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Procrastination Definitions

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Here are a number of defiintions of procrastination. Do any of them fit?

  • To voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay – Piers Steel
  • The intentional and habitual postponement of an important task that should be done now. – Harold Taylor
  • To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.  – The free dictionary
  • The act of replacing high-priority or important actions with tasks of lower priority, or doing something from which one brings enjoyment, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time. – Wikipedia
  • An automatic problem habit of putting off an important and timely activity until another time. It’s s a process that has probable consequences. – William Knaus
  • The starting point of becoming excellent in time management is desire. Almost everyone feels that their time management skills could be vastly better than they are. People resolve, over and over again, to get serious about time management by focusing, setting better priorities and overcoming procrastination. They intend to get serious about time management sometime, but unfortunately, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” The key to motivation is “motive.” For you to develop sufficient desire to develop time management and organizational skills, you must be intensely motivated by the benefits you feel you will enjoy. You must want the results badly enough to overcome the natural inertia that keeps you doing things the same old way.  – Brian Tracy
  • Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy. ~Wayne Dyer
  • Procrastination usually results in sorrowful regret. Today’s duties put off tomorrow give us a double burden to bear; the best way is to do them in their proper time.    – Ida Scott Taylor
  • Procrastination is the biggest enemy of a successfully planned day. When you get a late start, it can make one activity spill over into the time allotted for the next activity, causing a domino effect that leaves many items on your to-do list undone. – Julie Morgenstern
  • Procrastination is, hands down, our favorite form of self-sabotage. ~Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby
  • If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin. ~Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev
  • Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin. -Victor Kiam
  • Procrastination is a tough time robber to overcome. It is a real test of our commitment to apply sound management principles to a problem area…we must analyze what we procrastinate about, what interruptions and excuses we find to get out of doing that difficult or unpleasant task. – Jack D. Ferner
  • Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday. – Napoleon Hill
  • When procrastination becomes a persistent habit, it is a serious threat to professional and personal success.  – T. Bittel
  • Proximity to temptation is one of the deadliest determinants of procrastination. – Piers Steel

4 Comments

  1. Thanks Mark for the comprehensive list.

    Here are some stuff to recognize that you’re procrastinating

    -You have a long journey tomorrow, so you need rest today.

    -Your are tired after a journey, so need to rest today.

    -You are checking emails several times, but still didn’t decide which one to reply.

    -You have a big project to start and going for a coffee.

    -You have a big task and it’s 4.00pm now. So you will start it tomorrow.

    -One item is remaining in the to-do-list for a long time even you know its important.

    -Waiting for the right mode to start an important task.

  2. Some people argues that procrastination has positives effects. It improves innovation and reduce stress level. But too much of procrastinating will definitely ruin our productivity. So procrastination is something we should managed.

  3. To ?keep ?delaying something that must be done, often because it is ?unpleasant or ?boring:

    (Definition of procrastinate from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

  4. to delay doing something until later, usually something that you do not want to do

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