Procrastination
It is Monday morning and I have slept in, thanks to Thanksgiving. In
fact, it’s twelve o’clock and I am free for the afternoon. As usual, I sit in
front of the television after I clean myself up, staring endlessly at the
screen with my finger clicking on the remote. I realize that I have a draft due
on Thursday, but I justify my procrastination with reasons like: “there is still
lots of time.”
Life is faster now, and people in the 00’s are supposed to organize and
plan in order to keep up; however, it seems to me that more people are
procrastinating than ever before.
When I ask people why they procrastinate, they
often supply reasons like: this task won’t take me a long time; the pressure
makes me to work more efficiently; there were emergencies; and there were other
important things. Some of these reasons sounds legitimate, but I think these
reasons are just excuses for people’s fear of failure, fear of lost security,
and need for pressure.
Back high school, I had a friend, Eric, who dropped out of school
because of bad grades. As his friend, I knew he was doing fine until the period
of final exams. He was a smart and responsible person which laziness is not a
factor of his bad grades. Eric could not pick up the books soon enough before
the exam because he was afraid of failure.
Since Eric’s older brothers had
achieved excellence academic records and great careers, Eric’ parents expected
him to follow his brothers’ foot step. As the result, Eric was afraid to try
because he feared to fail his parents’ expectation. When he realized the problem,
it was too late.
It is two o’clock in the morning. The computer is on, the coffee maker
is cooking, and I am under a lot of stress. “There isn’t a lot of time left,” I
keep telling my self as I watch the blank piece of paper in front of me.
“I know
I can do it,” I keep encouraging my self while my mind generates zero ideas for
my essay: which is due six hours from now.
Everyone I know procrastinates, my friends, relatives, even people in
government. Back in Taipei, the Mayor, Mayor Chen, delayed getting rid of gangs
in the city.
“I am going to issue a policy that will eventually stop gangs from
spreading in our community,” promised Mayor Chen of Taipei during his election
campaign. Mayor Chen won the election, but he didn*t do anything about the gangs
for three years. He was afraid of success.
If he got rid of the gangs, he would
hurt the economy and if he hurt the economy, he would lose his job. Finally,
pressure made him act.
“Mayor Chen’s dragnet operation has l successfully disintegrate Taiwan’s
sinister gangs’ infiltration into Taiwan’s economy,” and “The successful
dragnet operation will secure the Mayor Chen’s percentage of votes in the next
month’s election,” are the headlines in recent newspapers.
This is a situation where I just start writing my term paper six hours
before the date line. I was given two weeks time to complete the essay, but I
could not put my mind on the assignment until I felt the stress from the time
limitation pressure. I do have spare time and thoughts of writing the essay
within the two weeks; however, the my tendency laziness won battle over the my
sense of responsibility.
I need pressure to get me working.
No matter what anyone is or what anyone does, every now and then he will
procrastinate. Procrastination is a tendency that substantially exists in the
human nature. People can always fight procrastination with consistency or sense
of responsibility but they will never win the battle. .
