A cultural product: where procrastination comes from and what to do with it

[Lord777]

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, the cult of reason and admiration for the irrational disorientates us and is it possible to find some kind of balance among these contradictions.

"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. Accepting 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 something 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 small 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 draws you into the quagmire of procrastination 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 happens 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 some 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 guide 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 stay out of the procrastination routine and move towards your own productivity.

 

[Tomcat]

Procrastination is not just laziness​

Each of us has happened to postpone important things for later, delaying their implementation as much as possible, doing anything instead of them - unable to explain to ourselves why we are doing this, and then tormented by a feeling of guilt because of the missed deadlines and the fact that we are someone again. then let me down. The author of the book, who was convinced by his own experience of the insidiousness of procrastination, comprehensively studied the problem, identified the causes of its occurrence and proposed several simple and effective ways to deal with it.

When we cannot convince ourselves of the urgency of performing necessary or desired tasks, it means that we are procrastinating. Instead of important things that make sense to us, we do something insignificant: we watch TV shows, water flowers in the office, play computer games, spend time on social networks, eat (even if we are not hungry), do the cleaning again , wander aimlessly around the office or just "spit at the ceiling." Later, due to self-reproach and frustration, a feeling of helplessness arises, again leading to doing nothing.
But attention! Procrastination isn't just laziness. A lazy person does not want to do anything and does not feel any anxiety about it. The procrastinator would be happy to do something, but he can't get started.
Procrastination should not be confused with relaxation. During the rest, we are filled with new energy. With procrastination, on the contrary, we lose it. The less energy we have, the more chances we have to postpone the task indefinitely and do nothing again.
People like to leave everything to the last minute, explaining this by the fact that they work better in conditions of a rush and an approaching deadline. But in reality, this is not the case: putting off things to the deadline is a breeding ground for stress, rebuke, and inefficiency. Here it does not hurt to remember the well-known proverb: "Do not put off until tomorrow what you can do today."

A history of procrastination syndrome
People have suffered from procrastination since time immemorial. Even the ancient poet Hesiod paid attention to this problem in the poem "Works and Days":
And don't put off things until tomorrow, until the day after tomorrow:
Those barns are empty
who is lazy to work and always likes to postpone business:
wealth is given by diligence.
Baggy has been fighting adversity all his life without interruption.
(Translation by V. Veresaev).
A hesitant man, a procrastinator, a half-finished man - this is how today's procrastinator can be described.
The Roman philosopher Seneca warned: "As long as we postpone life, it passes." This quote identifies the main reason to combat procrastination.
Procrastination is one of the main obstacles preventing us from living fulfilling lives. Regretting missed opportunities and the associated self-reprimands take longer than it would have taken to solve the problem. A recent study found that people on their deathbed are most sorry for what they did, not what they did.
Procrastination istes time that we could usefully spend. If we can defeat her, we can redo more things and more effectively realize our life potential.

Present: Decision Paralysis
How are things going with procrastination nowadays? There are more and more opportunities for procrastination today. Learning to fight procrastination is one of the most important tasks of a modern person.
Over the past hundred years, the average life expectancy has almost doubled. Infant mortality during this time has decreased by almost ten times. Today we live in a world in which there is less violence and military conflict than ever before in human history. Almost all of the world's knowledge is available to us thanks to the Internet. We can travel almost without restrictions all over the planet. Knowledge of foreign languages helps to find understanding in foreign countries. We have mobile phones in our pockets that are more advanced than the supercomputers 20 years ago.
The opportunities for using our potential offered by the modern world are enormous. Think of them as scissors. The more chances appear for us in the modern world, the wider we can open these imaginary scissors of possibilities. And today the number of these chances is greater than ever.
The ideal of modern society is based on the idea of expanding individual freedom, on the conviction that the more people have it, the more they will be satisfied. According to this theory, with each opening of the scissors of possibilities, we should become happier and happier. So why are people not happier than their ancestors today? What are the challenges posed by the expanding range of opportunities?
This is primarily a problem of choice: the more opportunities we have, the more difficult it is to make a decision. The so-called decision paralysis sets in. Thinking over all the options requires such an expenditure of energy that in the end we can not choose any of them. We postpone making a decision, and at the same time taking action related to it. We procrastinate.

The more difficult the compared options, the higher the chance of delaying a decision. With multiple options, the chances are that regardless of which option we choose, we will still feel regret imagining what would have happened if we chose another option, or noticing the shortcomings of the decision we made.
Are you familiar with the situation when you know that you have to do something, but, despite this, you are not doing anything? When was the last time you put off an action or decision? Has it ever happened that you could not choose any of the opportunities that open before you? How did you feel at that moment?
Increase paralysis solutions reinforces procrastination. Procrastination leads to decreased productivity. The realization that we are not fully utilizing our potential causes self-reproach and frustration.

There are simple tools (techniques, methods) that can help you reach your full potential every day. Applying them will only take a few minutes a day, but will ultimately help you gain a few extra productive hours. These techniques allow for more efficient use of the human brain, as well as an innate or acquired tendency to be ineffective. A secondary product of anti-procrastination is more frequent activation of reward centers in the brain. This will make you feel more positive.
How did you feel living a day of your life to the fullest? When was the last time? The book also explains why daily realizing your potential is the most effective way to achieve long-term satisfaction.

Let's get started! How do our motivation, efficiency, and satisfaction actually work? How to beat procrastination? How to achieve tangible and lasting change?

Motivation
Once we were born, and someday, unfortunately, we will die. The time of our life is limited and of course. Therefore, the greatest value is precisely time. And not money, which, unlike time, we can borrow, save or earn. As far as time is concerned, each of its unique moments is irretrievably lost.
The fact that life is finite was also expressed by Steve Jobs in his address to Stanford University students: “The realization that I'm going to die was the best way to help me make important decisions in my life. In the face of death, almost everything loses its meaning - the opinions of others, ambition, fear of shame or failure - and only what is really important remains. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the mental trap that makes you think you have something to lose. You are already naked. And there is no reason not to follow your heart."
Awareness of the finiteness of life leads to the fact that we try to spend the days allotted to us carefully. We begin to look for what we would like to devote our time to on planet Earth - we begin to search for a personal vision.

If we can find this vision, it will become the most powerful motivational magnet for us. It will help us in the present to do what we really see meaning in, and at the same time it will pull us towards our ideal future.

Self-discipline
The two main ingredients for self-discipline are productivity and efficiency. There are only 24 hours in a day. If you subtract your sleep time, you have productive time.
Productivity is measured by, how many percent of the time we spend on activities related to our personal vision. Regular sleep, time management, and positive skills increase this percentage significantly.
Effectiveness is a measure of whether the actions we take are key to moving us forward. This also includes the ability to prioritize, delegate authority and properly divide large tasks into smaller parts.
Present your vision as a path. Productivity is a measure of how long you walk this path each day. Effectiveness determines whether you take the largest steps possible.
Self - discipline is the general ability to act in line with your personal vision.

Results
As the proverb says, “Design without action is a dream. Action without design is a nightmare. "This dictum expresses two main problems in life. Many people have their own vision, but they do nothing to follow it. Others, on the contrary, do something, but do not see the point in it. Ideally, we need both vision and action. If you can combine this, there will be emotional and material returns.
Emotional feedback is associated with the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that causes feelings of satisfaction.
Material returns are the concrete results of labor.

Objectivity
The last important part in the Personal Growth Builder is our objectivity . Anders Breivik, who shot 69 people on the island of Utoya in July 2011, probably had very high motivation and self-discipline, which in the end brought him an emotional and material return. This extreme example shows how far you can go if you do not monitor your objectivity.
Objectivity is an important tool for testing our not always infallible intuition, it is a method of knowing the nature of things. Increasing objectivity is based on a person receiving feedback from the surrounding reality regarding his views and actions. Since the brain tends to believe in something that is not really true, we need to tirelessly discover the places of possible bias.
As Bertrand Russell, Nobel laureate and one of the most famous mathematicians and philosophers of the 20th century, said, "the problem of the modern world is that fools are confident in themselves, and intelligent people are full of doubts."

Conclusions

• Procrastination is not laziness, but an inability to force oneself to take necessary or desired actions.
• Looking back in history, we find that people have been postponing their affairs for later since time immemorial.
• Our time contributes to the development of procrastination , so you need to learn how to deal with it.
• The choice of opportunities offered to us by the modern world is the largest in the history of mankind. The scissors of opportunity are more widespread than ever.
• Expanding choice often contributes to decision paralysis .
• Due to the paralysis of decisions, hesitation in their adoption and postponement for later, life passes us by, which is why we experience unpleasant emotions.
• There are simple tools to help you defeat decision paralysis and procrastination.
• If we use our potential, then in our brain the pleasure center is activated, dopamine is produced, and we experience positive emotions.

Source: Peter Ludwig, book "Fighting Procrastination"

 

[Brother]

? Scientists have recommended the most effective way to combat procrastination

It turns out that you need to either set very tough, fast deadlines, or not set them at all.

How often do you find yourself “wasting time”, putting off until the last moment when preparing an important report or memorizing material for an exam? Surely there were such moments in everyone's life. The process of “shelving” is called “procrastination,” and it’s not easy to fight it, even by setting deadlines.

At the same time, procrastination has nothing to do with laziness - we can do other things. It's not a lack of character or willpower, but rather a way to deal with negative emotions - like boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, self-doubt, and so on - as well as bad moods caused by certain tasks.

The exact reason for our aversion to a task we are postponing depends on its meaning or situation. This could be due to something inherently annoying, such as having to clean up or doing a long and boring data analysis. But it can also be the result of deeper emotions associated with the task, such as self-doubt, low self-esteem, anxiety, or insecurity. For example, when we look at a blank page in a word processor, thoughts may come to mind that "this is too difficult" or "I am not smart enough to write well."

However, scientists from the University of Otago have discovered the most effective method to combat procrastination. It turns out that the best way to force yourself to do everything on time is to set no deadline or set the strictest possible one (with a short amount of time to complete the task).

In the study, which was published in the journal Economic Inquiry, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire and send information by letter to decide how donations would be distributed to charity. They received information that there was either a week or a month to complete the task, or the exact deadline was not specified. A total of three mailings were carried out with a difference of several weeks, with 300, 390 and 402 letters, respectively. At the same time, the response rate was quite low: 8.32% in the group that did not receive information about the deadline, 5.53% - in the group that had a month to answer, 6.59% - in the group that answered within a week.

The smallest number of response letters with a completed questionnaire came from participants who were guided by a one month deadline, and the largest - when the deadline was not explicitly set. Interestingly, scientists have interpreted this result in the following way: when long time frames are specified, as opposed to their absence, it removes the urgency of action that we often feel when we are asked for help. Therefore, people tend to postpone the task and, due to forgetfulness or inattention, do not start it on time.