How
cluttered is your desktop – as we open our laptop at work every day, the first
thought that occurs is to clean – but perhaps that never happens for most ! –
in our school way back in 1979, (we had some boys from CBSE joining +2 for
scoring higher marks in +2 in State board) – a boy got up in classroom and said
loudly ‘procrastination is the thief of time’ (.. துரை,
இங்கிலீஸெல்லாம் பேசுது மொமெண்ட் !! )
Most of us do it routinely
- procrastinate from time to time. Sometimes it’s those mundane things - like
sorting through old files, reconciling accounts, or tidying the cupboard. But
often it’s the bigger things that require more time, more commitment, and put
us at more risk of failing, looking foolish or feeling emotionally
bruised.
sleeping lion - pic credit : Australian geographic
Procrastination (from
Latin's "procrastinare", that translates as: the prefix pro-,
'forward', with -crastinus, 'till next day' from "cras", 'tomorrow')
is the avoidance of completing a task that needs to be accomplished. Sometimes,
a procrastinator may defer undertaking this task until immediately prior to its
deadline. Procrastination can exert influence on any aspect of life – it may
lead to feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression, and self-doubt, which may be
attributed to procrastination's hindering effect on productivity.
Though it could be stated
that everyone puts things off until the last minute sometimes, procrastinators
chronically avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions.
Procrastination in large part reflects our perennial struggle with self-control
as well as our inability to accurately predict how we'll feel tomorrow, or the
next day. "I don't feel like it" takes precedence over goals;
however, it then begets a downward spiral of negative emotions that deter
future effort. Procrastinators may say they perform better under pressure, but
more often than not that's their way of justifying putting things off. The bright side? Perfectionists are often procrastinators;
it is psychologically more acceptable to never tackle a task than to face the
possibility of falling short on performance.
In every office, in every
workplace, we find sorts of self-serving
excuses, so common that psychologists have coined a name for the practice. They
call it self-handicapping. Think of self-handicapping as a strategy of
intentionally sabotaging your own efforts. Why would anyone be so self-defeating?
Because erecting your own barriers to success offers protection from the
ego-crushing consequences of failure. When I postpone work on a project that I
fear is beyond my capabilities, I am creating an obstacle that I can point to
as the reason for flopping. It’s not that I’m too incompetent to succeed. It’s
just that I waited until the last minute; I didn’t give it my best shot. “The
chronic procrastinator would rather have other people think he lacks effort
than that he lacks ability,” the procrastination researcher Joe Ferrari of
DePaul University told.
Now read what
procrastination can do .. from this post in Huffington Post. Surviving on Earth may not need to be the
strongest. Laziness may well be an equally important benefit. Researchers have
indeed established a direct link between the amount of energy spent on a
species' daily life and its probability of extinction.
This study, published in
the journal Proceedings Royal Society B , looked at the evolution of 299
species of molluscs, Pliocene (there are 5 million years) to the present day.
The geographical area of the survey is focused on the Atlantic Ocean, "a
region that has experienced significant fluctuations in its climate and ambient
temperatures, disturbances that have hitherto been related to the death of
species", justify Researchers.
They set their criterion
of analysis on the basic metabolic rate, that is to say the energetic
expenditure necessary to live. And their conclusion is uplifting: "The
values of the metabolic rate are higher for the extinct species". This
means that the more energy a species spends, the lower its chances of survival.
A slow way of life turns out to be an asset in the great march of evolution. The
study specifies that this criterion can in no way be considered as the only one
to come into play, but that its role is largely "significant". But
laziness can also turn into peril
Bruce Lieberman, one of
the authors of the survey, has some ideas on the reasons that might justify
such a role of slowness in evolution. In the British newspaper The Guardian ,
he explains that the most lethargic and lazy beings "had lower energy or
food requirements and could therefore be content with little when times were
bad".
But that
procrastinators do not rejoice too quickly, it should not be inferred that
being lazy is a benefit in all circumstances. As the researchers themselves
indicate, the framework of this study is limited in space and time, so in
scope. Samples are for molluscs only, and limited to the Atlantic Ocean. Moreover,
a duration of 5 million years represents little evolutionary scale. Lieberman
also tells the Guardian that "lazy people are sometimes the ones who
consume the most resources." "The laziness of
mankind, when it comes to trying to stop the changes we are causing on the
planet, may be the greatest danger that our own species faces," he adds.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
24th Aug 2018.
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