A person who puts off important things. Disease of tomorrow

Before handing in an important project, an exam, talking to your parents, or going to the dentist (when your tooth already hurts), how often do you find a lot of other, simpler activities that are absolutely not related to the main business? Moreover, each list of such cases and the situation is very individual and may contain quite a few items. And even if you have only one item on this list, it still interferes with a normal life. What to do? Deal with this unpleasant phenomenon.

Let's start with the very definition of the term " procrastination" - this is a concept in psychology, meaning the constant postponing of unpleasant thoughts and deeds for later.

As I said, the list of such things and thoughts is individual and can be quite impressive. There are several tips that help fight procrastination and do not require any complex actions. The main thing is not to postpone work on yourself “for later”.

1. Do one unpleasant thing for you in the morning. Of course, not immediately after waking up. And when it's time to get down to business, let the first item in your "ToDoList" be at least one minor unpleasant thing for you. For example, call a plumber or call a not very pleasant client. It's like jumping off a tower without thinking. Or approach the edge a hundred times, estimate the height, retreat, gather your courage and ... stop again just before the jump. And so on until you are pushed by someone who has already exhausted the patience to stand in line for the jump. A good rule of thumb is to do at least a small unpleasant thing first, and your list is already one item shorter.

2. If you find it difficult to do any work several times a week, do it every day. As strange as it may sound, this rule works. For example, you need to write blog articles or fill out cards for a program. Of course, you can sit down and write the required amount in a few days. But, firstly, the necessary material is not always at hand, and secondly, it will be very difficult to sit down and force yourself to write a second time in a few days (given that you don’t like it, but you still need to do it). If you start working on it a little every day, then gradually get involved. And to sit down for this work will not be so difficult. Gradually, it will become your habit, and later you may even like it.

3. Find company for your "unpleasant affairs." Research shows that we do many things much more willingly in the company of someone than alone.

4. Make prep your essential tool. That is, collection necessary tools gives you the opportunity to mentally prepare for an unpleasant task. For example, printing out a letter, or collecting the necessary information before talking with a client. You don't have to do it today, you can postpone it. But it is quite possible that just by preparing in advance, you decide to finish this business as soon as possible and do everything on the same day.

5. Keep a List. This advice can be found quite often in the fight against non-fulfillment of affairs (in other words, ubiquitous laziness). And it works. Usually lists are made for doing something long-term, but it works with one-day ones too. Just write down on paper that by the end of today I have to do so-and-so.

6. First - the most unpleasant (ladies and children - go ahead). Make sure you do one of the major unpleasant things first, and not by doing "little troubles" trying to delay the most unpleasant thing (and it happens).

7. Learn to enjoy the completion of things you don't like. Forced yourself to do what has been postponed for a month - rejoice! At least for the fact that you are such a fine fellow at home and have finally found the strength in yourself to complete a very unpleasant business. Even if you were a little sick during the execution and there was an unpleasant aftertaste at the end. You did THAT. You are well done!

And now I would like to ask what you are starting to do to avoid doing an unpleasant thing? I, personally, start sorting things out or looking for what else I should do “seemingly necessary”, often not related to “my dragon”.

MOSCOW, September 11 - RIA Novosti. The desire to put things off until later is a sure sign that they can not be done at all. Psychologists and psychoanalysts told RIA Novosti about what else lies behind the habit of delaying the performance of duties until the last moment and why to-do lists for the day can significantly reduce performance.

Procrastination (from Latin pro - instead of ahead and crastinus - tomorrow) is a concept in psychology that denotes a tendency to constantly put things off and responsibilities for later. Psychologists note that its cause is not laziness, which only accompanies it, but other phenomena that sometimes require specialist advice.

The first reason is the lack of personal interest

"We have a very serious problem of including motivation. Besides, I would not say that activity is an absolute value for our domestic mentality. Why do something? Why? A motivational deficit is a big problem. You have to want something , to be inspired by something, something must take place in the soul in order for an inspiring and captivating goal to appear, ”explained Andrey Kopyev, associate professor of the faculty of counseling and clinical psychology at the Moscow City Psychological and Pedagogical University.

If you don’t want to do something, psychologists advise you to answer the question for yourself: “Do I need this?” If not, and at the same time, the case can be transferred to someone or even abandoned, then it is better to do so, so as not to feel remorse later for poor-quality or untimely work done.

The second reason is the fear of failure.

Psychologists note that behind the desire to delay the execution of some business until the last moment, there may be a fear of one's own failure. Children do not want to study and do homework when they do not understand the material, adults are afraid of their duties when they lack qualifications.

The solution to this problem is quite simple: in the case of a child, parents should work with him or hire a tutor for this, working people should find a way to improve their skills to the desired level.

The third reason is internal conflict

Psychologists about what the desire to become beautiful can lead toThe modern ideal of beauty - painful thinness plus enlarged parts of the face and body - has left the catwalks and glossy magazines. About how this ideal affects the minds of young girls and mature women, what threatens the pathological desire to follow the artificially created image of a beauty, experts told RIA Novosti on International Beauty Day.

The most serious cause of procrastination is associated with a person’s internal conflicts, various anomalies and disorders that he himself may not be aware of and therefore needs the help of a specialist.

"It is likely that in the unconscious there is some kind of active process of psychological defense, and for some reason what needs to be done causes anxiety, rejection. The person does not really understand why, but cannot force himself. The third topic is almost endless, because that there can be any number of these forms of resistance. It is rather a symptom of an internal conflict, "explained psychoanalyst Dmitry Sklizkov.

trait of success

"Over the past 20 years I have had to work with a large number of very successful people, and if we talk about the psychological trait that distinguishes successful people from not very successful people, this is the ability to think and immediately start doing it. Do not hesitate, do not think about whether I need it or not, whether I succeed or not," Sklizkov said.

No special effort is required to develop this quality in oneself. All you have to do is set a desirable and motivating goal for yourself. If it exists, and there are no psychological disorders, it will be easy to get rid of procrastination: you will need to rationally allocate your time and actions.

“For example, books and courses on time management are a very sensible and correct thing. But we must remember that it helps only a certain circle of people who do not have existential and motivational problems, a tendency to melancholy and depressiveness,” recommended Kopyev.

The daily to-do list trap

Psychologists remind that making to-do lists makes sense if a person keeps a clearly set goal in mind and remembers that all things work towards its implementation. For a list for one day, it is advisable to highlight the mandatory minimum, for example, two things, and then praise yourself if the third was completed in addition to this.

“A person must clearly understand what he wants and what his values ​​are. Then he will be able to single out stages for himself, and each step taken will be just learning. In all other cases, making a to-do list and any time management can become a way of self-rape and bringing yourself to psychosis," Sklizkov concluded.

Perhaps your plans for the next year are striking in their scope - you want to move assets offshore in the Balearic Islands or learn how to play the ukulele. And I'm going to spend the next few months getting rid of procrastination - the main obstacle of the world of the future on earth.

Procrastination, as Wikipedia suggests, is a concept in psychology that refers to a state characterized by constantly postponing important things for later, instead of doing which time is spent on trifles that really do not matter. For example, if you have to go and take out the trash and you're polishing an iPod; if you need to answer business letters while you are reading Google Reader. Many people spend twice as much time procrastinating as they do work, and it only gets worse every year. These types of people are called "procrastinators".

There are many reasons for procrastination. Some people can't work without adrenaline until a deadline hits them in the head. Others in this way try to avoid responsibility and delay the decision. Some people just have their brains full of nonsense. But in reality it doesn't really matter.

More importantly, procrastination is the foundation of half of modern civilization. For example, the popularity of communication in social networks is a direct consequence of this bad habit. Normally, a person reads the news once a day, looks into LiveJournal once a week, watches TV once a year. What do we see in real life? A huge number of people spend a lot of time on this - and all just because they can not bring themselves to write some kind of business letter.

Our internal and external enemies are ready to do anything to make it easier for us to procrastinate. They lure us into traps such as "Related Videos" on YouTube, "Popular Posts" on Yandex. But even completely disconnecting from the Internet will not get rid of this habit. Even Chekhov himself sometimes, after sitting for a couple of minutes at Ward No. 6, got up and ran to the buffet for a rowanberry. This problem must be dealt with in other ways.

There are many ways to treat procrastination. For example, "approach (10 + 2) x 5". The idea is this: first you need to set yourself a goal - say, write a paragraph of text. Then, honestly, without being distracted and gritting your teeth, complete the task in ten minutes, while noting the time. After that, you can relax for a couple of minutes, smoke, drink coffee. And then repeat all over again. In an hour, you will already have five paragraphs ready - a pretty good result for a robot.

But the problem is that it is far from always possible to achieve at least some result using the methods described above.

This is mainly because their use requires the presence of willpower, which in most of us has already atrophied. And for this reason, the solution to this problem should be made the main task of the year, and by the beginning of next year, try to reduce Live Journal attendance by at least 80%, smoking by 40%, searching for your last name on the Internet by 3 percent.

To be honest, I have no idea what will happen if people all over the world one day stop wasting time procrastinating. The world as we see it will cease to exist. And suddenly it turns out that everything we do actually takes half the time. I don't know what will happen next - whether the GDP will double, whether the financial crisis will end. But if I somehow find time to watch The Wire, I'll consider it my achievement.

Five types of procrastinators: which one are you?

Not all procrastinators are the same - and the methods of dealing with procrastination are different for everyone, says Gwen Moran from Fast Company magazine.

If your desktop gets tidy and tidy as the deadline approaches, you should be familiar with the effects of procrastination. And putting off until tomorrow what you can do today is not harmless: one new study shows that procrastination is associated with higher levels of stress, depression, fatigue, and even unemployment.

There can be benefits to procrastination, if used wisely. But its main driving force is the desire to avoid something painful, and this can be devastating, says psychologist Neil Fiore, author of The Easy Way to Get Started. new life". Chronically procrastinating workers face imbalances in their lives as they avoid necessary activities or activities, he says.

If you study your procrastination style - the reasons that motivate you to put off the necessary - you can draw useful conclusions. Here are five common types of procrastinators and methods to help them get out of the quagmire.

Five types of procrastinators

Perfectionist

Such people try to avoid embarrassing mistakes or judgment from others. They spend too much time on any one aspect of the project because they manage their time poorly, or they dodge the project for a long time, and then rush to finish it at the last moment. And this, of course, only increases the likelihood of errors.

"Impostor"

Such people are afraid that others will expose them and see them as unskilled or unworthy workers, and therefore postpone everything that is fraught with such risks, says Fiore. Often a person gets into such procrastination when he is surrounded by people who are prone to nit-picking. “If I can’t please my partner, parents, teacher, boss, this provokes what behaviorists call “learned helplessness.” And this, in fact, is the path to depression,” says Fiore.

unmotivated

When work is boring or unpleasant, some people procrastinate to avoid doing it, says Nicole Bandes, founder of the consulting firm Productivity Expert. If you hate what you're doing or it makes you dumb, it's hard to find motivation.

Overloaded

Sometimes there's just too much to do and it's hard to decide where to start, so we don't do anything, says Fiore. It doesn’t matter if you yourself have collected so many cases, or if the boss decided to put such a bunch of work on you - the very idea that we have to do all this leads to the fact that we avoid action.

Lucky

Some people believe they work best under pressure, so they procrastinate until life corners them.

If this is repeated and repeated without causing any negative consequences for the person, in fact, the person receives a reward for procrastination, says Bandes. “If, say, in school, you always waited until the last minute before turning in the assignment, and each time you got a good mark, this creates the impression that there is no need to rush anywhere at all,” she says.

How to deal with these types of procrastination

What to do if procrastination interferes with your work? First of all, you need to pay attention to this, says Bandes. And then choose the appropriate approach.

Make Sure the Job Gets Done

If you're procrastinating because you're overwhelmed or because you hate your job, the first thing to do is ask yourself if you really need to complete a particular task. Maybe you can get rid of some of its elements or delegate them to someone? When you eliminate those unnecessary ingredients, the path becomes clearer, Bandes advises.

Divide tasks into parts

When you know exactly what needs to be done to move forward, you eliminate uncertainty, a common cause of procrastination, and have a concrete action plan. The planning process itself also helps you see that things aren't as bad as you think (especially if you set a different deadline for each step).

Make specific commitments

Fiore says it's important to find your true motivation and get a feel for why you do what you do. For example, if you're trying to improve your health and wellness and exercise is part of your plan, it's important to make specific commitments. “If people write down or announce exactly when they will start exercising, designate what they will do for at least a short time, and internally rehearse the collision with obstacles, this helps to engage more actively, brush their teeth more regularly or, say, eat more vegetables,” says Fiore.

Do one thing

You can often beat procrastination if you force yourself to take at least some action, says Bandes. Even if this action is to review some research or draw up a project plan, it sets you on the path to completing the case. This is exactly the case with sports: often the hardest thing is to start.

Add urgency

Fiore and Bandes say that to overcome procrastination, it's also helpful to add urgency to your task. Set a deadline for the first version and tell yourself that this version doesn't have to be perfect, Fiore advises. For very urgent tasks, Bandes recommends setting a timer and forcing yourself to work on a project for 15-30 minutes just to get started. You can also add elements of the game - reward yourself for each stage or come up with a separate incentive for each component of the project.

What is procrastination?

Many people do not know what procrastination is, although this phenomenon is very common in our society and, to one degree or another, is inherent in almost all people.

This is shirking, postponing for later important things that still have to be done. As a result, this leads to serious problems, both in life and in professional activities.

Isn't that lazy?

No, laziness and procrastination are completely different things. If a person does not do something because of laziness, he feels great, enjoying a completely undeserved rest. On the contrary, a person suffering from procrastination experiences anxiety, fear, which in the long run becomes a cause of stress.

In other words, the lazy person blissfully does nothing, and the poor man with procrastination is constantly remorseful, demanding to immediately get down to business, but the person does not have the “moral strength” for this.

Symptoms

So, if there is a problem - procrastination - its symptoms should be known to everyone.

The person suffering from this psychological disorder, seeks to postpone all important things “for later”, especially if there is a lot of time to complete them. He does everything, but not the right thing. He hangs out on VKontakte or Odnoklassniki, playing solitaire, telling his colleagues about raising rabbits or drinking tea. In other words, with all his might he delays the moment when he still has to get down to business.

As a result, he reaches the point that he is forced to do all the work at an emergency pace, which, of course, affects its quality and causes criticism from the authorities or the displeasure of the teachers, if we are talking about who else is studying.

This scenario is not performed occasionally (I don’t like a particular job), but always and as a result leads to severe psychological consequences.

What to do?

There is no consensus among scientists about the reasons for this phenomenon. They call the most different ones, and not a single version explains all the facts. So, without knowing what procrastination means as a psychological problem, what its origin is, it is impossible to eliminate its cause and you have to work with its consequences.

1. Important and non-urgent (graduate from the institute, become the head of the department ...).
2. Important and urgent (finish a diploma, buy medicine, submit a report ...).
3. Unimportant and urgent (go to an anniversary, watch your favorite movie ...).
4. Unimportant and non-urgent (often these are “chronophages” (time eaters): chat on the phone or chat online, hang out shopping, play cards ...).

Based on the analysis of these cases, a list of cases is compiled, starting with important and urgent.

And it is carried out, but starting from anywhere in such a way that cases from different groups alternate.

At the same time, you must adhere to the rules and be sure to set aside time for rest.

Know your type of procrastination?

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And the eyes are afraid, and the hands do not! By tomorrow, it is necessary to hand over a new project, prepare an important report, send the final results of the monthly work to the boss. But, here it is, a feeling of fatigue that has come from nowhere, and in the hands of the TV remote control, a sweet bun from the store opposite, favorite embroidery, a notebook and pencils. You need to water the flowers for a long time, help the child draw a boat, follow the domestic cat. And all this is done under unbearable remorse! Urgent work is postponed at best for a couple of hours, at worst - for an indefinite time. In psychology, the tendency to constantly put off very important and urgent things, leading to life problems and painful psychological effects, is called procrastination.

How to determine that procrastination has become a problem for you and interferes with your life?

Main features:

• You are constantly distracted during the performance of your duties. For example, you can start conversations with colleagues, constantly look through messages on the phone, smoke, go to the toilet or drink tea.
• It takes a long time to solve even the simplest problems.
• You never have time to finish the work on time. And when “the deadlines are running out”, either you refuse to work, or you start trying to complete it for short time. As a result, the quality result, of course, will not be.
• Breaking the deadlines, you often feel guilty, reproach yourself, promise once again to do everything on time, but the situation does not change.
• You are afraid of responsibility, complex tasks, large amounts of work.
• Not very confident in yourself, have low self-esteem.
• You constantly justify yourself, and come up with a great many reasons for postponing things.

"Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today." The meaning of the proverb is deep and understandable from childhood. But, nevertheless, not everyone manages to follow this simple truth. Consciously postponing "for later" important work, on which success and well-being depend, you do not rest, but spend your vital energy even more intensively. This unpleasant tendency must be urgently disposed of!

Seven steps to get rid of procrastination

Responsibility, aspiration, success, life achievements - all these are bright antonyms for such a word as procrastination. Every bun eaten and re-watered flower at the time when you need to urgently sit down for the right job− a new round of this state.
Would you like to become more successful? Tired of someone else receiving praise and awards instead of you? Then right now is the best time to get on the path of correction!

First step. Stop thinking!

When you procrastinate, you don't notice how endless planning takes up all your time. Sometimes this state reaches the point of absurdity: you are in constant search of the ideal solution. But, unfortunately, there is no such solution. The thing is, it just doesn't exist!
By constantly thinking, you are just wasting your own time. And that's a great excuse for idleness. In order to get off the dead center, you need to stop making endless plans and move on to action.

Second phase. From elephant back to fly.

All your problems are actually not as big and scary as they might seem at first glance. It is possible that the boss is not so evil and scary. And the work that he gives to the wave is within the power of a mere mortal person. It's actually hard to find work and home responsibilities that truly transcend human capabilities.
However, the state of procrastination is truly magical. Postponing important things, we begin to see them through the prism of our own doubts and experiences. And now the task, received a couple of days ago, grows to gigantic proportions. How to cope with it, you think with horror? Just look at it from a different angle. Armed with common sense, knowledge and worldly experience, start acting.

Soon you will see how the elephant you created turns back into a fly.

Third stage. Just take the first step

The first step is the most difficult, but also the most important. “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step,” Martin Luther King Jr. once said. In other words, stop thinking about the task on a global scale!
When you look too far into the future, any task or project seems simply incredible and overwhelming for you. As a result, after a few minutes, all attempts to do something important and necessary stop. And so you aimlessly browse the Internet, change channels on TV or flip through a useless magazine.
The third stage of the fight against procrastination is an attempt to shift your focus to real tasks. Now it is necessary to concentrate precisely on taking the first step today. Having determined the range of today's problems, you can easily get involved in the work. You know what exactly you need to focus on, where you need to direct your efforts!
In this way, you put yourself in a favorable state for the business, in which you feel confidence and other positive emotions. In this state, you realize that there are many tasks that need to be completed in order to complete the next step. But at the same time, you accept it, and do not postpone the matter until “better times”.

Fourth stage. Start the day with the hardest task

The most difficult and voluminous task is what scares you the most. A complicated telephone conversation, painstaking reporting, preparing a project for demonstration in front of a large audience cause an unpleasant trembling in the body and make you give up? So this is exactly what you need to start today's work with!
By embarking on the most difficult and unpleasant tasks at the beginning of the day, you are doing yourself a huge favor.

Having spent a couple of hours on a difficult and unpleasant task, you free yourself from it in the future! And this means that you have taken a huge step forward and now you can start the pleasant part of your work.

Fifth stage. Learn to make decisions

Man is a biological and social being (that's how we were taught at school in biology lessons). And this means that simple inaction while waiting for a command is uncharacteristic behavior for us, which drives us into depression and causes severe depression. In order to feel confident and successful, you need to make decisions every day and actively engage in life!
Wanting something but not being able to decide to do it is the most obvious sign of procrastination. The lack of desired action causes a serious internal conflict. There is only one way out: take responsibility for your own decisions and your own life.

Sixth stage. Look fear straight in the eye!

Timely and correct solution of any problems inevitably leads to professional and personal success. This is both good and bad at the same time! Any procrastination is the fear of becoming successful, since success is a rather heavy daily burden.
It is much easier to live with a feeling of constant regret about missed opportunities. Once again, staying on the "roadside" of our lives, we think about how good it would be if we hurried a little and managed to catch a ride passing by.
Stop being afraid of success! Every missed chance makes life boring and gray. As a last resort, it is better to regret that, having taken advantage of a great opportunity, we did not get the expected result. In any case, willingly responding to various proposals, we attract useful acquaintances into our lives, which, one way or another, will play a role in it.

Seventh stage. Finish what you started

A business abandoned halfway through always causes unpleasant emotional experiences. A project not completed on time, an imperfect call, a missed meeting can cause you to feel unwell.
The final stage of the fight against procrastination will help you learn how to avoid this unpleasant and even dangerous condition. Once again, taking on a certain work, control the degree of its completion. Make sure that you have completed all the assigned tasks and completed all the stages. As a result, the result of your labors will not be long in coming! And to reap the fruits of your successful work is very pleasant and good for mental health. Public recognition, a welcome promotion, a massive cash incentive are just a few of the things you get when you defeat cunning procrastination.

Procrastination (eng. Procrastination, from lat. procrastinatus: pro- (instead of, ahead) and crastinus (tomorrow)) - a tendency to constantly “put off for later” unpleasant thoughts and deeds. This is "shirking" and fulfilling obligations at the very last moment, and often even when all the deadlines have already passed. Instead of doing an important thing (for example, performing one's official duties), a person diverts his attention to "everyday" trifles - reading the news, cleaning the workplace, etc., thereby shirking useful things.

Procrastination is "relaxed", when a person spends time on other, more pleasant activities and entertainment, and "tense", associated with general overload, loss of sense of time, dissatisfaction with one's own achievements, unclear life goals, indecision and self-doubt.

Theories of procrastination

At the moment, among psychologists, there are many theories that try to explain this phenomenon. In my opinion, their disadvantage is not that they do not work. The thing is, they are actually harmful. The more these theories, the easier it is for a person to EXPLAIN THE NATURE of his disorganization - instead of organizing himself and getting down to business.

But if you like the theory of the question and the explanations of psychologists - please!

Anxiety

According to this theory, it's all about feeling anxious. Those who are more prone to stress are more prone to procrastination. The sources of anxiety can be different - our fear of the future or perfectionism. So people prone to procrastination are afraid of being losers, of showing their incompetence, of not living up to expectations. They are often perfectionists, concentrating on details and completely forgetting about time in their attempt to achieve perfection. And, of course, about the need (or your desire) to win, to be the first.

The conclusions from this theory are recommendations "Do not strive for quality, allow yourself imperfection." The consequences of such a recommendation are temporary improvements (from the joy of liberation, a person begins to act bolder and more cheerfully) and the gradual development of the habit of hacking. And hack-work leads to everyday troubles, after which a person again does not want to sit down for a difficult task. He again came to the same thing, but along the way he acquired a bad habit of hacking. By the way, keep in mind: according to studies, people who are accustomed to work efficiently, responsibly, just do not suffer from perfectionism.

self-restraint

According to this theory, acting in our own interests, we limit ourselves in order to protect ourselves from shyness or possible humiliation from others. The cause of concern is our fear of becoming successful, so as not to stand out from the gray mass and be different from everyone else. In any case, as in the first theory, fear is the key word.

Conclusions: come to our training, where we will work with your fears and learn to allow yourself to be successful!

defiance

According to this theory, we are annoyed by the roles, programs, plans that are imposed on us, which we postpone in order to act in accordance with our own decision. Being subject to external pressure, we come into conflict with the mass or leadership. In this way, "rebels", anarchists defend their own opinion. They are always dissatisfied with their position and easily fall into the trap of not doing - they spend their whole lives proving their independence from public opinion, which makes them slaves of an idea. Since their activity ends with the generation of ideas.

Conclusions: come to us for psychotherapy, we need to immerse ourselves in your childhood and explore your relationship with your parents. Perhaps we can heal you.

Temporal Motivation Theory

According to this theory, we always evaluate the usefulness of an action (utility) in terms of the following variables: the amount of expectation from an action (expectancy) multiplied by its value for us (value), decreases due to the amount of sensitivity (G) multiplied by our level of anxiety (delay) .

To put it simply: the level of procrastination depends on our expectations, on the value for us, on our feeling (so impulsive people are more prone to procrastination), and on the level of anxiety (the closer the goal, the harder we work). And very briefly the idea sounds like this: we choose something that not only has a good chance of success, but also pleasant consequences for us.

Yes, the explanation is quite reasonable. Well? What follows from this? But nothing. There are no recommendations...

Our perspective on procrastination

Procrastination is helplessness in the face of difficult tasks in the absence of the necessary skills to solve them. There are the necessary skills and abilities - there is no procrastination. There are no such skills - we take off from business. If from childhood we were not taught how to cope with these tasks, we now give in to them.

There is no depth psychology here, it's not about fears and not about perfectionism. These are our bad habits, which our parents allowed in our time and for which we are paying today. Previously, it was simply called - shirking, today it is beautifully called PROCRASTINATION. It even elevates somehow: I don’t do garbage, but I suffer from procrastination.

So what to do? Start learning the skills you need. To do this, get up on the Distance and start putting yourself in order. Results? In two months (or earlier), you will forget about your former procrastination. You can immediately get acquainted with the exercise that will save you from procrastination:

the point is that without preparation you will (most likely) not be able to complete it. Before that, you need to master the preparatory exercises: Internal good, Relaxation and others. Therefore - to the Distance!

Are you used to constantly putting off important things, and at work you drink tea all day and sit on Facebook? Don't worry, it's not your fault. You're just sick. Procrastination. Go on sick leave.

Alexey Dubkov Alexey Karaulov

So, you checked your mail for the hundredth time, folded your coffee, brewed solitaire, smoked the news. Here, it would seem, and work. But you suddenly came across an article on how to stop shirking and start working - this is our article. So be it, read it, and then finish everything quickly, quickly!

Let's say right away: despite the title, we will not talk about any kind of laziness, but only about one of its varieties, which has recently become very widespread and, according to a number of scientists, has taken the form of neurosis. We are talking about procrastination - the habit of putting off important things again and again in favor of pleasant, harmless, but completely unnecessary activities. If this is the first time you hear such a term, but you are already ready to exclaim: “So that's why I spend hours at work, kicking and hanging around! I have a terrible disease - procrastination! - do not rush. Wait until the end of the article. After reading, you may be enriched with some more terms, excuses and reasons to feel sorry for yourself.

Pro-beauty... what?

The history of the phenomenon has thousands of years. Even the ancient Egyptians wrote about the endless postponing of affairs for later (well, as they wrote - dug out on the walls). Moreover, they had two hieroglyphs to denote such a delay: with negative consequences - “The fool that pulled!” and with positive ones - “Thank God that I didn’t do it, I just would have wasted my time!” He also wrote about a special kind of laziness in 800 BC. e. Greek poet Hedroid. Since there are no academic translations of his poems, be content with our version: "A husband who has postponed work for a long time, with poverty, arm in arm, walks further in life." (Glorious is the editor who made such a translation!)

The term "procrastination" itself appeared already in Ancient Rome as a result of the addition of two words: the preposition pro (“in the direction, towards, forward”) and crastinus (“tomorrow”). The word is found in the writings of historians, and in a positive context. Procrastination is the talent of wise politicians and military leaders who do not make hasty decisions, do not come into conflict and are not in a hurry to pay a prostitute in the hope that the lupanar will catch fire and it will be possible to escape under the guise.

In modern history, the term appeared only in 1682, in a sermon by the Reverend Anthony Walker. As usual for all saints, thinking about what else to take up arms against, the Englishman Walker fished procrastination into the light of day and declared it a sin. The word took root, in the 18th century it got into print and stuck to the slogans of the industrial revolution in the spirit of "The factories are standing, only procrastinators are around." Since then, laziness and the compromised Latin term have not been separated.

What is the difference?

If you ask more precisely - why even a single word? Why can't you say "laziness", "simple", "negligence"? To understand the difference, just read the modern definition of procrastination. It was formulated by Professor J. R. Ferrari, head of the Procrastination Research Group (PRG) at Carleton University in Ottawa:

Procrastination is
1) procrastination habit
2) unconditionally perceived as important,
3) gradually becoming a neurotic pattern of behavior and
4) causing a persistent frustration or guilt in the procrastinator.

Do not rush to envy the professor and think that he created this definition while sitting in his office and throwing darts into the coffee maker. His group has done significant work in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and statistics. Again, if procrastination is their main occupation, they probably try their best to delay it and work with might and main.

Ferrari emphasizes that mindfulness is the most important sign of procrastination. It’s not enough to break deadlines and do the job poorly - this can be any nerd who overestimated his strength or did not understand the problem. You also need to realize until the last moment that you are deliberately doing nonsense, although you could have worked.

7 facts about procrastination

Lovingly assembled by ProfessorFerrari's subordinates over the years of their activity.

Fact #1

Let's start almost with a compliment - however, it will be the only one in the entire article, so do not read it all at once, leave a little for the morning. So, according to PRG, procrastinators are generally much more optimistic than regular people. Moreover, as tests have shown, optimism does not prevent them from calculating their strength and time. Fearlessness and faith in a miracle are only about assessing the risks associated with not doing the job.

Fact #2

Procrastinators are not born. It's all about upbringing. Although there is still a lot of uncertainty. Ferrari knows one thing for sure: an incredible number of his wards grew up in families with an authoritarian type of upbringing (see our article ""). A rigid, control-obsessed parent pushes the child to avoid any independent activity, prevents him from hearing his desires. The child does only what he is told. Worse, the latent hatred of prohibitions (“And don’t you dare climb on the closet anymore, while I hide a naked aunt in it from my mother!”) Forces an already adult procrastinator to surround himself with people who forgive him any punctures. And this, of course, only exacerbates his conniving attitude towards himself.

Fact #3

Procrastinators, on average, drink more than their co-workers and peers. They do this, firstly, for the sake of feeling, as Venichka Erofeev wrote, “absorption in nothing.” Secondly, procrastination is often the result of poor self-control. Excessive drinking is another particular case of this problem.

Fact #4

The most common type of self-deception which procrastinators resort to is "I can only work under pressure." The second most popular - "I'll do it tomorrow with fresh forces." At the same time, Ferrari's tricky tests prove that no noticeable increase in productivity happens - neither after a long rest, nor in an emergency.

Fact #5

PRG patients are not just playing for time. They actively look for distractions to keep them from doing what they need to do. They are looking for two criteria: a) the opportunity to constantly return to business; b) the inability to lose and screw up. The most popular distractor is mail checking.

Fact #6

In the ranks of procrastinators, there is an abnormally high percentage of people with poor health. Resistance to colds is twice as low as in the group of ordinary people, vulnerability to gastro-infections is three times higher.

Fact #7

Sometimes due to more or less random reasons (an unprecedented external stimulus, personal choice, a promise to a loved one who threatens you with an iron) procrastinator can completely change. True, effective, consciously productive behavior takes more physical strength from him than from an ordinary person. The result is anxiety, frustration, drowsiness; in the end - a return to the usual pattern.

How it works

According to another scientist, P. Steele, who not only wrote the Procrastination Formula series of books, but also reads mini-lectures on YouTube ( canal Procrastinus), the phenomenon is explained quite simply.

The fact is that your desires are controlled not by a small squirrel that lives in your nose (although we understand that this contradicts all your life experience), but by two areas of the brain.

The first, limbic, of which the pleasure center is also a part, can give rise to strong stimuli: hunger, thirst for sex, fear, an irresistible desire to watch YouTube again. It is quite difficult to resist the signals of this system, it never sleeps, it is able to suppress the voice of reason and, most importantly, does not understand what time is. Limbic desires cannot be long-term. It is a machine for making quick demands and getting short-term pleasures. "Hey, well! It's like a voice in your head is telling you. - Just think, one party in table soccer! It's five minutes, and you'll have the whole evening to write an article. But what fun! The problem is that this system immediately forgets that it was fun (after all, there is no concept of time for it) - and requires a new quick high.

On the other hand, desires can also be born in the prefrontal areas of the cerebral cortex. There is already a time horizon, planning issues arise ...

But the trouble is, even in people with the most sinuous and hardened bark, these zones get tired sooner or later. Moreover, fatigue can be both instantaneous, from overvoltage, and accumulated. The more exhausted the bark, the worse it resists temptations. And procrastination, therefore, is the surrender of the cortex to the limbic system. A series of games in table football against the background of an unfinished paragraph

two by three

Famous procrastinators

Vladimir Nabokov Instead of working on another book, he often spent time on chess problems. Here is how he himself writes about it: “For twenty years ... I devoted a monstrous amount of time to compiling ... problems. This is a complex, delightful and worthless art ... Mental tension reaches a delusional extreme; the concept of time falls out of consciousness ... and when the fist is unclenched, it turns out that an hour of time has passed, decayed in the brain heated to radiance ... " Albert Einstein According to his eldest son, "Music always served as reinforcement for the father." The creator of the theory of relativity could sit relaxed for hours in front of the record player, especially when he "felt that he had reached a dead end, walking along the road of conscious work." Winston Churchill In the words of C. P. Snow, a physiologist who held a number of positions in the English government during World War II, the legendary prime minister “was not a quick worker ... he was rather a tireless worker, although often his work was expressed in staring at the ceiling.” This is not a metaphor. According to Snow, Churchill looked at the ceiling quite consciously and could spend hours on it.

In 1956, the American Les Vaas announced the recruitment of members to the Procrastinator Club. When the first candidates sent in their applications, Les set a date for the meeting, and then postponed it for several years, until the joke finally reached everyone. “This was, perhaps, the first and last case when procrastinators tried to unite,” says the same Ferrari, from whose words we recorded this story. “In general, they don’t like to be in the company of their own kind, because the sight of a person lounging around exacerbates their guilt.” In addition, according to the professor, it is difficult for procrastinators to empathize and help each other because they are not the same.

Ferrari identifies three types of these poor fellows.

1. Thrill Hunters

(I must say, in the original, the names of these types sound much more elegant, but why litter the language with the words "thrilseekers" and "avoiders.") .

2. Avoiders

They put off any business without looking, so as not to make a mistake or, even worse, not to succeed. Because success can lead to new, more difficult tasks. They are very afraid of the assessments of others, the burden of responsibility, criticism, praise, and in general everything. They try to give an even average result, balancing on the fine line between "Well, it's almost normal" and "It could be better, but it's okay, and that's fine."

3. Unsolvers

Tritely do not know how to prioritize and work according to plan. In general, they put off all things, including pleasant ones, until they feel pressure from outside.

Surprisingly, this classification almost completely coincides with the conclusions of another fighter against procrastination - B. Tracy. True, he is not a scientist, but a marketer and head of a recruitment agency. But this may be for the best: with a tact uncharacteristic of scientists, Tracy shifts the focus to the cases themselves, instead of calling people neurotics and weaklings who are not fit for work.

According to him, not people are divided into three types, but heavy things.

1. Elephant affairs

So large and impregnable that they scare a person. Eating an elephant (for a skinny old man, Tracy is suspiciously obsessed with culinary metaphors) in one sitting is impossible. It is not clear where to start, whether there will be enough strength and appetite. However, in addition to fear, the elephant also causes superstitious delight: so much meat!

2. Frog cases

All, as one, are unpleasant. They do not want not only to chew, but even to pick up. In addition to the fear of such things, Tracy also writes about anxiety: they say that others will think when they see me eating a frog. This is one hundred percent consistent with the description of avoiders in Ferrari.

3. Case-oranges

In appearance, they are so identical that it is not clear which one to take on first, but everything seems to need to sit.

Eat oranges and chew elephants

Tracy has written extensively about how to butcher, shred, and cram things that don't taste good. For example, a whole book is devoted to frogs, even translated into Russian two years ago. However, his advice is banal and has been criticized more than once by serious scientists.

Judge for yourself.

■ Elephants he recommends to eat immediately, otherwise because of the delay they "grow in the head." And you need to start with the most delicious pieces and always remind yourself how much is left. Like, after the half, things will go faster, because it will already be a game to reduce.

■ With frogs quite laughter. Tracey's book is full of platitudes like "plan your day, energize yourself, train yourself to be a workaholic." PRG experts Johnson and McCone openly scoff at this. Like, telling a true procrastinator to plan his day is like telling a person with clinical depression to smile and not think about the bad.

■ The author is doing well with oranges. The advice to rely on a simple draw works. As well as the advice to delegate the decision: “Darling, remind me what is our priority now: so that I fire you or take care of the visitors?”

Yet Tracy's problem is that he sees procrastination as a vice. A bad habit that needs to be kicked out. However, it is much easier (and more pleasant) to believe scientists who consider procrastination to be a variant of the norm. A birth defect that you just need to get used to, like poor eyesight or a wife's mustache.

And yet: how is it treated?

Having read up to this point, you should already have fallen into glee several times ("I'm not a bad person, I'm a variant of the norm!") And fall back into depression. In order to put a kind of end to the endless disputes of scientists, we decided for the last time to refer to the conclusions of Ferrari and his group.

Procrastination in numbers

Data was collected in Australia, UK, Turkey, Peru, Venezuela, Spain, Poland and Saudi Arabia. And since they did not differ there, it can be assumed that something similar is happening with us. 70% of university students consider themselves chronic procrastinators, but in fact, only 25% are such, the rest are ordinary alcoholics and jerks.

Among the so-called "non-clinical" adults, 20% are true procrastinators, regardless of the field of work.
54% of procrastinators are men.
10% are not going to fight their problem because they love procrastination for the shake it gives (the brain and in general).

Even the average non-procrastinating person spends an average of 47% of their computer time “procrastinating.”

According to them, procrastination can still be defeated. Moreover, the solution often lies not in the field of time management, planning, control and visits to a psychiatrist.

Your own psychological defense mechanisms (any person who is not deprived of a brain have them) can help in the fight against procrastination or in reconciliation with it.

rationalization mechanism

If things don't get done because of the Internet, turn off the Internet. Break the refrigerator. Lock the phone. Intentionally cutting yourself off from the tools of procrastination almost always helps you get in the right mood. Why? Think about the limbic system. It requires instant response, quick pleasure. If to watch the next episode of Simon's Cat you need to get into a separate program and rummage through the settings or get up from the couch to plug the cable into the outlet, the limbic system calms down and the prefrontal cortex manages to regain control.

To help

Browser extensions SiteBlock, Anti-porn, Norton Online Family and TimeBoss. All of them allow you to turn off individual sites, block entire segments of the Internet, or set yourself a time limit (TimeBoss is especially good in this sense, although it is more difficult to configure than others). From analogue pleasures cut yourself off physically (spatially) or ask for help from loved ones. Let your wife not give you food or purposely walk around the house dressed until you finish the work.

Substitution mechanism

Instead of frankly meaningless activities during bouts of procrastination, you can simply switch between things. Instead of crushing zombies with zucchini on your iPad, read books or watch lectures by various non-boring luminaries of science, such as the "rock star of philosophy" Zizek. It's better not to sit at the computer at all. Drive in a nail, wash the dishes, do a push-up, lather the rope, shave. Any semi-useful activity that is different from your main task is always better than a pseudo-useful one.

To help

Book readers. Podcasts. Any site with an online player, search, and a good selection of helpful videos - like TED or The Elements. Although push-ups are still more useful.

Displacement mechanism

At worst, instead of fighting procrastination, try to overcome negative attitude To her. Stop thinking that your downtime is a mistake, accept it as part of the system and method. According to the almost unanimous opinion of scientists, the feeling of guilt and regret causes no less stress than the very awareness of the delay. As soon as you stop reproaching yourself for procrastination, the psyche will be able to release a certain amount of strength that went into the pangs of conscience. And you can check your email more often!

What does the doctor say?

Domestic experts, also familiar with the phenomenon of procrastination, volunteered to say something in conclusion.

Mikhail Sinkin, neurologist, consultant of the ERC RAMS, head of the department of ultrasound and neurophysiological diagnostics, City Clinical Hospital No. 11:
As a rule, procrastination is purely a psychological problem. The neurologist should, however, be aware of some diseases of the brain, which may manifest similar symptoms. In particular, a metabolic disorder of serotonin, norepinephrine, and other neurotransmitters, leading to such a clinical picture, can occur with tumors of the frontal lobe, in the initial stages of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

Alexey Stepanov, psychologist, consultant of the Discussion Club of the Russian Medical Server (forums.rusmedserv.com):
Many readers will find in the article a reason to say to themselves with relief: “Ah, that's it! It turns out that I have no problems with goal setting and it's not my weaknesses. I just procrastinate!” I consider it important to warn the reader against such a position. There are many words in the language that are just headings. "Procrastination" is just a term for a range of human manifestations, if you will, symptoms. Procrastination itself is not a diagnosis. It is necessary in each case to look at what it is a symptom of. I see three sources. The first is depressive states, because laziness grows on the basis of despondency. Depression almost always requires professional treatment. The second source is anxiety disorders. Anxiety about achievement can be excruciating, no matter what a person expects - failure or victory. Clarifying the foundations of your anxiety is work that needs to be done both on your own and with the help of a psychotherapist. Finally, the third possible reason concerns personality manifestations, which in an advanced case can reach the level of a personality disorder. The key word here is alienation. For example, alienation from the tools and results of labor, known since the time of the first manufactories. Alienation from one's own "I want" and "important to me", leading to a meaningless pastime. “When you understand why, you overcome any “how”. This is one of the best answers to the question of how to deal with procrastination.

Two more new sloths

This article would not be complete without a mention of zucchini (just a funny word that we try to insert into all texts) and a retelling of the work of two more scientists. They wrote not about procrastination in pure form, but rather about amazing types of laziness similar to it.

Incubation

Neurolinguist St. D. Krashen, a specialist in the theory of reading (for which only people do not get paid!), Believes that creative people cannot be scolded for downtime. Referring to the autobiographies of writers, composers and physicists, as well as to surveys of creative people conducted in 1995 by Csikszentmihalyi and Sawyer, the scientist draws an unambiguous conclusion: procrastination, simple, useless activities are part of the creative process. At the same time, Krashen rejects the idea of ​​inspiration. When a creative person walks from corner to corner, picking at the navel felt with his finger, he does not wait for an external stimulus. Stupor is associated with the work of the "extraconscious part of the psyche."

Krashen, analyzing the revelations of geniuses, derives the following formula for creative work:
■ collection of information, analysis of available data - 20–60% of the total time;
■ incubation - 40–60%;
■ illumination - 0% of the time (Krashen, being a caustic linguist, insists on the term illumination instead of the usual English enlightenment (“enlightenment”). According to him, “illumination” more clearly describes the explosive birth of an idea);
■ conscious "processing with a file", fixing a solution or a work - from 10%. than at the time of the actual recording. (If only a week ago, or even two! - Approx. ed.)

Irrational shift

The term belongs to Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. Traveling around the world with lectures and trainings, Dan noticed and described the phenomenon of "moral laziness". You probably know people who say: “I’ll work at this job for ten years, and then I’ll immediately go to the islands and start training cockroaches for cockfights” (or something like that). Perhaps one of these acquaintances of yours is yourself. Dan believes that by engaging in such self-deception, a person suffers from "procrastination in reverse." Instead of sacrificing serious deeds in favor of momentary pleasures, the poor fellow is engaged in dull and tedious work, pushing pleasures aside. What's the point? “It comes from the fear of stepping out of your comfort zone,” writes Dan. Moving to the islands, vacations, buying an apartment, raising chickens and pigs - contain the need to learn new information and make some decisions. It's much easier to put all this aside and print paper for a shredder for N pennies a day for a few more years. “Often the subject of the shift, for which a person is supposedly working, can be carried out with less blood and more pleasure. The problem is, we don't really want to move anything in our lives,” Dan writes sadly, judging by the lack of exclamation points.