Myths About Procrastination: Too Many Distractions

There's no doubt that the modern world is a fantastic place to do a lot of stuff while not doing anything. For this, a mobile device or a computer will do perfectly, thanks to the fact that any of these can provide a person with an almost infinite amount of information and entertainment.

But, the thing that scares most people is not the amount of information that is readily available, but the fact that most of us spend so much time on things that don’t really interests us, like watching random YouTube clips, Wikihopping or surfing the feeds and timelines of social media. All these things have in common the fact that we consume their content but not because we tend to do it in a premeditated manner, but more by stumbling upon them, usually when we have something else to do.

Procrastination is tightly connected with these behaviors and people tend to realize they procrastinate during periods like the ones mentioned before. However, from a psychological perspective, this notion could be explained as a need to allocate responsibility for an unwanted behavior to the outside environment, not the person who is experiencing it. This broader phenomenon is known as the Locus of Control and it is often seen in many domains of human activity, including procrastination. Because of this, many people who also have access to YouTube, Wikipedia and cat pictures still do not procrastinate, in spite of all of these distractions. Simply put, procrastination comes from the inside, not the outside.

Because of this, the problem of too many distractions can definitely be labelled a procrastination myth. From more information on how toresolve procrastination take a look at this eBook.

The Mental Birthplace of Procrastination

Using Psychology To Stop Procrastinating is an eBook dedicated to the issue of understanding and resolving procrastination with the help of psychology. Here's an excerpt from it which showcases who the mind of a young human individual discovers this phenomena and what is the mental and emotional context in which it is usually created.

Procrastination and the fallacy of the "Why" Issue

Copyright: JD

An article IOL recently explored procrastination from many different perspectives, including the now already famous Tim Urban’s Ted speech (the owner of the blog Wait But Why) about this issue. Inside of it, many several interesting ideas are presented, including the key notion which states:

“Interestingly, research suggests that one of the most effective things that procrastinators can do is to forgive themselves for procrastinating. In a study by Pychyl and others, students who reported forgiving themselves for procrastinating on studying for a first exam ended up procrastinating less for a second exam.”

Here, the essential aspect of procrastinating is presented, exceedingly similar to the basic premise of my eBook Using Psychology to Stop Procrastinating. But, at the same time, this is also the spot where the paradoxical nature of the entire article (and general public attitude to procrastination) is shown – from the first moment, right in the title, the article begins its quest for the answered on the “why do some people procrastinate” issue, which is a faulty starting point.

The Motivational Slump of the Senior Year in High School

Olivia Herzog via Statesman.com

High school is in many ways about chores and tasks that need to be completed. However, during the senior year, this dynamic changes because for most students, the end of this phase of their lives is on the horizon, and many are preparing mentally and emotionally for the next one, whatever it might entail.

This cognitive space is the ideal breeding ground for putting things off and generally procrastinating, which is something that many seniors experience. Olivia Herzog, a Bastrop High School senior wrote and interesting piece about the same phenomena and how she experiences it in her final year of high school.

This makes for an engaging read on procrastination in this pivotal moment in a person's life, but also gives a glimpse how the same process might linger on and continue to provide some difficulties in later phases as well.

Read the full Herzog article called Senior meets world: Procrastination is inevitable senior year.

Psychology and Procrastination

Copyright by Vic

Procrastination represents a phenomenon of avoiding tasks that should be accomplished in the immediate future and instead focusing on more pleasurable and interesting things. At the same time, procrastination is more complex than that basic idea which is why it also covers things like putting off obligations, doing less urgent things than the more urgent one and so on.

Essentially, it represents a process of not doing things that the person deems important without any real obstacle that is stopping them. Today, it seems that procrastination is becoming a widespread issue, especially among the young professionals, Millennials, and the subsequent generations. Here, the same phenomenon is becoming a problem that many see as the number 1. thing that is holding them back in their professional life, but also in other domains.

This blog will focus on the crucial connection between the process of procrastination and the emotional context in which it develops and manifests itself. The idea is that through understanding what procrastination is from a psychological perspective, it can be overcome. At the same time, if you desire a detailed look at psychology of procrastination check out this eBook.