1、The Danger of Deep ProcrastinationAnd Overcoming it Abstract Our friend Leena once told me a sad story. It was about an old high school classmate. This guy was a certified math whiz: he took college-level courses while still in high school, then, after arriving at Stanford, jumped into upper-level s
2、ubjects and advanced research. Somewhere around his junior year, however, his drive began to falter. As Leena recalls, his energy for math mysteriously faded away. He told her, at one point during this period, that he looked forward to surviving until graduation so he could go find a job in banking
3、and make some money. He wasnt overworked: he could easily handle his classes. And he wasnt lonely: he had plenty of friends. Something inside him just petered out. Leenas friend burnt out, and hes not alone. An increasing number of students suffer from this mysterious affliction, which is marked by
4、a sudden, unexpected drop in enthusiasm and academic performance in a once promising student. In this article, I want to talk about a common cause of burnouts a cause I call deep procrastination and provide some understanding for why it happens and how to prevent it. 1. The Danger of Deep Procrastin
5、ation Deep procrastination is not the standard urge to goof off that afflicts every college student. Its much more powerful. A student suffering from deep procrastination will delay important work to an excessive degree. He wont start studying until late the night before or will delay paper writing
6、until the sun is about the rise. After a while, he might begin to chronically miss deadlines, and find himself constantly negotiating with professors about extensions. Sometimes it gets so bad that he misses the extended deadlines failing courses instead of completing the required assignment. No mat
7、ter how dire the stakes, starting work becomes an insurmountable prospect. Ive advised numerous students suffering from deep procrastination of various levels of severity. In all cases, the causes were basically the same: A major and/or post-graduation job aspiration that doesnt match the students r
8、eal interests, combined with a difficult (though not necessarily unmanageable) workload. Many students, of course, have difficult workloads. But when the hard work is motivated by a goal thats misaligned with their real interests, students can develop resentment toward the work. They begin to see th
9、e effort required to keep up with their double major or crazy activity load as an intrusion from an outside entity almost a literal attack on their happiness. Eventually a deep psychic aversion to the work develops, and they find themselves mired in deep procrastination. This might be what happened
10、to Leenas friend at Stanford. His entire life, he had been told that he was a math whiz. But at some point, he began to resent the work required to live up to other peoples expectations. Eventually, the resentment boiled over: he was through with math. 2.Overcoming procrastination: a practical appro
11、ach While it is true that everyone procrastinates, it is not true that we all do it to the same extent. An occasional postponement of a task is not a major problem. There are those, however, for whom procrastination has become a way of life, and in these cases it is serious indeed. If you think that
12、 you fall into the former category (the occasional procrastinator, that is) you should look closely to be sure that this is truly the case. The signs of procrastination are sometimes more subtle than we might expect. Do you find, for example, that you often begin correspondence with a phrase like, I
13、m sorry its taken me so long to get back to you, or, My apologies for the delay in responding? This may be an indication that youre in the habit of putting things off. Similarly, a desk or files filled with projects which you have yet to begin or which are partially completed but inactive, is anothe
14、r sure sign that theres a problem. If you are one of those people who insists on cleaning up all the little projects awaiting you, in order to remove those bothersome little things before you begin a major project, you are actually engaging in procrastination by allowing yourself to fall victim to t
15、he tyranny of the trivial. Even interruptions - a problem which is endemic in the kind of work we do - can actually be a sign of passive procrastination if they are used to provide an excuse for postponing necessary projects. In the final analysis, though, there is one sign that demonstrates more th
16、an other that procrastination is a problem, and that is that you regularly find yourself working under pressure to complete a project which youve known about for some time. 2.1Reasons for Procrastinating Like many issues involving time management, procrastination is a behavioral problem, and like al
17、l such problems it can, with sufficient motivation, be changed. In order to change a behavioral pattern, however, it is necessary to understand the reasons for that behavior. You dont procrastinate because youre a bad person, or because youre a bad librarian. There are any number of reasons why perf
18、ectly good librarians and information services managers procrastinate, and examining those reasons, and determining which of them apply to you (and which apply to staff members for whom you may have managerial responsibility) is the first step in avoiding procrastination in the future. 2.1.1Dont kno
19、w where to start If you think about it, the tasks which you tend to postpone will generally fall into two categories. The first of these is the fairly large or complex task. Such tasks are generally important in their outcome, which only adds to the pressure to do a good job, and yet their very comp
20、lexity makes it difficult to know just where or how to begin. The result is that the task is put off until it simply has to be dealt with. 2.1.2An unpleasant task The second category of task commonly postponed is that which is either unpleasant to do, or which may have unpleasant consequences. This
21、may be some aspect of your work that you simply dont enjoy (after all, we dont all like everything we do), or it may be something like a negative job appraisal for an employee, for which you know there will be repercussions. Again, the task is put off until other pressures make it necessary for it t
22、o be tackled. 2.1.3Fear of failure On a bit more psychological note, there are those who put off tasks because they have a subconscious fear that they will not be able to perform them satisfactorily. Related to this are those who hold themselves to the standard of perfection for all work they do. If they suspect that their work will be less than perfect they may be inclined to put it off.
