Procrastination is a treacherous friend... I say that loud in my head. When you least expect, it eats you so deep you may never recover. Recently I am on a research to know why we procrastinate, and how to stop it for good. are there scientific explanations? Are there full proof methods of tackling it?
one thing is certain... procastination has shattered alot of dreams. Finding a system to curb it would go a long way in rescuing somebody from a collateral damage in career, and so on...
I thought it useful to share with nairalanders, let's solve this monster once and for all(if we can)... Give your suggestions, recommendations, insights on how to tackle procastination.

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Is your career lost before your eyes? do you sometimes wonder why you don’t get things done? Do you forget things a lot? Is your health suffering as a result of your keep postponing doctor’s appointment? Is your procrastinate behavior negatively affecting your relationship with your loved ones? are you worn out from your last-minute-scrambles to get jobs done all the time?...

Grab on tight to something as you prepare for this… GET A GRIP OF YOURSELF! Wake up from your slumber and take charge of your life before it’s too late.


High procrastinators are more likely to experience anxiety, or anxiety-related physical symptoms. Procrastinators suffer more ill health effects and may perform poorer than non-procrastinators as a result of illness. Even worse, procrastination could be a possible affective and cognitive related issue.

Research links possible reasons why we procrastinate to low self-esteem, low sell-confidence, and self-control, high state of perfectionism (but never getting anything done), crave for immediate gratification, non-competitiveness, self-deception, evasiveness, dysfunctional impulsivity, depression, and anxiety. And even possible correlation with neurosis and poor cognitive abilities.


These interesting findings show procrastinating can hurt one’s career if not dealt with. Rightly so, experts see procrastinating as a misery affecting 15-20% of the population during their lifetime.

On one research, it showed that procrastinators can purposely stack the odds against themselves in the quest to starting or completing their tasks by placing barriers in the way of their success as a strategic ploy to evade the attributed ambiguity of a task.


The young man named Stephen!

Stephen is a very bright young man from a decent background. Loves to laugh and make others laugh too. He got into higher institution with high hopes and determination. Graduated rather unfortunately with a poor grade even though his grade didn’t reflect his ability and deftness- he found himself licking his wounds after what seem to be 5years of wasted years in the university.


He feels so dejected and animated… his whole world is crashing down on him... he's thinking: how did I get myself here? What have I done?

What was I thinking?


Then he flashes back… at those times he skipped classes for late night parties (although some of us can cope with the stress and do fine on this situations, not all of us can), chose to play or watch football match over submitting assignment-he actually sincerely promised himself he was going to complete assignment after the match- on most occasions, he never did. And on some occasions he feels he should put in best performances to get the best result – nothing wrong with that…in-fact that’s a great idea… oh he’s discovered the task’s too difficult than he estimated- he thinks: “I’d just leave it now and do it tomorrow, maybe by then I would get the best answer?”… then tomorrow after that … and so on- eventually nothing gets done!...


Ah, it is now clear to Steve...


He’s orchestrated his undoing.

If he had gotten his priorities right what do you think would have happened?


Procrastination can be seen as a complex human behavior involving subtle avoidance of the start of an important task or deviating from a task at hand due to weak self-control in maintaining time consistent preferences to the completion of task.


Why wait till tomorrow when you can do now what you ought to do to improve your chance of success tomorrow?


You can catch more insightful information on career here:[url]inspiredcareer..com[/url]


References and further readings

Lay, Clarry H. "At last, my research article on procrastination." Journal of research in personality 20.4 (1986): 474-495.

Solomon, Laura J., and Esther D. Rothblum. "Academic procrastination: Frequency and cognitive-behavioral correlates." Journal of counseling psychology 31.4 (1984): 503.

Rothblum, Esther D., Laura J. Solomon, and Janice Murakami. "Affective, cognitive, and behavioral differences between high and low procrastinators." Journal of counseling psychology 33.4 (1986): 387.

Ellis, Albert, and William J. Knaus. "Overcoming procrastination: or, how to think and act rationally in spite of life's inevitable hassles." (1979).

Ariely, Dan, and Klaus Wertenbroch. "Procrastination, deadlines, and performance: Self-control by precommitment." Psychological science 13.3 (2002): 219-224.

O'Donoghue, Ted, and Matthew Rabin. "Choice and procrastination." Quarterly Journal of Economics (2001): 121-160.