The Subtle Art of Procrastination

Procrastination is the act of putting off doing something that you should do till another day or time, because you do not want to do it. Simply put, it means ‘I’ll do it later”. And later becomes later later.
A looming deadline is like a speeding train coming in your direction and a true procrastinator. moves at the last possible moment to avoid getting hit. The last moment movement is what makes procrastination dangerously thrilling. I strongly believe that no one is a born procrastinator and people gradually pick up the art of going into slumber as they get along life. Most human beings start to procrastinate at some stage of their life.
This art has become more profound as we get more and more engaged in social media. As soon as you pick up your phone or laptop to pay a bill; write an important mail; or to complete an assignment, this social media worm tricks you into opening Instagram followed by Facebook and by twitter and so on. You end up looking at other people’s pictures which they posted while procrastinating. Before you realise an hour passes by reading comments and watching videos. The task that you had started to do gets put off till another time and date.
These artists practising procrastinating can be broadly classified into four different categories.
- Thrill Seekers: Taking the speeding train example further, it gives some people thrill to take things to the edge. They keep putting things off till it’s their neck that’s put on a chopping block. These people work with the logic that they perform best under pressure. For this type there is hardly any margin for error. Cure for this type is difficult. They recover only when they are hit by the train a few times.
- Pure Sloths: These guys are the true procrastinators with the little sloth planted firmly in their heads. They delay taking action for no reason at all. They just don’t like doing it. I would term these guys as anti-Nike. Just Don’t Do It. They would go from Facebook to Instagram to WhatsApp and repeat. They would rather wait and count likes to their posts then doing anything worthwhile. Cure for avoiders is to tackle the little sloth.
- Fear Factor: At times people avoid doing a task just because of the fear of failure. This is the biggest fear of all. Only cure for this type is action because action cures fear. When things become inevitable and undelayable, they finally take the plunge and guess what? Most of the time they emerge winners.
- Analysts: Excessive analysis causes paralysis of mind. It becomes really tough to take a decision when the analysts start to overly evaluate all the impacting and non impacting variables. The urge to take the right decision often leads to this situation. I believe that there is no right or wrong decision ever. Every step has it’s pros and cons. It’s always better to take a not so perfect timely decision rather than taking a perfect decision later than required.
There is however a silver lining. Lazy people are known to be the inventors of stuff that eases life. It is because they are always finding ways to do their chores in least possible time.
So, go ahead, take your time. What’s the hurry anyway?
