• Question: Why do we procrastinate?

    Asked by to Anna, Elaine, Fiona, Kevin, Darren on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Anna Bramwell-Dicks

      Anna Bramwell-Dicks answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Procrastination is thought to be a learned behaviour – you are not born as a procrastinator!

      I think one of the most common reasons for procrastination behaviour is a fear of failure. In other words, a person could be so worried that they might do something wrong or badly that they don’t even begin to try.

      If it is a task that HAS to be done, by doing it at the last minute they also have an excuse for why it might have been done badly.

      This sort of behaviour is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy – chances are, if you leave something to the last minute, you are not going to do it as well as if you had plenty of time to work on it.

    • Photo: Zhiming Darren Tan

      Zhiming Darren Tan answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Sometimes when a task is too overwhelming, we get scared and we put it off. And it gets bigger, since you don’t work at it. So we should break down tasks into smaller chunks that we can chew on slowly.

    • Photo: Kevin O'Dell

      Kevin O'Dell answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      I’ll answer this tomorrow. Or maybe the day after. But almost certainly by the end of next week.

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