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| Sorry that this post about procrastination is late, but is that by coincidence or on purpose? |
Procrastination is the bane of many a person, myself included. Students, workmen, and the average joe will most probably know the feeling of putting something off until a later stage. There are reasons why we do it, and reasons why we should stop. Lets talk about it.
I was one of those students who often stayed up all night to complete a project that was due the next day. Despite having many days prior to prepare, I would just postpone the inevitable. My reasoning for this was usually something like; "I can do it tomorrow", "I am not in the 'zone' to do it", "I don't know where to start", and various others. I still procrastinate to this day, but not as much, (the reason for that possibly being that I have less work to do). These days since I am at home most of the time, I try and make my days somewhat more productive, but still end up pushing what needs to be done to a later time/date.
The actual reason why so many procrastinate, is due to an argument in ones head between the Prefrontal cortex, (the hard thinker part of your brain) and the Limbic system, (this part of the brain deals with the long-term memory, emotion and motivation). Now, the Limbic system usually wins and we procrastinate, and the reason it wins is due to the Amygdala, (which triggers the fight, flight or freeze response), so depending which of these responses are triggered determines what you do, so since you try and rationalize it and say you can do it tomorrow your brain chooses the flight, but if there is no more time to do it, it will choose the fight response.
There can be many things that will aid the procrastination and others that will help you to overcome it. Telling yourself that it can be done at a later stage, or convincing yourself that you must be in the right mindset to do whatever it is are some of the things that will make you put off work, but if you plan your work out and set small goals to accomplish along the way will help you get to work. Knowing how much work is needed and the time frame in which you can do it in is always the first step. From there you can set it out and complete the task or activity like it was meant to be done; gradually over time.
When you become persistent enough about something to achieve, you will achieve it no matter how much you fail. This list gives some idea of who failed before making it big, Thomas Edison made about 1000 attempts at the light bulb and only after all of that did he make a successful one. The Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling is one of the most inspirational stories I know of, at the time of finishing the manuscript for the first of the Harry Potter series, she was a divorced mother raising her daughter alone, she submitted it to 12 publishing agencies and all 12 rejected it. 12 people rejected it and she still continued. I mean 3-4 and continuing is tough, 8-9 is amazing but 12 is just unbelievable; anyway she then submitted it to Bloomsbury Publishing. The chairman then gave the sample he received to his daughter to read. The eight year old girl Alice, then nagged her dad because she wanted to read more. If it wasn't for Rowling's persistence, determination and this little girl, we would not know the name Harry Potter. Now just imagine what would have happen if she had procrastinated in her writing.
With that, it brings us to the end of this post. If you have any stories of how you did something by beating the urge to procrastinate, or you just want to comment on something I said, please let us know down in the comments or on Facebook/Twitter, as we here at TCSA love to hear from you and appreciate your input. If you know of anyone who could benefit from reading this post, or just likes to read, please share this with them as I am sure they would greatly appreciate it. And if you would like to show your support or just like to see more posts as they are published, please like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. Thank you for taking the time to read today's post and I shall write again tomorrow.
Hope you have a productive day buddies.
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