Let's face it, we all put things off until the last minute from time to time. But if you happen to consistently avoid completing what needs to be done, I'm sorry to say that you suffer from procrastination. Now don't get me wrong, I've learned to embrace my inner procrastinator and all the qualities that come along with being one, but that's not to say that we procrastinators don't have bad habits.
1. You always start something and never finish
Let's face it procrastinators, to make ourselves feel better, we always say we're going to be productive and finish things in advance so we don't have to worry about them later. But deep down in our hearts we know that that is the biggest lie known to man.
2. You will do just about anything to avoid doing homework
Cleaning our rooms, doing laundry, washing the dishes, organizing unnecessary things, counting the tiles on your ceiling--when you really don't want to do something, doing just about anything besides what needs to be done can sound like a great idea.
3. You normally don't worry about things until you need to
If you suffer from procrastination, odds are you push a certain assignment all the way to the back of your mind and pretend as if it doesn't exist. If your paper is due Sunday night, you will most likely pretend as if you don't have a paper due until Sunday, when it becomes a reality and you're finally forced to worry about it. This makes scheduling Friday and Saturday night plans a lot easier; by pretending as if the assignment doesn't exist until Sunday, we make ourselves feel a little less guilty for not doing it in advance.
4. You give yourself breaks every couple of minutes
Procrastinators usually only get things done if they have some sort of incentive. That incentive can include anything ranging from candy to naps to "just a couple of minutes on social media" which is likely to turn into an hour. But nevertheless, anything helps to get us started, now finishing is the problem.
5. You tend to work better under pressure
As procrastinators, we often put ourselves in a position in which we are forced to work under a constricted frame to get things done. Therefore, we learn to adapt to working under pressure, and if you're anything like myself, your best ideas will naturally come when you're forced to think quickly. So I guess we could apply this idea of working well under pressure to good old Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution: working well under pressure is a natural trait that has evolved for procrastinators over time. See, even procrastinators are forced to adapt to their surroundings, or should I say, bad habits.
6. You're easily distracted by anything and everything
For some reason, we procrastinators simply cannot focus for long periods of time. All of a sudden, when it's finally time to do that thing you've been pushing aside all week, that's when you realize a new series came out on Netflix, or you decide that now is the best time to Face-time your best friend. And if you are like me, your assignment will be open on one tab on your laptop, with every type of social media possible open on the other tabs. Distractions, distractions--do we blame our own procrastinating-selves or technology?
And yes, just in case you're wondering, I did procrastinate in writing this article.
