By Saumya Tiwari
Precrastinator, are you?
Completing assignments on the last day, studying for exam by burning midnight oil, and putting other similar things aside only to be done at the last minute – admit it, most of us are pros at all these.
Every time we end up in that dreadful situation, we ‘decide’ to complete the next task as soon as assigned. Now, where most of us fail to accomplish this every single time, there are some who can’t help but do it.
The Brigade of Precratinators
Quoting a recent study published in Psychological Science, Pennsylvania State, precrastination is “the tendency to complete, or at least begin, tasks as soon as possible, even at the expense of extra physical effort.”
While this might give you hope that you can be saved from the last minute jugaad, precrastination has actually been categorized as a psychological disorder. Feeling the same relief now?
According to psychologists, precrastination is another form of hyper anxiety. Replying to your emails right away, working on a presentation as soon as assigned (if the deadline’s months away), parking your vehicle on the first empty spot you find (no matter how far you end up walking), all these are telltale signs of precrastination.
Which is better? Oops! More endurable?
Precrastination looks good because unlike procrastination, it doesn’t feel wrong. It feels like the solution to procrastination – lifts up the burden of the work occupying our head, gives us a feeling that we’ve done something useful and gives us plenty of time to make mistakes and correct them within the deadline.
On the other hand, procrastination lets you remain stress free for most of the time, helps you invent the tricks do the smart work and stops you from doing fatuous things in name of doing productive work.
So it actually depends on you and which one you’d like to experience. Precrastination or procrastination? Or none? Let’s get to that.
The correct way
Let’s try to balance these two.
1. Don’t keep things to be done at the last moment, but don’t let that possibility of last-minute panic cause you to do small tasks for the mere feeling of completion. Judiciously divide your tasks further and complete them one by one.
2. Measure twice, cut once. Don’t jump into making decisions that might give you a hard time later on. Things which require time must be provided with adequate amount of time.
3. If you have a tendency to go into the panic mode and work like a freak, calm yourself down. Create a task list beforehand and stick to that.
Whether these disorders depend on us or the era we live in, one cannot say. Looking at the rat race we all are a part of, precrastination seems justified. But now that we know it’s more of fooling oneself, we must learn to work smartly by combining best of both worlds. In the end, it is about completing the work in the best way possible while maintaining your cool.
Other Recommendations:
http://edtimes.in/2016/05/a-peek-into-the-mind-of-a-procrastinator/
Can i please get references of the psychological study you are referring ti here?