How to avoid procrastination and gain motivation

Studies show that eighty to ninety percent of college student procrastinate on their school assignments. Do you catch yourself procrastinating a lot or putting off things until the very last minute? If you are like me, then you tend to avoid the situation until you really have to face it; which is actually delaying the inevitable. Today I am here to talk about the good and bad effects of procrastination. My main focus will be on overcoming procrastination with the power of motivation.

Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing something. When we procrastinate, it can cause a good and bad effect on both ourselves and the people surrounding us or whom ever we are involved with like family, coworkers etc. We can be delaying progress that can already be done sooner than later. Procrastination can put us and others in a state of anxiousness. When we are delaying something, the more we think about it and how much time we have to complete that task. Not only does it affect our mental health by putting on stress with anticipation and a sort of dilemma that we create ourselves, it can also cause stress on the body by not getting enough rest because we are thinking about something too much to even have it started or we pressure ourselves to get it done at the very last minute which can be very pressing and may not present our best effort; by not using the time we initially had to actually brain storm and carry out the task more successfully. Some say that procrastination is good if you operate well under pressure but again, it may not be your best work or answer, instead of having a well prepared one if given the time.

To avoid procrastination, I try and find something that motivates me to give my best effort. What is motivation? At the end of this speech, I’d like to know more of your motivations; what pushes you to be your best self? Motivation is the general desire or willingness of a person to do something. These general goals are usually brought on by motives and motives are the needs that push and navigate behavior toward that goal. There are several forms of motivation. Those of which are social motives, work motives, achievement motives, intrinsic and extrinsic motives. We will be discussing their differences and the theories in history regarding predetermination by arousals and stimulus’.

When someone has social motives, they are trying to be one with a group through the use of involvement, familiarity, reciprocated action and participation. Examples of these could be members of a church, student councils, communities and even team mates. Some of the common goals of this particular motive are developing friendships or relationships in general, strengthening religion and growing communities. In a work place, there is what you call work motivation; a type of social motivation. This is the circumstances and courses of actions to encourage systemic diligence of employees. It can be the reason to finish a project, or the environmental workflow that make processes smoother or continuous. Next, we will be discussing achievement motivation. This type of motivation includes the encouragement that pushes people towards accomplishment from a studious context. You can find people using this form of motivation in an academic setting such as workshops, schools of all ages, and even work places that require continuing education as is in most hospitals. As for intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, the factors that separate these motives are the goals themselves. For intrinsic motivation, a person’s conduct and demeanor is expressed merely because it is their choice and it is gratifying for them; not for any particular reason, purpose or incentive. Extrinsic on the other hand is the way a person carries themselves and their attitude in an insistent manner towards some kind of gain or to abstain from disciplinary action. Both of these motives can be used in a workplace or in a setting with many people for a common use. A common place with people and these motives can be festivals or concerts. Here, people can simply enjoy their time, the festivities and company, whereas other people may go all out pushing to the front of the stage to reach for band members/celebrities, of course also the complete opposite can be done so as to avoid security control.

Unlike biological theories, studies show that behavior and social cognitive theories of motivation have a lot to do with the kinds of motivation in society. Behavioral theories emphasize learning from consequences and Social Cognitive theories focus on how people think about, before and after consequences occur and other factors that influence their decisions about behavior. Procrastination is limited when there is consequence and goal oriented tasks. The expectancy theory is motivation related to the effectiveness or the value of the effort on the job. This psychological aspect of motivation is of cause and effect which these effects can be rewarding or afflictive. This is where industrial/organizational psychologists and goal setting play a good part. When this style of motivation is encouraged in a workplace, it has worked to be more effective because it is success-based goal oriented versus just asking the employees to try their best and get the job done with no real goal assigned. Would the job actually be finished if it were “ done” and not done right or in a certain way that make it the finish product? When an employee can expect something at the end of a hard day’s work, it is proven that since there is incentive, they put more effort in their work than when just coming to work merely to just make another dollar that can be made any other day or anywhere else. Using these styles of motivation minimizes the act of procrastination.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that the physiological motivations are the foundations for so-called higher-level motives. He suggests that motivation is the process through which humans seek to meet their needs with self-actualization being priority. Self-actualization is the pursuit of self-defined goals for personal fulfillment and development.

This ties in with reasons behind procrastinating; is if the ability to carry out tasks is questionable and we are unsure of ourselves, our self-actualization is lowered, it causes us to delay in uncertainty. The level of Maslow’s hierarchy that provides me with the strongest motivation for my behavior would have to be “ esteem needs” because when I am able to achieve something or overcome something then I am sure of myself and confident that I am to do that particular thing again or like- obstacles. When I am confident, I gain respect for myself for learning something new and I also have respect for those that have already surpassed whatever it is that I thought I could not do. My esteem is important because it motivates me more every day and encourages me to build up my self-actualization. My self-assurance pushes me to learn new things all the time whenever possible.

In conclusion the best motivation for me when trying to complete any task is just to start! Procrastinating only gets me in trouble in ways where I am stressed and anxious, sometimes it even gets me to forget my thought process. When I don’t delay, my thought process is fresh, I tend to be more focused and come up with task solutions at hand. In fact, sometimes I feel as though I have too many ideas and that’s when I know I should take a step back, not procrastinate, but just know that well, having readied ideas fresh in my mind gets procrastination out of the way. In other words, the workflow is smooth, the process is on-going and no one is pressed for time in any situation which avoids delay. In order to do that, we have to encourage ourselves! We have to find motivation! And to do that you got to ask yourself: What is the goal and what will it take to get there? Your answers are your motivation, your little reminders to push you to go the extra mile.