It can wait

Procrastination is like a credit card. It's fun, and then you get the bill.

- Christopher Parker

When I was writing my thesis, everything seemed more interesting than the work itself. No matter how seemingly uninteresting something else was, I always found a way to procrastinate. This wasn't because I didn't like the topic of my thesis, but rather because I was unsure of my own abilities and the thought of having to spend a lot of time on it. It wasn't until I had only a month left to turn in my thesis that I got serious about it. As a result, my master's thesis was not perfect, but it was good enough to earn a master's degree. In English they say "happy go lucky" - the lucky ones reach their goal. Nevertheless, I emphasized that procrastination is not the wisest thing to do.

Procrastination can result from poor time management, lack of discipline, or simply fear of criticism. We are able to accept the unpleasant feelings that accompany procrastination, but we have a harder time accepting the possibility of failure. As Professor P. Steel stated, "Procrastination is the voluntary postponement of planned activities in spite of foreseeable deterioration after the delay. Simply understanding the connection between procrastination and reluctance to take on difficult tasks can help in the fight against procrastination.

Today, one of the causes of procrastination is the ease with which we can be distracted. Many factors draw our attention away, seem attractive, but usually just distract us. Dr. Bohdan Woronowicz, a psychiatrist, has highlighted the growing problem of Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD), which can be as debilitating as alcoholism (1). When we receive a Facebook notification, our reward system is stimulated, the brain gets a shot of dopamine, and we feel better. That's why it's so hard for us to resist the temptation to be on our phones all the time. It turns out that the most popular form of online entertainment among Poles is social media - on average we spend 7 hours and 4 minutes a week on it. Personally, I noticed that when I cut back on my social media use, I suddenly gained a lot more free time. I'm not saying that using Facebook is a bad thing, but it can be a real time-suck.

When we are working but constantly getting notifications on Facebook, we are unable to fully engage. These distractions are numerous and cause us to receive as much information in a month as our grandparents did in a lifetime. Related to this is the phenomenon of instant gratification - we get the reward immediately without any effort. Prof. Walter Mischel of Stanford University studied the ability to delay gratification in the 1960s by conducting a "marshmallow test". The experiment consisted of allowing children to eat a marshmallow immediately or wait 15 minutes and get a second marshmallow. It turned out that children who delayed gratification did better in school, had higher self-esteem, felt less stress, behaved more rationally, and performed better on tests as adults (3). The interplay between distraction, procrastination, and gratification is important for understanding how to deal with these issues in everyday life.

References:

1. https://www.focus.pl/artykul/lajkoholicy-kim-sa-ludzie-uzaleznieni-od-mediow-spolecznosciowych

2. https://selectivv.com/czy-wiesz-ile-czasu-dziennie-spedzasz-na-swoim-telefonie-prawdopodobnie-duzo-wiecej-niz-myslisz/

3. https://www.wychowaniewprzedszkolu.com.pl/artykul/test-pianki-a-umiejetnosc-odroczonej-gratyfikacji