Are we able to do justice to the priorities we set each time? Are we always able to ensure that the order of priority of things and actions i.e. the preference order that we have set or the timelines we set for our everyday life are 100% adhered to? The answer would be “yes” if it is a story or an ideal parallel universe. Because as far as I understand it, in this ordinary, real and scientific life it is very difficult or almost impossible. Maybe, not everyone agrees with this statement of mine but just think about a week of your life; You will be remembered in the form of many such reasons and events, which must be pushing you to accept this point of mine halfheartedly. Yes, but while reminding, you have to keep in mind that you are completely honest and aware of it. During this, the attitude of “Itna toh chalta hai” will not work at all, rather it will spoil the work.
Last Sunday I wanted to spend some time with my family, after giving my whole week to work; So I put everything aside and made it my priority at that time to spend time with my family. But a close friend of mine entrusted me with an essential task in connection with his marriage. Now it doesn’t feel good to even refuse a friend for this once-in-a-life event; So the same thing happened with priority, which was happening till now. I end up getting stuck in the midst of a tussle between prioritizing and not prioritizing my priorities every day, every week. However, the question is well known; But, what is the answer?
As far as I understand it, the root of most of the problems associated with this mutual relationship of work and time is “procrastination,” meaning postponing things. Before finding a cure for procrastination, we have to understand what procrastination is.
A total of 18 books are included in the Mahabharata, the religious epic of Indian culture; The name of its fifth book is ‘Udyog Parva. It is said in the 33rd verse of 78 of the out of its 197 chapters,
Shada doshah Purushenehah, haatavya bhutimichchhata.
Nidraa, tandra, bhayam, krodhah, aalasyam, deerghasutrata.
Meaning that whoever wants to be prosperous then he/she should stay away from these 6 things; Sleepiness, fatigue, fear, anger, lethargy and procrastination.
Time is also mentioned in the Qur’an in Sura-al-Fatiha 1:5, Sura-al-Asr 103:1 to 3 and also in Sura-al-Bir. Abu-Barzah-al-Assallam has said that
The faith of one who does not understand the importance of time is raw.
In Sura 4, verse 142, Allah has said,
procrastination and laziness are the bad habits of the hypocrites (benefactors).
Munafik, when they stand up for SALAH(prayer),
they stand idly.
Well, we do not have to go into religion and scriptures. It is worth mentioning that lust, anger, covetousness, attachment, madness, laziness and many other things have not been heard thousands and hundreds of times, but what is this procrastination? No one mentions it. Actually, the habit of procrastination is a very underrated type, while it is the real culprit. How?
Try connecting it to yourself again; Are you careless about your work and your health? Are you not concerned about your life? Your answer would be “yes”, but it doesn’t seem like it. Are you too lazy? 60 to 70 per cent of the people will answer “no” but still this is what the show is about. How can a person who sacrifices his sleep by going till late at night, be lazy? There is a little laziness in all of us, but because of it, our life can have such a huge impact that we leave behind our whole life goals. In fact, it is a chemical mixture of laziness and carelessness, that too with ‘high-concentration’. In fact, no matter how alert and conscious we are about any work, if we move it forward even a moment from the time when we should do it or simply postpone it; So it becomes ‘procrastination’ and it doesn’t just become a small habit, it takes the form of a terrible disease, and we don’t even know about it. Then gradually we start postponing everything.
According to ‘Charles Duhigg’, author of The Power of Habit, it is a habit trap that is activated as soon as time-dependent work comes to you. There is a part of the brain ‘The Basal Ganglia’, in this part the computer code of our habits i.e. algorithms are written and saved. According to research any habit is made up of 3 basic things and is enacted,
signal— regular action — reward
Any habit actually creates in the brain waiting for that reward to be enacted; After getting a reward, the brain gets satisfaction, and the brain wants to do it again and again. In relation to Procrastination, “getting a job” is the ‘signal’, “avoiding it” is a ‘regular action’ and getting “a moment’s rest” is its ‘reward’. There is one more thing to note here, which is ‘inertia’. According to Sir Isaac Newton, an external force, is needed to change both motion and rest, so whether you are sitting empty means you are at rest or doing some work means you are in motion, by procrastinating, your brain maintains the inertia. Meaning, it doesn’t matter whether you are free or engaged; If you’re in the trap of this habit, you’re bound to procrastinate, because that’s a regular action.
Then what is the way to avoid procrastination? About 80% of our youth today, which we call the generation of the computer age, are victims of this disease of procrastination; And the funny thing is that they don’t even know. The result is that the pile of work becomes so big at the end of the month or year that seeing it, we get depressed that if so much work is done now then how to do it? Well in the next issue we will try to know how to get rid of this habit of procrastination!
