What is Procrastination? 9 Lame Excuses People Use to Procrastinate
“Procrastination is an act of delaying or postponing something.”
Procrastination can often be a defense mechanism for individuals who fear failure or judgment by others, this is true for perfectionists especially. Others use procrastination in order to avoid feeling unproductive and find distractions that will require their own energy elsewhere.
Experts roughly divided it into two groups.
- Passive/Unintentional Procrastination; When you are putting off action because you know that it would require too much effort to make progress. Or you underestimate the effort and end up overwhelming yourself at the end of the day.
- Active/Intentional Procrastination; When you choose to delay, but there are usually other motivations behind this. Sometimes it’s used as a mean of optimizing performance.
According to research;
- 70% of students are procrastinators (Well, it’s a known fact).
- There are also 20% procrastinators in adults.
There are plenty of reasons, why we choose to put off important tasks. While it is true that some people have too much on their plate, for others this could be an excuse for not taking care of what is important.
Procrastinating can be used as a coping mechanism for dealing with the stress that comes with the workload and can also be a way to avoid confrontation.
The important part is to acknowledge your shortcoming and strive to overcome them one day. However, our mind is amazing in finding excuses for not trying to come out of our comfort zone.
Procrastinators often justify themselves with lots of reasons. Let's look at some common excuses I heard from repeat procrastinators.
9 Common Procrastinator’s Excuses We Hear
- Oh, it’s not procrastination, I am waiting for just the right moment!
Probably the single most common excuse I heard is, “I am waiting for the right moment”.
Even if you are waiting for the “right moment”, you should not allow your moods and emotions to determine when it is. In fact! it can lead to a sense of guilt for not having done what you are supposed to do when you had time.
2. It’s so easy, I’ll be fine. Let’s do it later
There is a kind of procrastinator who is always underestimating how long things will take. They often perceive themselves as being very effective because of their ability to perform under pressure.
If you read my story at the start, I was also of this kind. I can tell by my personal experience, the longer you put something off, the harder and more stressful it becomes.
3. Blaming others for their mistakes
“Oh, I was late because the barista took too long to make coffee”
Procrastinators often feel that they would be in a better position if other people were more competent. It gives them an escape route when things don’t go well, allowing them to simply say they did not have control over the situation, rather blame outside factors such as laziness.
4. I know myself; Pressure makes me perform better and
This is an interesting one;
“I get a kick out of that”
Procrastinators are notorious for “pulling all-nighters” and thinking that this will make up for the fact that their work is done. Well, the belief is wrong on many levels. Because you’ve never really taken the time to do a task and then found out later that it could be done much better under less stress in less time.
5. It’s just Laziness, it takes over me sometimes
It’s is pretty understandable why they’d make such a statement. Most of us think of ourselves as lazy and dormant and it becomes a perfect excuse for procrastination.
Take a moment and think about how many tasks you do; in the time you do not do that one task you were asked to do!!
It’s not laziness, or else you won’t be playing volleyball at the beach whilst your work is piling up at the office!!
It’s the reasoning we made up in mind, and it’s totally controllable. How? we will see it in the next section.
6. Only if I’ll be able to manage the time, better. I need a schedule ASAP!
Procrastinators still believe that they need something structured like a schedule. They always set goals for themselves; although those goals don’t tend to be very realistic and quantifiable.
It’s common for people to assume that procrastination is the result of a lack of time management skills. It is a lack of use of skills.
That scheduling thing earns them a false sense of accomplishment, and anything that would undermine this illusion is dismissed.
7. It’s a matter of discipline, I am no army man!
These types of procrastinators are one step before scheduling ones! because they think timelines and productivity are not their things!!
They are generally aware of what needs to be done; regardless of whether or not they want to do it. For them, productivity only means getting a lot of things done at once and they avoid even attempting.
8. I am already working on something more important
“I wanted to finish the other task before — I thought this was less important”
This is a very common one among procrastinators. They believe that there are many “important things” to do (usually the next thing).
It’s often an escape from doing anything at all because;
“Hey.. I’m not even supposed to be doing this anyway.”
The idea is to prioritize things that need less attention. Probably, because the task you meant to do was not worthwhile. Well, chances are you will leave the other task unfinished too.
9. I inherited procrastination!!
Believe me or not, I have heard this a lot of times “I am totally not responsible for it… it’s in me!”
There are some people who just can’t get why they procrastinate, so they blame their genes. They think that everything that happened to them was due to a genetic predisposition and sometimes even call themselves “doomed.”
The one who puts the blame on genes is “Procrastinating himself”!!
Procrastination is an instinct; it’s a pattern.
And of course, there are a lot more Procrastinator’s Excuses. You can have your own too… Procrastination is a habit that we do to ourselves and it takes a lot of work to get rid of it.
Don’t worry though! I got you covered here in this article. Let’s see some actual research-backed facts as to why people procrastinate!
What does Psychology say about Procrastination?
Is it a mental illness? Simple answer; No
It does not have a health diagnosis but procrastination accompanies many diseases such as ‘Depression’ or ‘ADHD’ (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).
According to psychology, procrastination may be driven by factors such as low confidence, anxiety, a lack of structure or simply not being able to motivate oneself.
Psychologists also believe that procrastinators are often afraid of failure, or rather the consequences failure may bring, like criticism from others, loss of financial support, and so on.
Psychological studies often associate procrastination with higher levels of stress, and lower levels of well-being. Procrastination is a self-inflicted mental wound that holds you back. Which results in some psychological behavior such as putting things off until the last minute to reduce stress and avoid failure in order to stay in control.
It’s time to finally get over the habit eating away your productivity at the cost of mental stress. Here are some methods that we’ve found to be effective and efficient for overcoming procrastination:
1-Try to do something productive the minute you wake up in the morning.
2-Get a pet, it’s proven that people who have pets are less likely to be lonely and more likely to live longer lives.
3-Work in a public space so you feel like you’re getting something accomplished while doing something social.
4–Keep a schedule and write down your daily goals on paper. Checking these off will motivate you to keep going.
5–Use a timer. Limit yourself to a certain amount of time on your social media, website, etc. and when the time is up, turn it off.
6-Reward yourself for staying productive by going to bed an hour earlier or doing something fun you wouldn’t normally do during your free time.
7-Be realistic with what you can get done in a day. Sit down the night before and write out everything you have to get done so you know what time constraints you’re facing.
8-The most important thing: Do one productive task at a time. Don’t open 10 tabs and try to do them all at once…slowly give yourself time to complete each assignment job you have.
