Why Do We Procrastinate?

It is an illusory sense of self gratification.

-  Karishma Joshi

If you’ve heard of the folklore where a witch who would do the rounds in a village at night and on reading the sign on every door, “Oh Witch, Come Tomorrow”, she’d put off her murder spree for later and scurry back home, you might sit thinking to yourself, ‘She’s clearly avoiding her task. How lazy is that’.

Mind you, you don’t have the right to call her lazy because procrastination is not always related to lethargy. Give the poor lady a break.

The word, “Procrastination” comes from the Latin “Procrastinatus”, which means pushing a task a day ahead.

It’s like staring at your computer screen and watching the cursor blink blink blink, followed by a gush of anxious emotions gnawing your innards and making you feel uneasy. I’m not even worth being called a writer. I don’t know what to write about. Why don’t I get ideas?

Am I dumb? Yes, the way you’re going, you probably are.

When a difficult job presents itself, our limbic system is quick to label it as harmful. This task is then seamlessly, without much ado, pushed ahead for another time and the subsequent free time that results out of it is identified as an award.

Though this award may seem rosy at the time, the anxieties that pile up post the reprieve may say otherwise. And till you place a full stop in between this anxiety-awardanxiety-award vicious cycle, it will continue to renew itself.