Down
the Rabbit
Hole
A Website about Procrastination.
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When we procrastinate we don’t do it randomly or irrationally. We favor one task over another one. So one reason for procrastination can be found in the type of tasks we prefer. But what makes a task more pleasant than another one? If we will conquer a task or not will be decided in the middle ground of our expectation.
We have dreams of how our life should be and we have the life we lead in reality. We waste a lot of opportunities to fulfill this dream of procrastination. Shame is a crucial part of the problem. The guilt about the things that we already didn’t have done, stops us from looking at errors that led us to procrastination. We feel so ashamed about our failure that we are convinced that we don’t deserve to start. Have a better understanding of our reasons and being kind to ourselves when procrastination strikes would be a much better strategy.
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Two different environmental factors have a big impact on our decisions. One of it consists in the timing of rewards and punishments. The further away an event is temporally, the less impact it has upon people’s decisions. It is natural that we care about tasks, which have a stronger influence in the near future. So we may choose to handle these first, before we continue with a later one.
The other factor lies in the aversiveness of a task. We don’t like to do tasks, which seem to be unpleasant or connected with a big amount of work. The more aversive the situation, the more likely one is to avoid it.Beside the task-related reasons for procrastination, individual personality traits, outcomes and demographics also have an influence on our decision-making. But to explain all of that is a lot of work and still has some time.
Besides task-related reasons for procrastination, fear could also be a possible root. We are scared to not fulfill the plans that we so explicitly well laid out for ourselves. We notice that things that don’t mean anything to us have a much more carefree approach to the task. It doesn’t feel like real work. But the task that could change life into the one that we want to lead stays untouched. If we don’t start the thing we won’t get to the point where there could be a chance of humiliation and others will never find out that we are incompetent and incable of doing things. We are actually snobs of our own happiness.
Because the issue is small, we don’t consider it could make a change in our lives, so we leave it unsolved. For us the solution for our happiness lies in great gifts, life stores for us, like a happy relationship, a house, children, more money. That’s why we plan out our happiness with prestigious things and goals that have great influence on our status. In our head, the life we have to lead should be like a hero’s journey, in which we shouldn’t deal with tiny unimportant things. However we should get our hands dirty with tiny things around us that seem so unimportant.
When it comes down to making a choice, some of us handle it easily with a feeling of relief when the dice are fallen and they can move on with a project. They decided for one thing and are now stuck to it with no or less regret for the decision. However, there are also people who find it particularly difficult to make a decision. If we decide for one thing, we are not able to see what the other thing will hold for us. For this reason, some of us will never make a decision. In doing so,not making a decision is a decision. We have to live with the inevitable truth that every choice will be at some point wrong and sad.
