The most fundamental definition of procrastination is “the action of delaying or postponing something”. On the surface level, it may seem like a relatively harmless thing, but if you let it fester for too long, it becomes an ever-growing infection and pretty soon, all you do is procrastinate. Due to this fact, I would define it as the curse of being addicted to instant gratification.
I fell into this habit the same way. It started off slow, maybe putting off an assignment here and there and indulging in some extra time for videogames or TV. Then as I continued to do this, it started to become routine and it was almost natural to brush off assignments, feeling like short-term entertainment was the best option. In hindsight, I feel like I should have opened my mind to the fact that it’s easy to slip into a repetitive loop of short-term gratification. Soon enough, procrastination was the only thing I knew and it quickly swallowed my mind and created an unwillingness to do work that was almost impossible to overcome. Sheer panic in the middle of the night was the only thing saving me from having to improvise once again or asking for yet another extension only to put the assignment off for longer.
This habit almost completely decimated all of my motivation to complete work and I became a stubborn and an almost entirely undetermined person. Anytime I was confronted with work or a situation in which I would have to put in effort, I would either avoid it, respond with anger, or respond with apathy. Little did I know, all I needed to do was figure out a reward system to help me.
At first thought, the idea of a solution to my problem seemed impossible and even if I did find a solution, I thought I would have to put in a seemingly insurmountable amount of diligence and work into defeating it. Then one day, I had something of an epiphany and, while it didn’t all become clear, I began to see a light at the end of the tunnel. So I decided to try doing work and then rewarding myself, whether it be with watching an episode of my favorite show or playing twenty minutes of video games, it began to work. Obviously, when trying to overcome a bad habit, it doesn’t just instantly solve itself and I’d be lying if I told you that since then my procrastination habit has been resolved. I literally procrastinated after deciding to write this article; but overall, I believe that by using this method, I’ve come much further than where I was before.
Before trying this method, I used to justify not doing it by thinking, how could I trust myself to not get carried away and, looking back on it, I can’t believe that I was avoiding the key to solving my problem. Sometimes I wonder how far down the rabbit hole I would be if I never tried this and I’m glad I didn't find out firsthand.