Essay On Procrastination

What are the problems of delaying tasks and the effects of positive psychology on procrastination?

I. Introduction

Tim Urban said in his Ted Talk “everyone is procrastinating on something in life”. Even if you think you are not a procrastinator, there is a possibility that you still delay something without knowing it. Let’s start by considering the facts.

II. Procrastination

Dictionary meaning of procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something. Procrastinator are trying to avoid responsibilities they have by searching for distractions. Because of the fake procrastinators people think that delaying is just laziness or ignorance. Tim Urban in his article claims that “procrastination isn’t optional—it’s something they don’t

In order to understand this idea Urban drew two brains where one is controlled by procrastination. Everybody has in their brain Rational Decision-Maker who makes rational decisions. When he is the one in charge then everything is under control. However, procrastinator also has someone called Instant Gratification Money. If this monkey overcome the Rational Decision-Maker we are in a big trouble. “The fact is, the Instant Gratification Monkey is the last creature who should be in charge of decisions—he thinks only about the present, ignoring lessons from the past and disregarding the future altogether” explains Urban. With this Monkey controlling us we can never make things done. We can´t focus on important matters in our live. Fortunately, Monkey is afraid of something. It is called The Panic Monster. Eventually this creature comes to save us every time when we are close to deadline or we are facing some scary consequence caused by delaying. The Panic Monster scares away Monkey so that Rational Decision-Maker can save the day. That’s how procrastinators mind

“If you work hard, you will become successful, and ones you become successful, then you´ll be happy.” claims Shawn Achor. Due to this thinking we are unable to reach for happiness most of the time. We are seeking for appreciation from people above us. Although satisfaction will never last long. There is always something more we can do and that’s how Achor explained “happiness gets pushed over the horizon.” Scientific studies confirmed that “positive brains make us more motivated, efficient, resilient, creative, and productive, which drives performance upward.” In other words, happiness can improve our work.

D. Stress as a challenge

We should not see stress as bad thing but instead as challenge. Stress is always a part of work process despite our effort to be as relaxed as possible. However, everyone is controlled by stress differently. Achor states that “in today’s world, we ironically sacrifice happiness for success only to lower our brains’ success rates. Our hard-driving lives leave us feeling stressed, and we feel swamped by the mounting pressure to succeed at any cost.” This thinking could be the reason why we usually postpone things and why we are therefore so unhappy.

E. Positive in