​The stress we experience may seem like too great of a burden for us to handle on our own. Even the thought of handling it adds even greater stress and so we retreat to easy comforts.
 
Many individuals grapple with procrastination. For some individual’s they work best under pressure. The ability to motivate yourself each day and complete tasks of your own volition may rely entirely upon your personality type, personal values, and lifestyle.
 
If an individual is used to working by deadlines and strict schedules, procrastination is most likely a non-issue in their life. If an individual is used to fluidity in their daily responsibilities, they may procrastinate their tasks regularly.

​We are taught at an early age that we must fulfill expectations that have been established long before we even came into existence. We wake up at the same time, brush our teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, and go to school at the same time. We are expected to complete our homework the night before. Our parents prepare dinner around 6pm and so our life is already structured into a very strict schedule. We don’t get to choose, we simply adapt to the structure and the expectations. And we are constantly being reminded by our teachers, our parents, our older siblings, that abiding by the rules will prepare us for the autonomy offered by adulthood.
 
We spend so much time following rules to prepare us for autonomy. It feels a lot like an oxymoron. And it touches upon the concept of procrastination and how it is not categorically negative and may allow some individuals to thrive.

We would rather watch TV, sleep, eat junk food, yet we know that we shouldn’t be doing these things. We know we should be taking out the trash, doing the dishes, learning more, and being there for our family. 
                                                                                                                     
The brief relief from relaxing even though there will be guilt in the future mean so much to us.
 
In a sense, this is the model of cognitive behavioral therapy, and also the model of drug addiction. Some heroin addicts and drug addicts will say that the future version of their selves will take care of a “something”.
 
Procrastination is often viewed as the neglect of one’s responsibilities and this seems to oversimplify the definition of procrastination and the role it plays in the life of certain individuals. There seems to be different degrees in which procrastination impacts our life.
 
It is good to understand that procrastination does not equate to neglect, it is defined as delaying or postponing something. Procrastination is not just limited to responsibilities and tasks, it can also affect emotions and thoughts.
 
Our responsibilities, as well as, our emotions are important and central to our well-being and livelihood. The brief relaxation we get from procrastination is small compared to the sustained feeling of accomplishment we get from doing what needs to be done.