Articles For Knowledge Sharing »
Business-management »
Managing-people » Avoiding Procrastination
Avoiding Procrastination
Avoiding Procrastination
While it is not a clinical syndrome; that is, a diagnosis found in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV, procrastination is still deleterious, psychologically. It can create mild symptoms or some that are chronic, even life-stopping. Regardless, procrastination is something that can be cured.
Procrastination is really a form of ambivalence. This is not widely established. Ambivalence is when part of you wants something and part of your doesn't want that something. It doesn't have to be two things that directly cancel each other out. One of the "somethings" can be related to the other, just not the same, requiring a choice that is, at least partially, mutually exclusive. Ambivalence can be in our awareness, partially in awareness or totally out of awareness. This doesn't have to be our focus, because the subjective experience of it is unease. actually creates anxiety, but it is of the kind that is not usually connected with anxiety disorders, proper.
Procrastination occurs when these conundrums occur in our lives and we don't want to negotiate them. For example, I'm supposed to pay some bills but there's a cool motorcycle on sale, for only this week.. I'll think about the former but want to do the later. The choices are about two things that are relatively mutually exclusive and sooner or later, I have to worry about the choices. I have to pick one. Either one I pick will have consequences, and I know one of them will have nasty consequences.
I usually pick the more lovely, self-serving behavior, which unthinkingly means I'm putting off choosing the "other." This appears to be procrastinating, because I'm not doing something, but in reality I'm sneaking past a conflict. I am ambivalent, experiencing some level of fretfulness and trying bargain my way past the whole thing.
As was previously mentioned, the things we procrastinate about can be large or minute, in or out of awareness, and be brief or longer lasting. Those are just the particulars, but the dynamic is the same in each situation. We usually pick the more narcissistic behavior in the service of either skating past the conflict; that is, making it vanish from our awareness, or to just avoid the less pleasant of the two choices.
This latter dynamic is often a function of our rashness. As can be seen, this quality has many manifestations, some of which are good for us, like when we procrastinate in order to wait for more information before acting on something. Some dynamics are harmful, like when we don't get that school project done on time.
In order to explain procrastination, we have to make a way into the ambivalence. We have to "excavate" into awareness, the fullsequalae of our choices. But for the vast majority of us, to do that means we also have to do a little digging. You see, ambivalence doesn't exist solely upon itself. There are plausible reasons we avoid certain things, other than they may or may not be more complicated to do than something else. Sometimes it's about not wanting to express a mood or feeling, such as hurt. If someone asks you to do something and you feel put upon, it is not likely you will cooperate with their request. So, you don't, ostensibly, which is about not dealing with your inward state, expressing yourself and later reducing the tension of ambivalence. The superficial behavior then looks like procrastinating, when in fact, its just about avoiding conflict (which is probably at the heart of ambivalence in most cases).
Questions can be directed to author, who is a clinical psychologist.
-Dr. Griggs
http://www.psychologyproductsandservices.com/page192.html
Article Source:
Articles For Knowledge Sharing
About the Author
The author is a clinical psychologist in private practice for twenty-six years. For more information about this and other articles and ebooks by this author, start with: http://www.psychologyproductsandservices.com. For more information about the author, go to:
http://www.drgriggs.org
by: stevengriggs11
Html View | Print View
Total views: 36
Word Count: 610
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 -
0 comments
Publish/Share this article
To use this article on your site
click here to get the HTML code |
Remember: The article body, title, author bio and links may not be changed or removed. By publishing this article, you agree to all the terms in our
Terms of Service.
Rating:
Not yet rated
Comments 
No comments posted.
Add Comment
You do not have permission to comment. If you
log in, you may be able to comment.
More articles in this Category
1:
The Gains Of Determining Employee Engagement
2:
Being A Leader: What Behaviors Help You Become Great
3:
Overcoming Indirect Aggressive Behaviour
4:
Avoiding Procrastination
5:
Traffic Control Sydney: The Very Best Remedy To Your Traffic Control Issues
6:
Team Development Improves Employee Relations
7:
Why Should You Hire An Adelaide Removalist
8:
The Top Ten Ways to De-motivate People as a Manager
9:
LeaderTask Organizer: How to Work Efficiently
10:
Bad vs. Good people?
11:
Greed, Money, and Its Effect on Managing
12:
Building Better Teams
13:
What causes management problems at work?
14:
Coaching Vs. Managing
