The difficulty of certain tasks often provokes a desire to delay or otherwise waste time before commencing to the job. This urge to procrastinate can affect people’s living as an occasional enticement or as a nearly irresistible habit, depending on the temperament of the individual.

In three particular fields of activity, namely college, business and home life, procrastination can cause an especially detrimental effect. A closer look at the basic factors for procrastination in each of these settings can help illuminate several of the influences in the decision to procrastinate.

For many students, procrastination emerges as a significant problem during the first years of college. The college procrastinator is frequently someone who, for one of several possible grounds, did not learn effective time management strategies during highschool. Often accustomed to highschool assignments that are strictly short term or that have been broken down into a series of smaller assignments by the high school teachers, the college postponer is at a loss to adjust to college’s long term assignments. In some subjects, the college procrastinator underestimates the difficulty of a term paper or end-of-semester task because the professor does not perpetually prompt the class about the approaching deadline.

For this reason, the difficulties faced by the college procrastinator could be seen as a failure to adjust from a structured, orderly learning environment into an environment where independent time management skills are indispensable. Once the need for discipline and administration has been recognized, a few simple tools, such as a day planner, may assist the college procrastinator organize a self-structured series of goals and deadlines as long-term assignments.

Whereas the college procrastinator might put off a challenging assignment by playing computer games or socializing, the business procrastinator is often more subtle in his or her scheme. Rather than engaging in pointless amusements, which might be penalised if found out, the business procrastinator often wastes time on activities that are in fact part or his or her job description but that are not the most significant tasks at the moment.

In some cases, a lack of confidence in the ability to successfully finish difficult assignments compels the business procrastinator to pursue easy, straightforward minor projects. In other spots, an inability to distinguish between high- and low-priority assignments causes the business procrastinator to perceive that the mere tasks are just as fundamental as the complicated ones, leaving the business procrastinator zero reason to pursue the more arduous tasks.

To remedy this circumstance, the business procrastinator firstly must learn to discern which tasks have the most expected to impact the success of the business itself and to affect the course of business in the long term. Once this has been carried through, the business procrastinator can break down long-term, complicated undertakings into a series of manageable deadlines so that they are not quite so overpowering.

Rather than being not able to face a deadline, the home-life procrastinator is often embarrassed with the never-ending nature of daily home-related jobs. Yard work, house repairs, cleaning and meal preparation can entirely assume the uninspiring role of ordinary inconveniences in a person’s life. As incomplete chores accumulate over time, the home-life postponer begins to feel the pressure of house work invading the joys of routine life.

To counter these situations, a specific time should be set aside weekly to schedule a reasonable number of weekly chores. By naming which tasks should be accomplished on which day, the home-life procrastinator can gain control over the amount of work. And by confining certain tasks to certain hours, the procrastinator can stop feeling at fault about any unfinished chores provided that he or she has achieved the jobs set aside for the present day.