THE KILLER OF HUMAN POTENTIALS (procrastination)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication-----------------------------------Preface---------------------------------------Forward---------------------------------------
Acknowledgement--------------------------Introduction-----------------------------------
Chapter one: Insight into the term procrastination------------------------------Chapter two: Biblical perspective on procrastination-----------------------------Chapter three: Some major causes of procrastination-----------------------------Chapter four: Consequences of procrastination----------------------------Chapter five: Ways of combating procrastination---------------------------References----
PREFACE In our world today, procrastination has become a common phenomenon in every sphere of human endeavour. Taking a critical look into this phenomenon called procrastination will reveal to us that procrastination behaviours are various and reasons given by many
especially, students for any procrastinated action are enormous. Because of this reasons, sometimes, we do not go into action until the very last minutes, sometimes, we go into action after the scheduled time is over or even leave it undone. However, the business of writing on the subject of procrastination is not an easy one. Infact it is like an attempt to take the bull by the horns. Notwithstanding the constraints attached to writing on this subject matter, the fact remains that if i put off writing it, it means i have procrastinated. Therefore, It is expected that the general enlightenment that would come from this effort should help to inform and educate students and the public in general on the dangers of procrastination.
FORWARD
INTRODUCTION Have you ever wondered why there are some situations when you put off doing something or even post-pone them? Though many people who believe that they are naturally organised may have never pondered or reflected over this anomaly. Many have developed this habit of "i- will- do- it later syndrome" as i call it and it has dealt a big blow to their general life performances thereby limiting the amount of success they attain in their life endeavours.
Procrastination is a term which has been neglected by many which has continually limit or inhibit their progress in life. Thus, if you are good at bringing up new ideas and has never put yourself to work in order to make something meaningful out of your ideas then you are being manipulated by the spirit of procrastination. Other questions which have refused to submit themselves to clear explanation remain, "why do some people procrastinate chronically and some mildly? Is it that some are born to procrastinate or is it that procrastination is part of mankind? These questions, if arraigned in a court of law will appear guiltless and harmless but let me tell you the simple truth, if these questions are left untackled, procrastination will continue to ravage mankind especially the students. You may wonder why i keep on making reference to students. It is so because students are mostly affected by this term procrastination. As a student, i have experienced a situation whereby a lecturer will give an assignment and a date for the submission of the assignment but some students will keep on saying " guys forget about that assignment, we will tackle it later," failing to realize that other assignments would be given to them later and when these assignments jam-pack, they might end up not finishing them. Details on this word- procrastination and more will be provided as we move on. *DON'T PROCRASTINATE. READ ON!*
CHAPTER ONE
INSIGHT INTO THE TERM
PROCRASTINATION Procrastination is no longer a new word to many and as a result of this, there exist a plethora of definitions of procrastination .Therefore attempt to meet up with a generally acceptable definition has failed to come to term.. All the same, i will try to put the most important ones down to ease comprehension here. Procrastination has typically been defined as a trait or behavioural disposition to postpone or delay performing a task or making decisions.(Milgram et al, 1998; Hay cock et al, 1998, Kachgal et al, 2001). The Free On-line Dictionary, for instance, maintains that it is "slowness as a consequence of not getting around it."The American Heritage Dictionary defines procrastination as "to put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness." While Merriam-Webster on-line Dictionary asserts that it is "to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done." Synthesizing the ideas of the above authorities, procrastination can be seen as the act of putting off or postponing either intentionally or habitually, the doing of something that should be done to an indefinite time. In psychology, procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of lower priority. And thus putting off important tasks to a later time.(Neil F.A 2006).
In a nutshell, people procrastinate when they put off doing things they ought to have done usually in favour of something that is non-productive and irrelevant. Nevertheless, i deem it worthwhile to pin-point at this stage that procrastination is not the same thing as delay. For instance, if you are a student and about to go to night class or night studies, coincidentally, a helpless friend of yours comes in, requesting to stay with you because he has no other place to sleep. Will you stay back or will you leave him simply because you want to read? I guess your answer would be no! The above illustration tells us what delay is and what procrastination is not. Though procrastination has some elements of delay but not every delay is procrastination. Procrastination is a very special type of postponement unlike the delay in the illustration above, it is often times irrational. Studies have proved that the act of procrastination makes one to have a sense of guilt for not being productive and responsible. This will eventually make one to become stressed up. When an individual allows procrastination to eat deep into him/her, it will make him/her to have a low sense of self-esteem. It will go as far as making the individual to overestimate the size of a task until the thought of doing it overwhelms him/her and guess what will happen? The individual will end up not embarking on any meaningful task. I have equally come to realize that procrastinators expect two much from themselves hence they are always out of
touch with reality which will eventually make them to keep on wishing and dreaming. procrastinators are often time perfectionist. They spend an inordinate amount of time trying to perfect one small task while the larger needed task remains unfinished or untouched. Perfectionists like procrastinators often continue to work on a tiny part of a project to avoid the evaluation of others, thus sticking continously to one task since they want to make everything perfect. The underlying problem for this type of people is that they are egocentric and will settle for nothing but what they think is the ultimate. A friend once told me that he wishes to write a novel after our first year in the university but up till the date this book was published, he has not even started. I know you will ask me why. Alright. The reason he gave was that he will wait untill he acquires much English vocabularies like our renowned Chinua Achebe before he starts. I just tagged him perfectionist and christened him procrastinator. Regrettably, procrastination is common in our academic world today. It always happens when a student waits until the last minutes to start an assignment; going to night parties at the expense of reading e.t.c. I once told myself, "since i know the assignments must be completed to pass the course, why should i procrastinate"? Moreso, a compulsion to surf the net, play video games, chat on 2go, chat on face book, at the expense of more important and profit yielding ventures one has to engage in is abnormal before God and man. These things are not bad in moderation
but lets start with being honest with ourselves. Do you see yourself in these definitions? This is also a chance for you to ask yourself " am I a chronic procrastinator? If you are one, i want you to understand that solution to every problem starts with awareness and admitting that you have a problem. We all are guilty of procrastination to some degree but seek what degree is best for you. Schraw, Wadkins and Olafson(2007) have proposed three criteria for a behaviour to be classified as procrastination. It must be counter-productive, needless, and delaying. Having dealt with what procrastination is all about, it will be pertinent as well to draw a bow at the biblical perspective on procrastination.
CHAPTER TWO BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE ON PROCRASTINATION Procrastination is an issue which should be given a holistic approach when it is being talked about. Therefore bringing in what the Holy Bible says on this topical issue should not be frowned at rather it should be a welcomed effort because it is an effort to put down what God himself says about procrastination. Moreover, if I am to be questioned on whether procrastination is a sin or not, I would boldly affirm that it is more than a sin because i believe that any thing that is tagged a sin
in this world is drawn from the fact that sin can destroy life. Therefore the argument is clear. Procrastination qualifies to be called a sin because it is capable of destroying mankind. In the Holy Bible, God admonishes us to avoid sin of any kind. When i say sin of any kind, i mean sin in its entirety. Therefore, since my argument above proved that procrastination is a sin, it therefore leaves us with no doubt that God equally condemned things like procrastination.However, if we subject ourselves to indepth reasoning and avoid parochial reflection on this issue, we should be able to fathom that it is more of a spiritual issue. This is so because anything that can make us to waste our God's given time; our ideas born out of creativity even with our being conscious of ourselves can't be from the physical realm, rather it partly emanates from the spiritual realm. A motivational speaker by name Henry David Thoreau, Walden, states that naturally, Satan and the world system want us to waste that time and pass into eternity having accomplished nothing of eternal value. In other words, procrastination is not a matter to be laughed over at. We should know that it is of paramount concern to our lord because the Holy Bible laid credence to the above claim. Going by the verses, Paul brings to limelight, the importance of how we manage our time when he wrote: "Therefore be careful how
you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making most of your time because the days are evil" (Eph.5:15-16). Other verses as retrieved from the Holy Bible include: 1. "Redeeming the time because the days are evil" (Eph.5:16-17). 2. "So whether you eat or drink or however you spend your time, use all of your time for the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). Commenting on the verses above, the first one lays emphasis on the nature of the world in which we are living in. It admonishes us to be on our guard because this world is evil laden. Being on our guard has to do with good time management; the way we manage our time so that we would not fall into the evil traps of nature. The second verse lays emphasis on the need for us to glorify God with our time always. This does not mean sleeping in the church every day. It is trying to tell us that anything we are doing in this world should be relevant and worthwhile. That is to say that it should be worth doing because by doing things that are not negative, we are invariably glorifying God. From what has been so far established, it is now obvious that God wants us to manage our time on earth very well. We should be very concerned about whether we are making the most of the time God has entrusted to us. It is now an indubitable fact that misuse of our time is not only detrimental to us but it arouses God's concern.
Thus, as the highest demonstration of God's creation, we have the ability to convert passing time into something good and eternal. Therefore, don't allow that idea or skill to die simply because you think you are not competent enough. Don't ignore that idea because you are waiting for a better time. Let me make it clear, there is nothing like better time. The best time is the time you use in implementing that idea of yours. Hence, have faith in God. He knows every idea that comes to your mind. Don't be scared by the complexities inherent in implementing that idea for God who knows the "how" and " why"of that idea is with you. The only thing you need is to have faith in God and imbibe the philosophy of possibility thinking because positive thinking will most often than not, beget positive result. Finally, since we have been given the high calling of using our time for God's glory, it demands that we should be wise and make something worthwhile and tangible from most of our time.
CHAPTER THREE PROCRASTINATION
CAUSES
OF
I wanted to write an article on
procrastination but kept on postponing it. The irony is obvious, but what remains a
puzzle or what is not obvious is why i postponed it. In the midst of all the important things we know we need to do, we somehow convince ourselves that none of these things need to be done right now. We can even decide that some peace of mind and relaxation in the short term is what is most important. But pitiable enough, when you are trapped in the endless cycle of procrastination and you are not always aware of what you are doing, it simply means that you are bound not to achieve anything in life. Often times, when people learn that procrastination is detrimental to human or even, to their general life performance, they will only be interested in finding immediate solution to it. But the undeniable fact remains that if you do not acquaint yourself with the causes of your problem, hardly can you find solutions to it. Therefore, a well deserved approach to this issue is to outline and expatiate the causes so as to enable us find solutions to them. SOME OF THE CAUSES INCLUDE: (1) A FEAR OF FAILURE: This is one out of many causes of procrastination. Many people subconsciously delay the completion of a task simply because they are nervous about the kind of reaction their task will elicit. Sometimes, this fear of failure will make them to accept defeat which will eventually lead to abandonment of projects or tasks. When you begin to fear failure, it means that if by any means you encounter failure in your life, you will not be able to rise up to your feet. As a
result of this, some will say "instead of failing in this task, it is better I don't give it a trial at all." This attitude is not the best especially among students because it limits the possibility of you embarking on a big task. NOTE:
Failure is a challenge!!
(2)PLANNING FALLACY: This is a situation where we underestimate the time required to carry out a project or assignment. Many students have fallen victim to this. They devote weeks to gathering research material for a term paper but are unable to finish writing it because they have left insufficient time for subsequent stages of the assignment. The twin to this planning fallacy is what Ariely,Dan and Wertenbroc Klaus calls "student's syndrome". This student syndrome refers to a situation where some students will only begin to fully apply themselves to a task immediately before a deadline. In other words, planning fallacy often makes people to overestimate the time left to complete a task. The fact is that due dates come faster than people think. (3)INABILITY TO PRIORITIZE: Inability to prioritize proves to be a major cause of procrastination in many people's lives. Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot view the tasks at hand and place them into different categories based on their level of importance and this has brought difficulty to them when it comes to getting anything done because they constantly switch from one task to another; trying to decide what to do next.
(4)IRRESOLUTION OR INDECISION: Indecision as defined by the MerriamWebster on-line dictionary is a wavering between two or more possible courses of action. Our inability to make decisions when necessary also contributes to procrastination. Many people simply spend much time trying to make decisions about their projects, assignments and what have they. While it is inevitably important to juxtapose our options carefully and make informed decisions, we should equally know that too much of it especially one done out wastefulness can cause a significant and worrying delay for a project. (5) DISTRACTIONS: This is also a major cause of procrastination. Sometimes, the urge to engage in conversations with your fellow classmates, play games, chat on social networking applications can be a source or cause of procrastination. This claim is validated because of the fact that there are some people, irrespective of the important task they have at hand, will go for useless chats and conversations which will do them no good. Other forms of distractions may come out of "2go" chat, "Face book chat" etc. (6) EARLY MORNING LAG: Many go to bed each day without making a list of the tasks they would like to perform the following day. This attitude is very bad. I think as normal human beings we all have some responsibilities to carry out everyday. It then follows that in order to hit the ground running each day, there is every need for us to make a list of the tasks we would like to perform the next day
before sleeping at the night. However, if you fail to ponder over the things you would like to do the next day, don't be surprised that you will keep on swimming in the ocean of uncertainty when it comes to performing those tasks the following morning. (7)PERFECTIONISM: Many do often put off implementing ideas by using the uninformed excuse that they are not yet prepared to do justice to the idea. Some, perhaps, as a result of low self esteem will further think they will end up wasting the idea by implementing it poorly at their current level of skill. But guess what? Your current level of skill is not going to increase unless you practise; and you cannot practise until you go into action(implement). This means that you have to practise or implement with your current level of skill, make mistakes, learn from them and press on. So in reality, not implementing that idea right now is the only true way to waste it. Furthermore, perfectionists do not believe that they can complete a project unless it's perfectly executed. To combat this mode of notional conclusion or better put, self-defeat, you must accept that your performance is just as well done as anyone else's. Left for me, I would boldly say that we all can only do our best at whatever we do at any time. The end result may be different, However our effort and sincerity are the same. As for me, I believe perfection is in the eyes of the beholder. If you can feel confident and proud about the effort you put into your
performance there is no reason to criticise it as "less-than-perfect" because in essence, your performance was about as perfect as you could make it. (8) NOT KNOWING WHERE TO START: Sometimes, we are faced with big task that makes it difficult for us to know where to start. The fact remains that nothing is utterly easy to start up. Starting up any project or assignment is like a buiding with no doors. You walk around it's perimeters and you don't immediately see a way in. This type of situation often makes people to set their task aside thereby slaughtering the possibility of implementing that task on the alter of procrastination. Finally, having explained some major causes of procrastination, my advice is that you have to apply your own initiative to have a full grasp of your own causes or reasons for procrastinatiog, and take necessary steps towards moving forward.
CHAPTER FOUR CONSEQUENCES OF
PROCRASTINATION
Procrastination is something that has enormous consequences but they are often trivialized or taken for granted However, it seems to be fun to do at first but it won't take long before the procrastinator feels the direct effects of his or her actions. The effects can come gradually in a way that you can't even notice the
devastating effects. Often times, people laugh and make light of the effects of procrastination but on the contrary, the effects are grim. This enemy of man begets laziness, boredom, sense of guilt and worst of all, inability to complete or implement tasks. The effects are capable of putting one in a state of gloom and hopelessness. It has equally made some people to dwell in a state of regretable uncomfortableness. In our world today, procrastination has made man to sit uncomfortably in the bowls of poverty. I have equally realized that 26% of what lead people to abject poverty can be attributed to procrastination. Unarguably, many do claim that if they are destined to achieve greatness in life, it will surely come to reality. They do forget easily that their actions and inactions are determinants to any level of greatness they will attain in life. Procrastination can implant in the minds of many, some notions born out of uselessness which will invariably, prove detrimental to them either directly or indirectly. Some who are subject to the spirit of procrastination will always advise you to take refuge in God thereby hiding under the shadow of the father-figure(God) to procrastinate. It can possibly make some lazy folks to suggest a total and constant resignation to fate in every situation with a stupid and uninformed disposition that goes thus "if failure is destined for me, I will surely get it, why disturb myself". Along the same light, people who are in romance with procrastination often hide under the aforestated disposition to
misinterprete faith in God. But the indubitable fact remains that faith without good work is incomplete before God and man. Moreover, if you believe that God has good plans for you and you refuse to work hard, it simply means that you are treating God's efforts towards you with levity. Therefore, God's efforts should be greated with hardwork. The followings are some specifically notified negative effects of procrastination;
*INABILITY TO REAP THE REWARDS THAT WOULD COME FROM TAKING ACTION. This is one of the most obvious negative effects of procrastination. When you procrastinate, it simply means that you will fail to take actions on those things that will bring you desired results. For instance, if you are a student that does not start your studies on time, it means that you will not attain your desired grades at the end of the semester or term because you failed to take actions when necessary. Therefore, it is worthwhile to note that taking actions on your desires and ideas is the best way to make intangible things tangible. *INABILITY TO BE EXPOSED TO OPPORTUNITIES. This is another cosequence of procrastination. Many atimes, opportunity, keeps on knocking at our door but we have to take action for the door to open. Another way of putting this is that procrastination will always stand between what you are and what you can possibly become.
*ANOTHER CONSEQUENCE WHICH NEEDS TO BE POINTED OUT WITHOUT A TRACE OF SMILE ON THE FACE IS THAT IT BRINGS STRESS TO US. It is a fact that when you fail to face your task as at when necessary, there is every tendency that other tasks will spring up and when this happens, you find out that the whole task have compounded or better still, multiplied. In other words, if we decide not to deal with things and put them off, all we do in essense is creating more works for ourselves in the long run. And note that the more work you are faced with, the more stressed you will feel because there are many things to do at a time. *ANOTHER DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCE OF PROCRASTINATION IS THAT IT CAN NEGATIVELY AFFECT ONE'S EMPLOYMENT. In your work places, there is every possibility that you will be required to meet up with deadlines and when you put off doing things which are necessities in your work place, it will throw the secret that you will never meet up with the required deadline into bareness. In the same vein, it will make a worker to look incompetent, lazy, and unreliable which will no doubt attest or justify that you are due for sacking.
*THE LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST OF THE OBSERVED CONSEQUENCES HERE IS THAT IT INVITES UNEXPECTED
PROBLEMS INTO THE LIVES OF MANY. I think this short story will justify the above claim. " Mr Jonathan, on getting to where he used to pack his Honda Accord car one morning realised that his hydraulic has licked. The first thing a non-procrastinator will do is rush and invite the motor mechanic or replace the fluid with another if he can but because Mr Jonathan procrastinates a lot, he said to himself "it is better I visit the restaurant before I look for my mechanic". Then on his way to the restaurant, a school boy dashed into his path; he applied his brake but the car refused to adhere to the instruction. He tried with all his might but to no avail as he knocked the small boy down and that became the end of the boy's stay on earth". According to the above narrative, the first question goes thus; did Mr Jonathan expect that problem? Of course no! Then the second question is "what term should be given as the cause of that problem? I think the answer is plain - procrastination. From the story, it is quite obvious that the accident occurred because Mr Jonathan put off doing what he should have done. It has also painted a clear picture of what procrastination is capable of doing . Nonetheless, many other effects or consequences abound but i think the ones presented above are mostly with us in our society.
CHAPTER FIVE
WAYS OF COMBATING
PROCRASTINATION
We have been pointing at procrastination, unfolding its meaning, causes and consequences but here we are saddled with providing practical ways through which this anomaly can be put to a stop or even, minimised. However, it will be illogical and impertinent to think that ways of combating procrastination are very easy. No. It is a struggle which we have to face. Before i procede, i will like to outline what i call 3ds
of consistency. These 3ds are three powerful words which we need
to stand upon so as to enable us follow the tips on how to combat procrastination in our lives. These 3ds are "Decision,Determination and Dedication. I will take each of them briefly. Decision- This has to do with looking at yourself and at the same time telling yourself what you have resolved to do or embark on after critical, indepth and logical consideraion. It is the act of making up one's mind to do, stop, or start up something after one must have subjected the said thing to critical considerations and evaluation. Making Decision is what we face everyday and as far as am concerned, it is one out of the important 3ds which we should stand upon in fighting procrastination. "DECIDED TODAY"
After Decision we move on
to Determination. Determination has to do with firmness of purpose or pursuing firmly, what you have decided. It goes more than Decision Making to include
resoluteness and indissolubility in what you have decided. Determination is also very crucial. SO BE DETERMINED. The last but not of less importance in the 3ds is Dedication. Dedication here has to do with being committed to what you have decided to do. It is not just being committed but being wholly committed. " Therefore be Dedicated". Having rendered an explicit explanation on the three 3ds of consistency , i think it is high time we started looking into our cardinal objective in this chapter which is - "tips on how to combat procrastination". These tips are very important and it follows that none should be left unconsidered. If truelly we want to wage war against this killer of human potentials, it is worthwhile and therefore, advisable to attach importance to all of them. The tips are as follows; (1) CULTIVATE SELF- DISCIPLINE: This is a good strategy for solving procrastination issues. It involves admonishing yourself on what to do and what not to do. If you are a chronic procrastinator, start by engaging yourself in selfdiscipline. You have to justapose two things here. It is either we get the momentry pains of self-discipline now and reap the fruit later or forget about self-discipline now and reap the bitter pill of regret later. Bearing the aforestated 3ds in mind, the best way to start is to decide now. After your decision, try to practicalize it by translating your decisions into action. This demands creation of your own small
habits which will enhance your productivity. For instance, if social networking has made you to procrastinate to some extent, you can, some times, insert your simcard in a mobile phone that cannot run those social neyworking applications.(i.e if you can't delete the application). Moreover, self discipline does not mean that you should stop communicating or interacting with others, but it means building up those things that work for you. Practice them repeatedly and be determined.
(2)START FROM SOMEWHERE AND STOP DYING IN THINKING: I have come to realize that many procratinators keep anything up. They will keep on making plans on what to and at the end they will come out with nothing tangible. But i want to make it known that a bit of planning can launch you into what you want to achieve whereas exessive planning and thinking might make you to achieve less. Hence, you have to start from somewhere when ever you want to do something. For instance, if you receive any assignment from your teacher/lecturer, do not waist a whole day thinking about how to make your work perfect. Start from somewhere because to start is better than not starting at all! Like Eva Young said" To think long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing". Therefore, in order to avoid procrastination, you have to match plans with actions.
Worthy to note is that this particular tip is very usefulfor the perfectionists. Like i hinted in the previous chapter, a perfectionist is one who will not implement anything until he considers himself perfect enough to implement it. Therefore, if you are such a person that procrastinates because you want to be perfect in all tasks, all you need to do is to take this tip as your watch word. The truth remains that if you do not start practicing it now you can never attain a relatively perfect state talk more of attaining perfection. Therefore it is very necessary to act instead of wasting time in a perpetual thinking and planning.
(3)PLAN YOUR ACTIVITIES EACH DAY: This is very crucial if actually you want to say no to the spirit of procrastination. It is an objective neccesity for chronic procratinator. Make sure that before you retire for the day, that you have made plans on the things you would like to achieve the next day. This approach has helped me to work according to shedule and plan. Thus, when you tell yourself that these are the things I would like to accomplish the following day before you sleep, it will make you to have a sense of direction the next day. Not only that, since you have set goals for yourself, that day will never end without you achieving at least 90% of the goals you have set for yourself. I once asked three students who are considered as the best in my department questions as regards the way they cope with their daily activities in the school. To
my greatest suprise, they gave me almost the same reply. From what they replied, Is discovered that the secret behind their performance is that they normally plan the task they would lke to pursue the day before the next day. One of them even went further to tell me that she even puts them down on a paper each night before she sleeps. Note this quote by Benjamin Franklin. It says" dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of".
(4) REJECT THE FEAR OF NOT BEING PERFECT: As I pointed out in a previous chapter, there are some people who have refused to put their ideas in the line of action because they consider themselves as not being perfect or not worthy to do so. This notion of not being perfect yet should be done away with if really we want to achieve something meaningful in life. Some students who have already condemened themselves as not being perfect will keep moping endlessly at an assignment; thinking all day and night without writing anything down. The consequence of this type of notion(not being perfect yet) is that it will trigger off a sense of fear in them and at the end, they will end up giving the assignment to other person whom they think is more perfect than they are. What a useless notion! Why wait for you to become Chinua Achebe before you start writing? Why wait till you become C.Ronaldo or L.Messi before you start playing? All these attitudes are very bad. You have to create with your imagination, a self image of a champion
and take yourself as one. Do not wait for that perfect time to come because it might never come. Therefore, i enjoin you to reject the notion of "I am not perfect yet" and put that your idea in the line of action.
(5)DON'T OVERESTIMATE YOUR TASK: The only thing you have to do when you think that a task is too complex is to take the first step. I have come to realize that the more you consider a task as being too complex or daunting, the more overwhelmed you become. It will even go as far as making the task to seem close to impossible. In other words, if you take a first step in accomplishing that task, there is every likelihood that more ideas would flow to you. Thus, do not procrastinate because you think that you cannot complete the task. Rather, adopt the strategy of breaking the task down into small units. For instance, if you have a term paper/assignment to write, and to you the topic is very complex, you can tackle it by breaking it down into contents which make up the chapters. It does not matter if you fail to start from the introductory passage. Start developing the assignment from the contents which you have formed then organize them after. By taking this step, you will see yourself flowing in the world of ideas thereby doing that thing which you previously thought was undoable.
(6) DO NO'T ATTACH YOURSELF TO LAGARDS: It is an undeniable fact that unserious minds demotivates people a lot. If you really want to overcome procrastination, always attach yourself to those that will motivate you; those that think creatively because by so doing, there will be cross fertilization of ideas in your midst.
(7) PRAYER: We all know that prayer is the channel by which we communicate with our creator(God). There is no doubt that if you tie your prayer together with faith and hardwork, God will answer you. Procrastination as we already know is something that we sometimes do without even realizing that we are doing it. But I tell you this day that if you follow the above tips which have been listed accordingly and back them up with prayer, you will see yourself combating this enemy of man(PROCRASTINATION). However, it is not easy but believe that with God around you, all things are utterly possible. As Steve Cable(2001) pointed out "acknowledge that God has given us the time we need to accomplish everything he wants us to accomplish. We need to invite him to direct our time management initiative. We need to equally pray for a clear understanding of God's priorities and perspectives. If we are dealing with laziness, we should ask for self control. If we are struggling with perfectionism, we
need to acknowledge that our total significance is found in Christ, not in our performance". Finally, I vehemently believe that when we observe all these, procrastination will be buried with our past.
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grounded
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