Title: What is Procrastination? 1

Workshop number six: What is procrastination?

Ricardo Paulo Javier Arieu

Universidad Metropolitana

August 10, 2014

Facilitator: WALDEMAR RIVERA RAMOS

QYLE110-0

Title: What is Procrastination? 2

What is procrastination?

The millionaires are people who aren’t habitually procrastinators. They are very

productive people, accustomed to made money. Also, when a person starts to do any work or

activity, he needs the ambition to want to finish it. Also, procrastination is the story of never to

start to do it activities. Procrastination is the habit of delaying indefinitely the start of tasks.

William James, one of the founders of modern psychology, said that procrastination “is a

killer of opportunity” (Ayala, 10-01-2012). Elsa Punset, a writer and Spanish philosopher, says

“is the fault of the brain: it refuses to start anything”. Also, “is the habit of constantly delaying

the time to start doing things” (Elsa Punset, 07-06-2011). Jermaine M. Davis a College

Orientation Speaker (MA in Speech Communication and MA in Education), says in a YouTube

video, about a research that “90% college students procrastinate; it’s responsible for robbing

millions of people's dreams and goals” (Standoutleadership). The difficult tasks or conflicting

decisions are never welcome for today and for this time. Students like enjoyable, fun and easy

tasks, without those that are postponing or defering an action to a later time. It may be that task

that brings us a positive impact and important change that we desire in our lives (Ayala, 10-01-

2012). To postpone, sometimes tends to be more seductive to say then I do it, that put hands to

work. Is not a text in the Bible like ‘he who works at early in the morning, God helps him’; but

in the wisdom of the book of Proverbs, the willingness to work hard and make our best effort in

any task is a vital part of a healthy life (Prov. 10:40; 12:24; 13:4; 21:5 KJV).

The etymology of procrastination is as follows: “Pro: in favor of; and crastination: Latin

crastinare: day after, tomorrow. Procrastination: be in favor of tomorrow” (Ayala, 10-01-2012).

In general, a person gives many turns before commencing their activities. It's like a soft feeling

Title: What is Procrastination? 3

of laziness that overwhelms the minds. It means to leave a topic for the next day, postpone,

because it’s associated with laziness, etc. (Ruiz, 03-17-2014). Jermaine M. Davis says that “70%

of the excuses college students use are lies“(Standoutleadership). This reports a poor college

student’s ethic. Surely, the quality of the honest person is a great value, but if it must still inside

their self when they are still young. Also, it would be difficult to get it in the adult world. Why

did they do that? Perhaps, they didn’t have a kind of guilt, but, excessively delay a task or

project; it acquires a few shameful dyes that we wish to avoid at all costs. This shows that a

greater commitment from students is required. In addition, it’s possible to say that it’s that ability

to defer the obligations, to do other things. It is the postponement of essential activities.

This habit is accompanied sometimes by a rare sense of anxiety generated before

completing tasks. The act of postponing is generally perceived as a task to fulfill that appears as

difficult, tedium or boring, in other words, stressful. For this reason, they justify postponing it to

do it later or postpone it indefinitely (Euskampus, n.d.). It’s like the illustrative and

aforementioned child short story of a bird called “Pájaro Pico”, who always had an excuse to do

what they should do: "fly for the first time” (Carrasco, 07-01-2014). So, it can define

procrastination as the opposite to 'do things' [Getting Things Done] (Pablo, 08-22-2012). Surely,

it is always possible to find an excuse to delay the obligations to fulfill. In Pájaro Pico story,

Angela Carrasco Gil tells that all the friends of the bird had already flown their first time but on

the other hand, Pájaro Pico always had a reason to delay the task start to fly. He didn’t want to

fly. The bird was busy thinking about the dangers of begin to fly (Carrasco, 07-01-2014). In the

same way, some students could be busy delaying their activities because the procrastination is a

problem of “self-regulation and organization time;” who postpones a decision is presenting “an

evasive behavior” (Euskampus, n.d.). Is interesting a ‘Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Title: What is Procrastination? 4

[MIT]’ study that it says that the ‘coffee break’ may increase job performance by 8%. The reason

is more at rest and the relationship with colleagues that generates motivation and socialization

producing confidence and greater productivity increases (Pakus, 02-20-2014). The students

needs to remember the same principle: To avoid the stress of the study and tempted to suspend

obligations to then delay the resumption of the activities of study, recommended a short break;

every 2 or 3 hours of study, we must establish short breaks to relax and renew the forces of will

for the next round (perhaps 5 minutes approximately). Other-wise, the accumulation of fatigue

significantly decreases his level of performance and may cause procrastination. Maybe has to

leave the room and stretch your legs a bit (AulaFacil, 2009). This attitude perhaps helps the

prevention of being bored.

Procrastination is the murderer of the dreams of our future successes. It is a problem of

self-regulation and organization of the time, which was postponed indefinitely. This habit is

sometimes accompanied by a rare sense of anxiety generated prior to completing tasks. A

behavioral research has shown that 90% of the College and High University students committed

this evil habit. And 70% of the University excuses are lies. The millenaries are working full time

in pursuit of their objectives who love what they do, and dreaming to see its objectives fulfilled.

Procrastination is a noxious, harmful and pernicious habit and every student must say not

to practice it. It’s a habit that most people have in them. And it can be watched every day with all

those important, decisive, conflicting tasks that gives fear it or laziness begins to do it. We need

to remember that time is running out and it never comes back. We can’t lose life’s opportunities

because its help us to commit our dreams and is important to remember to pay attention to the

tips: Would not lose sight of the dreams and not postpone or delay unnecessarily our school

obligations. Comply with them and once we finish them, rest with conscience.

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Table of Tips

Solve your issues at the time.

Immediate response is something that attracts others, because most used to do

things later.

Everything you don’t do now, you' will have to do later.

If you wait, you bagged that you have to do and that, furthermore, you cannot

forget to do so.

If you really you can’t do it immediately, put it in your diary, and says date and

time.

Restructuring your life so that you can respond immediately.

Table n. 1

Title: What is Procrastination? 6

References

AulaFacil. Técnicas de Estudio. Curso gratis de Técnicas de Estudio - Descanso. Lection 20.

AulaFacil S.L. - © 2009. Madrid. España Retrieved from

http://www.aulafacil.com/cursos/l9317/autoayuda/autoayuda/tecnicas-de-estudio/

descanso

Ayala, Isabel González. Deja de procrastinar. (10-01-2012). Retrieved from

http://queaprendemoshoy.com/deja-de-procrastinar/

Carrasco Gil, Ángela. Mañana: O el arte de procrastinar. (07-01-2014). Ephemera. Retrieved

from Google Books.

Elsa Punset. Procrastinar, retrasar, el momento de hacer las cosas (Elsa Punset, El

Hormiguero). Elsa Punset Recopilatorios. (07-06-2011). Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zP2oiMAqaQ

Euskampus. Yo procrastino, tú procrastinas. (n.d.).Universidad Del País Vasco. Retrieved from

http://www.ehu.es/documents/2632144/2634184/Yo+procrastino.pdf

Lirio, Ignacio.”¡Me da vergüenza retomar ESE Proyecto!" (05-07-2014). Copyright © 2014

Procrastinacion.org. Retrieved from http://procrastinacion.org/

Roth, J.D. Five Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires. (01-16-2008) (Modified on – 10-14-2009).

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Recover from http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/01/16/five-secrets-of-self-made-

millionaires/

Standoutleadership. Jermaine M. Davis - College Orientation Speaker and Author –

Procrastination. Recover from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQqtEM-Qcb8

Pablo. ¿Qué es procrastinar? (08-22-2012). Retrieved from

http://jomofis.com/que-es-procrastinar/

Pakus. La importancia de la pausa del café o coffee break. (02-20-2014). www.philips.es/c .

Retrieved from http://mimundo.philips.es/la-pausa-del-cafe-o-coffee-break/

Ruiz de Rivas, Telmo. ¿Se dice procrastinar o 'procastinar'? ¿Qué es? La capacidad de aplazar

las obligaciones, para hacer otras cosas... (03-17-2014). Retrieved from

http://www.estandarte.com/noticias/idioma-espanol/procrastinar-aplazar-actividades-por-

otras-no-procastinar_1222.html

Table n. 1

Euskampus. Yo procrastino, tú procrastinas. (n.d.).Universidad Del País Vasco. Retrieved from

http://www.ehu.es/documents/2632144/2634184/Yo+procrastino.pdf