Procrastination refers to a habit of regularly postponing carrying out tasks. It is a challenge that every person faces the world over and pattern which is very hard to break and which is usually caused by aspects such as laziness and lack of confidence among others.
In my case, I have been postponing my school assignments. I am a perfectionist procrastinator in the sense that I do all that I practically can so that I can avoid any form of criticism. I avoid carrying out my tasks because I am fearful of doing the assignments imperfectly and thereby fail to earn better grades. As such, I end up doing the assignments at the very last minute with the belief that if I possibly will achieve good quality by working the assignment at the eleventh-hour, then I probably would have attained precision if I had more time.
Therefore I seek to accomplish the highest standards but dread doing my best then realizing that it was not adequate.
Students usually procrastinate due to a series of reasons which range from anxiety, fear of failure, indecisiveness, inability to prioritize, laziness, lack of motivation, exhaustion and
lack of proper planning where a student may engage in many activities and may find other tasks more interesting than school work. My reasons for procrastinating are that sometimes I lack the necessary motivation to the assignments and exhaustion. The later occurs especially when I have over-indulged in other activities therefore I lack the necessary energy required to successfully complete the tasks.
However, one can engage in the following in a bid to curb procrastination. These activities include; being organized, breaking responsibilities into controllable units, exercising self discipline, self motivation and getting help from another.
A plan to assist in order to tackle the assignment will be as follows:
- Attend my classes till 1200hrs
- At 1230hrs – arriving home from school
- Relax for 20 minutes
- Take five minutes to Prepare to do the assignment
- Doing the assignment and taking a break after every 45 minutes
- Evaluation
The plan did not work perfectly but I managed to complete the assignment. I followed the plan but not to the letter. I encountered unnecessary interruptions and had to modify it. There are some things that I still have to do such as learning how to be punctual.
References
Ferrari, J., Johnson, L. and McCown, G. (1995). Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research, and Treatment. New York: Plenum Press.
