As a student in high school, I was often amazed at what I was willing to do rather than study for a test. I was King of Procrastination—delaying a task even though I knew the wait would come at a cost. My father called it “laziness,” but I wasn’t convinced that was the root cause.
Studies have found that procrastination is less about avoiding work (research here) and more about avoiding the negative emotions attached to an activity. This means if you want to procrastinate less, it is not about work ethic but about changing how you feel about a task.
One suggestion is to try self-compassion. Remember that we are human and are going to make mistakes. Research shows the biggest barrier to self-compassion is fearing that you might lose your edge. However, the opposite is true. People who show self-compassion show greater motivation.
Another option: work with someone who is more productive than the average person. Research shows that when you work with someone who is very productive, your own productivity increases. When I was a teen, I noticed that when I was with a peer group that took school more seriously, my study habits improved.
Procrastination is something that most of us will continually fight. Remember, however, it is not laziness that needs to be changed but your emotions relating to the task. Think about trying one of the practices I suggested above and see if it helps you. Just knowing laziness wasn’t my problem made me feel better about myself.
Honestly, I feel like procrastination won't change much for me at this point in my academic career. I'm at a point where graduation is close, my GPA won't change much, and I can relax more. It feels like I can finally pursue my interests as opposed to other years in College which were just work. Like, I can procrastinate now by working on a Udemy course or my senior project, which both have to do with my career field when I graduate. Granted, procrastination is more often than not very bad, but it feels like it's something I can do right now.
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