the words of a wise procrastinator (oxymoron): “I will
stop procrastinating… tomorrow.”
