A cultural product: where procrastination comes from and what to do about it
Procrastination is a topic on which a lot has been written today. One of the key thoughts: we start to procrastinate when we are faced with some kind of internal contradictions: “I want to rest, but I force myself to work”, “I convince myself that I need to do it, but I don ' t believe in it "," I do it at someone else's request, although I it is not necessary "," I want to complete the task, but I am afraid of failure ", etc. But what if we consider procrastination not only as a psychological, but also as a cultural phenomenon? We are sorting out together with the psychologist Maria Lyakhova-Tragel what contradictory attitudes are dictated to us by modern culture, how the simultaneous coexistence of the cult of achievement and pleasure,
"Like a squirrel in a wheel", "crush water in a mortar" - these sayings describe feverish activity that does not bring results. In the 21st century, a special name is used for it, procrastination.
The intricate word comes from the Latin root "tomorrow". The procrastinator imagines how he will do things and postpones them endlessly. Procrastination makes you “bury yourself” in individual tasks, lose focus on the result, and reduce productivity.
Distinguish between procrastination and laziness: the procrastinator can (and even tends) to be eminently active. Only this activity is aimed at resisting change and creating a new one. Let's define that laziness is a complete rejection of activity, procrastination is its replacement with another, with less efficiency. If laziness works as a defense mechanism against overexertion and ultimately helps to rest, the procrastinator does not work at full strength and does not fully rest, which in the long term reduces productivity even more.
Procrastination is explained in terms of biased activity, which has also been described in animals. When the animal cannot get out of an unpleasant situation or is torn between tasks, the activity shifts towards activities that are useless in this case. For example, hamsters are annoyed by the vibration of the cage, but they cannot get out of it, and as a result, they begin to wash. In this case, they fail to direct energy in a constructive direction, it remains to drain it in a non-constructive direction.
Human life is more complex than that of a hamster, so the situations that cause us to procrastinate are even more varied. What they have in common is internal contradictions that create barriers to the direction of energy.
- I want to rest, but I force myself to work.
- I convince myself what needs to be done, but I do not believe in it.
- I do it at someone else's request, although I don't need it.
- I want to complete the task, but I'm afraid of failure.
Next, we will consider procrastination from the point of view of cultural psychological analysis. It assumes the interaction of psychology with other sciences, such as history and cultural studies, and offers a number of methods: hermeneutic, approximation, the method of ideal models, etc. 0. They will help to look at the problem of procrastination more broadly, as a cultural phenomenon.
Modern culture is comparable to the legend of the Tower of Babel. Everything is confused: world religions and philosophical movements, beliefs of different generations and national traditions. This confusion took place in a relatively short period of time, XX and XXI centuries. One discourse of them has not been formed, so the current cultural background resembles a patchwork quilt, and if you make a darker comparison, the monster of Frankenstein. It is noteworthy that Mary Shelley's novel was published in the 19th century and turned out to be prophetic in terms of this cultural mixture.
The “joints” of different elements reveal the dissimilarity of cultural paradigms. When a person uncritically perceives this dissimilarity, he takes on faith views of the world that contradict each other. Here, the features of postmodernism are discerned, where disharmonious combinations and equality of heterogeneous elements are in the order of things. Such a perception causes internal contradictions, which the person himself is not always aware of, but is faced with their consequences.
As we found out above, procrastination is a marker of internal contradictions, and then we will consider what elements of culture make us not at ease with ourselves.
A culture of achievement versus a culture of enjoyment
It is believed that the desire for large-scale achievements appeared in our country during the Soviet era. The industrial era, in which the Soviet Union emerged, was characterized by a desire for large forms and a disregard for human proportions. Examples of this are the planned economy and the Stakhanov movement. But the cult of achievement was born much earlier. The drive for success is characteristic of the Protestant culture that influenced the United States and can be traced back to antiquity. It is illustrated by the expressions “I came, I saw, I conquered” and “Faster, higher, stronger”.
At the same time, the absence of one ideology means the absence of uniform parameters of success. What is considered an indicator of achievement today? Leadership position, family, travel, real estate abroad? There are many criteria, and none will be universally accepted. Acceptance of a culture of achievement in a vague interpretation is disorienting. A person who does not understand what indicators to look up to risks getting bogged down in procrastination.
On the other hand, the pursuit of pleasure has spread. It can be traced in the calls to find a job to your liking, enjoy travel, things, food, live here and now. The work of consumer culture partly explains these calls. Advertising uses the human pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain to generate desire to buy. At the same time, the culture of pleasure is not only a tool to stimulate consumption. It took root in the public consciousness much earlier. Hedonism as a philosophy proclaims the highest value of pleasure and has been known since ancient times.
Humanistic psychology - motivation as a striving to satisfy needs, and Buddhism - freedom from suffering, life here and now also took part in the formation of a culture of pleasure. Note that in the original version, these disciplines do not call for a blind pursuit of pleasure.
As an example, consider a person who takes on a job with full dedication. He makes a lot of effort and does not rest until he has achieved a result. When the result is achieved, fatigue sets in. Even if a person has replenished his strength, memories of hard work evoke a desire to avoid suffering and replace it with pleasures. As a result, he indulges in laziness or "buries himself" in insignificant matters in order to delay the solution of the next difficult problem. At the level of behavior, the problem looks like an inability to comfortably organize work. At a deeper level of motives, the desire for achievement and the desire for pleasure conflict.
So, both the culture of achievement and the culture of pleasure are rooted in the history of mankind and in the life of the individual. The intersection of these views of the world can cause internal contradictions and disorientation. Give in to temptation or sacrifice it for future success? The problem of answering this question lugs procrastination into a quagmire and threatens to deprive a person of both values: pleasure and achievement.
A culture of rationalism and disregard for feelings
The tradition of separating reason, emotions and intuition began again with ancient philosophy and was strengthened in the era of the Enlightenment. The culture of rationalism pushed the intensive development of science, and it became the basis for today's achievements of civilization. Our life depends on scientific and technological progress, therefore rationalism still evokes interest and respect.
In some cases, the pursuit of rational thinking turns into devaluation. It occurs when the humanities are ranked below natural sciences, art is neglected, emotional life and intuitive decisions are denied.
Moreover, as is known from the works of Freud and his followers, human behavior cannot be explained solely by rational motivation. Mental life includes a rational and an irrational part. Devaluation of any of them violates the integrity of the psyche and leads to internal conflict. As we can see in the analysis of approaches to time management, procrastination indicates a conflict between the rational and the irrational.
“Rational and irrational act as partners in creating something new. On the other hand, the mind becomes a jailer and seeks to keep the irrational part of the psyche in a clear structure of plans and time constraints."
Resistance to this process takes the form of laziness and procrastination.
Consider the fear of failure in the context of procrastination. This fear sometimes points to past unpleasant experiences, and sometimes to risks in the current case. In any case, he warns of possible obstacles. The culture of rationalism, in the form of devaluation of feelings, suggests ignoring this fear and continuing to act. At the same time, unlived emotions create nervous tension. If this tension reaches a level that the psyche cannot withstand, avoidance behavior is triggered, for example, in the form of procrastination.
So, here are just a few examples of how heterogeneous modern culture works. The contradictions between its various elements lead to contradictions in individual beliefs, which leads to internal conflicts, disorientation and procrastination. Next, let's look at how to solve this problem.
Productivity as producing yourself
The exit from running on the procrastination wheel to productivity opens up towards a creative attitude. One of the interpretations of productivity is that a person creates himself and his life. We meet such an idea in H. Arendt, and she, in turn, quotes K. Marx.
The very personality of a person becomes a creative product, which means that from the chaos of images of modern culture it is possible to construct his own picture of the world. Modernity offers the experience of past generations, combined with the availability of information and freedom of choice. This gives us the tools to construct personal beliefs. A deliberate approach helps to use these tools, identify internal contradictions and create a picture of the world for their own needs.
Also worth mentioning is metamodernism, and the metaxi psychology that is based on it. The root "meta" in the name translates as "between" and indicates the possibility of avoiding the opposition of polar views of the world.
The thinkers of metamodernism proposed the concept of oscillation - fluctuations between opposite positions. Oscillation denies categorical choice and allows you to move between extremes depending on the situation.
Prioritizing achievement or pleasure? At one point, the desire for achievement makes you give up pleasure, but then the delayed result brings satisfaction, and at this moment pleasure comes to the fore.
Listen to reason or feelings? Sensory or rational perception is appropriate depending on the situation. In any case, feelings mark significant events, suggest what to pay attention to, and thus direct the work of thought.
"For psychology, metamodernism is becoming a more subtle toolkit for analyzing subjectivity, creating analytical constructs that show how the visible world can be configured anew and differently each time."
So, the visible world does not freeze in mental constructs, but changes its configuration again and again. Culture in creative rethinking ceases to be a dictate of the norm and becomes a material from which a person produces himself and a creative product. This flexible, changing process helps you avoid getting stuck in the procrastination routine and move towards your own productivity.
