Procrastination Research Stategy

Procrastination Research Project

Procrastination: A Strategy for Research and Correction

One of the biggest problems I face in my day-to-day life is my procrastination. I am not lazy; it often feels as though I have too much to and I am almost always working on something. This is actually part of the problem, however; my procrastination lets things pile up until I have a constant mountain of work, and then when I am able to push things off for a little bit I often feel like I have to in order to get a bit of a break. Of course, this just causes more things to pile up in the future, meaning that my procrastination is a self-perpetuating problem. If I began to work on tasks as they arose, rather tan waiting until the last minute to get them done, I would be able to plane some time off. Not procrastinating would also have the benefit of making me less rushed, which would actually probably lead to a reduction in the amount of time it takes for me to get things done -- if I were able to focus on one task patiently rather than having three or four on my mind at once, I would be better able to complete tasks efficiently.

One type of information that should be gathered are practical guides for overcoming procrastination and managing time better in general. There are a number of websites, magazine articles, and books on the subject of time management, and many of these have specific suggestions and advice regarding procrastination. These resources would be an excellent way to gain insight into the types of thoughts and behaviors that procrastination entails and reflects, as well as providing real world step-by-step solutions for overcoming procrastination and time management issues. The Internet is an excellent place to gather some basic background information on the issues as well as providing information about other resources, such as books and magazines. These print resources can then be located in libraries and databases.

The same resources are available for another type of information that might prove essential in combating procrastination. Despite the fact that I do not believe my procrastination stems from any deep psychological disturbance (though admittedly my research has not yet been conducted), understanding the behavior patterns and personality types that are prone to procrastination could be key to solving my own struggle with the issue. It has been suggested, for instance, that procrastination has little to do with time management and more to do with a persistent need for some people to self-sabotage, making it more difficult for them to succeed (Marano 2003). Understanding procrastination from the psychological as well as the purely practical perspectives will help me to come to a more full understanding of the problem as I experience it, and thus make any measures taken to correct it more effective.

Evaluating the information received from these sources, especially popular magazines, websites, and even many of the self-help books -- which are written to make the author a profit, it must be acknowledged -- is at least as important as gathering it in the first place. One of the most important considerations in evaluating the information I gather will be determining the purpose and intent of the author/provider of the information. Peer-reviewed sources and websites for certain professional organizations (specifically the APA) are likely to be less biased than the author of a self-help book, for example, because the former are not for-profit endeavors. The purpose and intent of a given piece of information or article speaks a great deal to its validity. If there are motives behind a piece of informative work other than the simple exploration and dissemination of the truth, the validity of that information comes under heavy question.

The reliability and accuracy of the information is another aspect that must be carefully evaluated. Though related to validity, these concepts are definitely different and important features of any information. The intent and purpose of an author and their information might be in the right place, but if information is especially old or is based solely on personal experience, it is not necessarily reliable or accurate even though it may be valid. All claims and essential information should be repeated and verified in more than one source to determine how truly reliable and accurate the information is. If a claim is made in one source that does not provide references to other sources regarding that information, or if the claim is markedly different from that found in other sources, than the entire source must in all likelihood be dismissed as unreliable. Evaluation of data means verification of data, and when this cannot be accomplished than the data has no use as background information for a research project.