Don't worry, there is hope! I used to be meticulous about my work. Everything was done a week in advance (if not more). Once I hit about sophomore year, I turned into a different person. All of a sudden I couldn't get myself to do anything on time. I was late to everything and every assignment I did was usually handed in just on time, or late. I thought I was just getting lazy. I used to kid around that "senioritis" came two years too early for me. Well, truth is- it didn't. In fact, just the opposite happened. What is often disregarded when seeing procrastination in those teen years is the fact that, well, the work just gets harder- as simple as that. So I found from my own experience, and now research, that procrastination cannot just be considered "laziness". One author, David McRaney, wrote that "procrastination is fueled by weakness in the face of impulse and a failure to think about thinking".
Basically, us procrastinators stink at putting aside what we want to do and because of this, get overwhelmed rather easily. We know what we have to do, but we see it as this task that can be done better at a later time, which we find out a little too late is usually not the case. Think about it like this- how many times do you put off that huge essay worth half of your grade but do your vocab homework (that would probably take just as long) the minute it is assigned? It is much easier to do the vocab homework and be sure of our grade- be sure of our answers. This is where the "failure to think about thinking" comes in. We know, that as soon as we start thinking about a topic that doesn't come easily, we often become overwhelmed. So we push it back, and push it back, and push it back, until it's the night before and we really have no choice but to "think".
After I read all of this, I felt pretty hopeless. I know I procrastinate and I know all of this is true for me, but come on, how do I fix it? Well, to my surprise, I learned this lesson from a bunch of 5-year-olds (pretty sad that they have better time management skills than me, might I add). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Walter Mischel conducted experiments at Stanford in which he offered a bargain to children. Basically, the rules went something like this- the kids sat at a table with some treats and a bell. They could pick a pretzel, a cookie, or a giant marshmallow. They were told that they could either have the treat now or wait a few minutes, in which their payoff would be doubled and they would receive two treats. Some went for the treats after seconds and some waited a little longer.
Here's the interesting part- Michel followed these kids throughout their lives for decades (in the least creepy way possible) and found that the children that rang the bell quickly- the ones that couldn't wait- had more behavioral problems and scored an average of 210 points lower on their SATs than the children who were able to wait those 2 minutes longer. It's not that some kids were more gluttonous than the others when they were 5, it's that they were able to distract themselves. They tapped their foot, they stared at the wall, some even sang songs. They were able to trick their minds into making the wait worth it.
We have to do the same thing throughout our lives. If it doesn't come easily, we have to convince ourselves that what we have to do will make the reward greater. We have to convince our minds that writing that essay now will make going out with our friends this weekend that much more enjoyable; that waiting to have the marshmallow will leave us with two marshmallows.
Our wants and desires will never go away- however, how we deal with them can always be improved. What do you think? Do you find yourself having this problem with procrastination? Do you think distracting yourself can be a helpful method?
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/10/27/procrastination/
