By April Joie T. Cunanan,  Office Clerk, Division Office

Have you ever experienced delaying a task because you thought you can finish it
immediately? Do you tend to prioritize the tasks that make you feel happy and comfortable
than the tasks which are more important? Well, if your answer is “yes”, you might be a
person who procrastinates.
Procrastination is an act where you postpone doing a task even there is a consequence of
doing such (Wikipedia). Commonly mistaken as a synonym for laziness – a state in which
you are unwilling to work (Oxford Dictionary), procrastination is an act of putting a task until
the last minute or after a deadline (Cherry, 2020). This means that it is an act that one does
the task but purposely delaying.
They do this when they do not “feel” doing a scheduled task at the moment. The causes of
procrastination can be rooted to overestimation of time, foreseeing their motivation in the
future and confidence in completing the queued task (Cherry, 2020). It is unlike to root it to
demotivation, but to misconception, overconfidence, and miscalculation.
Usually, procrastinators are those people who do their work during the last minutes before the
deadline. They believe that this is the perfect time where the flow of thought and motivation
run through their veins thus finishing their tasks. However, this can cause erroneous outputs
because their submitted works are usually not checked or reread.
When someone does this, motivation to do better fades; instead, this is replaced by mere
compliance – that feeling “I have to finish this so that I can relax later” instead of looking
further and seeing the long-term benefits of doing faster and better.
Procrastination is also rooted to too much stress, seeing tasks as a burden and does not have
any significance at all because they believe that all of these are just part of life for them to
make a day.
There are ways that you can ease procrastination. First, you have to organize your tasks.
Organization of tasks helps us see which are more important, and complex. With this, you
can know what to prioritize and what task should be done in a time where you are on your
peak. You can you use a notepad or a journal for this.
Distractors should be removed and controlled during the time of our work. Social media and
tasks that are not really in our list for the day (e.g. suddenly cleaning the house, cutting your
nails) should be set aside and be placed on the latter part of the day. A sudden shift of focus
loses our momentum to finish a task. This happens when our phone rings or our laptop lags.
This tend us do other unnecessary things.
Lastly, set a reward for yourself. Well, a part of your salary should be allotted to
incentivizing your work. Try to treat yourself with some food or a new clothe. This can
refocus your perception of “happiness” and “fun” to rewards instead of avoiding the task and
staying relaxed.
Procrastination is commonly mistaken as laziness. Laziness is the unwillingness to do work
while procrastination is a misaligned thought about doing the work.

Try to reform your thoughts and see the long-term benefits of doing quality and efficient
work.