Numerous Profiles In Procrastination Psychology portraying Organizational Strategy

The difficulty of certain tasks often provokes a desire to delay or otherwise waste time prior to getting down to business. This impulse to stall can affect people’s lives as an occasional temptation or as a nearly irresistible habit, depending on the temperament of the person.

In three exceptional areas of activity, namely college, business and home living, procrastination can have an especially detrimental effect. A closer look at the basic factors for procrastination in each of these settings can help illuminate several of the influences in the decision to procrastinate.

For many students, procrastination emerges as a significant problem during the first years of college. The college procrastinator is frequently an individual who, for one of various possible reasons, did not learn effective time management schemes during high school. Often accustomed to senior high school assignments that are strictly short or that have been broken down into a series of smaller assignments by the high school instructors, the college procrastinator is at a loss to adjust to college’s long term assignments. In some cases, the college procrastinator underrating the difficulty of a term composition or end-of-semester project because the prof does not constantly remind the class about the approaching deadline.

For this reason, the difficulties faced by the college procrastinator can be construed as a failure to adjust from a structured, regulated educational environment into an environment where independent time management skills are necessary. Once the need for discipline and organisation has been recognized, a few simple tools, such as a day planner, can help the college procrastinator organize a self-structured series of destinations and deadlines for long-term assignments.

Whereas the college procrastinator might put off a problematic assignment by playing computer games or socialising, the business procrastinator are frequently more subtle in his or her schemes. Rather than engaging in vacuous amusements, which might be admonished if observed, the business procrastinator often wastes time on activities that are in fact part or his or her job description but that are not the most significant tasks at the moment.

In some cases, a deficiency of confidence in the ability to successfully complete challenging assignments compels the business procrastinator to pursue leisurely, straightforward minor tasks. In other situations, an inability to differentiate between high- and low-priority assignments causes the business procrastinator to perceive that the simple chores are just as influential as the complicated ones, leaving the job procrastinator no reason to pursue the more demanding tasks.

To redress this circumstance, the business procrastinator first must determine to recognize which projects have the most potential to impact the success of the business itself and to bear upon the course of business in the long term. Once this has been carried through, the business procrastinator can break down long-term, complicated undertakings into a series of manageable deadlines so that they are not quite so overpowering.

Rather than being incapable to face a deadline, the home-life procrastinator is a great deal uncomfortable with the continuous nature of daily home-related tasks. Yard work, house repairs, cleaning and meal preparation can entirely assume the uninspiring role of ordinary inconveniences in a person’s life. When unfinished chores collect over time, the home-life procrastinator starts to feel the pressure of family work intruding on the joyfulnesses of everyday life.

To counter this situation, a specific time ought be set aside each week to schedule a reasonable number of weekly chores. By naming which tasks should be accomplished on which day, the home-life procrastinator can gain control over the amount of work. And by constraining certain tasks to certain days, the postponer can stop feeling blamable for any unfinished chores provided that he or she has actioned the tasks set aside for the present day.