Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Laziness is an ideal, Procrastination is a problem



There comes a time when one is so full of thoughts that they direly wish to speak their mind out. To have a patient listener in such times can be liberating. Contrarily, it can get really frustrating when one doesn’t get the right person to talk to in such circumstances.

I began writing my blog about a year ago seeing it as a nice thing to do before the start of my masters course in social work. It fascinated me as there was so much in my mind that I wished to put on paper. This seemed to be the perfect platform to pour my mind out. This enthusiasm lasted for a week after which it came to a sudden and complete halt. I stopped writing due to what most would call laziness. But I think it was my procrastinating mind that kept me off from writing. It’s a little complicated for me to explain how I see a difference in the two terms. I have however made an attempt to do so in the paragraphs below.

There certainly is a difference between a lazy mind and a procrastinating mind. A lazy mind neither wants to do an assigned task, nor does it wish to take up any task. But a procrastinating mind delays performing a certain task despite having chosen to (often voluntarily) perform the task out of its own volition. You can’t blame one for looking at both of these as the same, but I believe procrastination is a state of mind unlike laziness which is a state of being. One procrastinates owing to various ‘reasons’, while one’s laziness is based on various ‘grounds’.


Laziness would require a sense of detachment from all wants, but procrastination is caused by anxiety and it tends to amplify this anxiety. A lazy mind is often a happy mind, but a procrastinating mind is often a frustrated mind.

Laziness requires a strong-willed mind, whereas procrastination is characterized by a weak willed mind. Laziness is an ideal, procrastination is a problem.

I too procrastinated, because I was anxious. Anxious about a feeling that I was not being able to wholly express my thoughts in the right way using the right words placed in the right sentences. I was being an obsessive perfectionist.

But I now plan to begin writing again in an attempt to put a stop to this obsessive trait and to feel more content in being able to articulate myself. Time will tell how successful I will be.

1 comment:

  1. Never looked at laziness and procrastination that way. I've always used them interchangeably. Hope that you can get over this 'problem' and continue to write beautifully. Time will indeed tell. All the best!

    ReplyDelete