PROCRASTINATION: CAUSES, EFFECTS AND SOLUTION

Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so. The word has origin from the Latin procrastinatus, which itself evolved from the prefix pro-, meaning "forward," and crastinus, meaning "of tomorrow. 

It could be further stated as a habitual or intentional delay of starting or finishing a task despite knowing it might have negative consequences. It is a common human experience involving delay in everyday chores or even putting off salient tasks such as attending an appointment, submitting a job report or academic assignment, or broaching a stressful issue with a partner.

 Although typically perceived as a negative trait due to its hindering effect on one's productivity often associated with depression, low self-esteem, guilt and inadequacy, it can also be considered a wise response to certain demands that could present risky or negative outcomes or require waiting for new information to arrive. 

Various types of procrastination (such as academic/non-academic or behavioural/indecisive) have their own underlying causes and effects. The most prominent explanation in present literature draws upon "Intemporal discounting, task averseness and certain personality traits such as indecisiveness and distractibility" as the common causes of procrastination.

According to research there are four (4) causes of procrastination:

Low self efficacy: A person’s belief and expectation that they are capable of completing a task. When we don’t have much confidence in our ability to complete a task (or to complete it well), our likelihood of procrastinating goes way up. This shows up most commonly when we’re uncertain about how to start a task.

Low Value: How enjoyable or painful is the task at hand? In general, the more enjoyable a task, the less we procrastinate on it. Although, it seems that mildly painful and boring tasks are actually more likely to lead to procrastination than extremely difficult tasks—which helps explain why we tend to procrastinate so much on busywork.

Impulsiveness: Difficulty maintaining focus in the face of immediate and more appealing distractions. If we’re vulnerable to lots of distractions—or work in a highly distracted environment —and have a hard time resisting those distractions, we’re much more likely to procrastinate.

Delay: How much time there is in between the decision to take on a task and the point when it must be completed. Basically, the longer you have to finish a task, the longer you’ll wait to get started on it.

Consequences of Procrastination

Losing of precious time 

Blowing Opportunities

Not meeting goals

Ruining a career 

Lower self esteem 

Making poor decisions 

Damage to your Reputation

Solutions to procrastination 

Get organised 

Set simple achievable goals

Create a timeline or schedule 

Set a deadline

Get rid of distraction 

Time yourself

Take a break

Use incentives 

Get the hard stuff done first

Tell someone about your goal

Procrastination is a well known phenomenon that often entails negative outcomes with regards to performance and subjective well being. Procrastination, the needless delay of things one intend to do is a phenomenon that has accompanied human kind at least since the times of circero (steel,2007) and has intensively attracted researchers interest.

Name: BENJAMIN FAVOUR EBOSEREME 

State code: OS/21B/0634

Discipline: ANIMAL SCIENCE (AGRICULTURAL BIOCHEMISTRY AND NUTRITION)

Institution: THE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN 

State of Orgin: EDO STATE