With Holidays around the corner and wintry weather setting in, the time seems perfect for developing awareness about procrastination. We all do procrastinate at times. Nevertheless, most of the times the realization that we have been procrastinating settles in after we have delayed past a critical point. You see, there is a fine line between pacing your time, and procrastination. Where time pacing can be considered a time management strategy, procrastination is always associated with a loss. A loss in quality of work, a missed opportunity, or even extra payments to repeat a semester; but more than anything, the gradual chipping away of self respect and confidence.
Procrastination is like a credit card: it's a lot of fun until you get the bill - Christopher Parker
Developing procrastination awareness is one of the key skills for doctoral students. The awareness helps recognize your behavioral patterns and raises a flag at the onset of procrastination. Taking correcting actions right at the onset can help avoid incurring hefty penalties. Awareness about procrastinating patterns also encourages students to dig deeper into the reasons behind the behavior and address the cause of the problem. This self-diagnostic and analytical attitude also help the future doctors get mentally trained to identify and solve problems at their onset in their professional fields with confidence.
We will be discussing several aspects of procrastination through this month, but to begin with let’s list some basic indicators of the behavior:
We will be discussing several aspects of procrastination through this month, but to begin with let’s list some basic indicators of the behavior:
- You keep finding higher priority “commitments” right around the time that you have set up for dissertation writing
- You feel facing a deluge of sleepiness as you get ready to work on your dissertation
- You find yourself over indulgent in finding more references than required or revisiting what you have already written with a perfectionist's eye
- You feel that your mentor and school system has not provided you sufficient support to get the job done
- You either feel lost or overwhelmed
- You have spent too many hours going around in circles, instead of making linear progress through your chapters
- You experience moments of self-pity (I am too tired) or over-confidence (I work best close to the deadline)
I swing between procrastination and being thorough so, either way, things aren't getting done quickly - Freema Agyeman
These are some of the most common symptoms of procrastination experienced by doctoral students, and each one of these is backed by a psychological rationale. Awareness of these symptoms and their cause can immensely help a doctoral student avoid the dissertation blues syndrome.
Hope this helps initiate a moment of reflection.
Cheers!
Dr. K
Hope this helps initiate a moment of reflection.
Cheers!
Dr. K