Procrastination: A Hindrance to Success

“Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill”

- Cristopher Parker

From the above quote we can have a basic idea of what procrastination is. It means to put off the doing of something intentionally or habitually. For a clear idea let’s say you have to submit an assignment of a course by the end of the month. Since you have 30 days left, you start delaying the task by saying, “I have enough time in hand. I will be able to complete it even if it starts 2 days before the deadline”. Whereas you don’t even know what you would have to do regarding that task. You might need to collect data which will take time, there might be other tasks from other courses added in the meantime. When the deadline is near, you are filled up with a lot of tasks in hand. Now we can relate to the quote from Cristopher Parker. When the task was given, you were putting off the task and passed the time chilling and doing nothing productive maybe. When you get close to the deadline, it causes a lot of stress and tasks are not finished properly and output is bad. 

Most of the time people procrastinate intentionally; knowing that they need to start doing the task right then but they just pass their time randomly being lazy, laying around, doing unproductive stuff. They feel so bad about themselves when they procrastinate because of this self-awareness. Not only are we conscious that we are putting off the task at hand, but they also know that putting it off is usually a terrible idea when we procrastinate. Still, they carry it out. 

A lot of research has been done on procrastination, and it has been a major topic of study in the field of psychology. Both adults and younger people are likely to put off task. Most people have probably procrastinated at least once in their lives. Now-a-days there are a lot of distractions which influence a person to procrastinate more.

A survey analyzing the study habits of 1,500 undergraduate students found that:

• 74% admitted that internet distractions fueled their procrastination,

• 64% admitted to losing their train of thought after responding to a social media alert while studying,

• 14% identified television as the cause of their distractions.

Now let me tell you my experience about procrastination. I am talking about January-May of this year. That time was the so-called ‘Admission Phase’ of the HSC passed students of 2022. As a Bangladeshi student, there is a pressure on every student to get admitted to a public university. Around 3 lac students apply for  51 thousand public university seats. So its a huge competition and students give their best try for this. I also wished to get into Dhaka University, mainly because of the campus and ambience. SO for that I had to study a lot considering the competition. But I wasted around 2 months just chilling around thinking, “I just finished my HSC, I need to take some rest”. That thought cost me 2 months. And thus I was way behind others. I struggled a lot to complete the syllabus in just 1 month before the DU exam. But obviously I didn’t got my desired result. Some of my friends got into their desired universities who were not much brighter students than me till HSC but they gave their best for the admission test. Even though I got selected in KUET, JU but not in my preferred subject. So the thing i want to say is that, only because of procrastination I didn’t got my desired result. 

Through research some scientific methods are made so overcome procrastination and grow focus like- 

1. Feyman Technique- A technique to study and have a clear concept of anything. One needs to select a topic then teach others, and then review, summarize and create flashcards to reinforce your understanding of the material.

2. Pomodoro Technique- In this technique one needs to divide tasks with an interval of time where one will focus for 25 minutes and take a break for 5 minutes. Continuing this process for 3 times takes a long break for 20 minutes then follows the same process again.

3. To grow focus one needs to remove all distractions before starting a task.

4. One needs to avoid multitasking. Thus focus won't be divided and tasks will be completed serially.

5. Try doing exercises in free time or breaks. Thus it will help to get more focused.
   

Even after all the techniques, it's all in the willpower of a person. If he/she really wants to complete a task timely, he/she will be able to do it. To succeed in life, one needs to have a strong focus on doing jobs and be punctual.