Each one of us has been guilty of delaying finishing a task until the last one of us, while some have been also guilty of lacking the motivation and will to do anything at all.
Procrastination and laziness are two things often intertwined with one another but have completely different concepts. Procrastination is intentionally delaying accomplishing a task, but laziness isn’t something you intended on feeling.
Procrastination is something in your control while laziness is often not. In this article, we’ll be discussing everything on the differences between laziness and procrastination.
What is the difference between laziness and procrastination?
You can control procrastination by simply doing your tasks earlier and changing your mindset, but laziness isn’t something you choose. Laziness can be a sign that you also need a break due to overworking yourself, whereas procrastination can come from several factors such as the fear of failure or perfectionism.
Why people confuse laziness and procrastination
Both laziness and procrastination have similar concepts, but different motivations and definitions. When people are lazy, they simply lack the motivation to do the task and end up doing nothing. Laziness is a state of mind that just happens to you and you often have no control over this.
To put it simply, laziness comes from the lack of motivation and drive to do anything. Even getting up in the morning is difficult enough when laziness consumes you. This can easily be confused with procrastination, which is delaying accomplishing a certain task.
It’s easy to assume that procrastination comes from laziness when in fact, this is not at all true. Procrastination results from your own doing of not being able to finish tasks on time for reasons such as perfectionism or the fear of failure.
You feel the need to make every intricate detail perfect, so you delay starting the task until you end up procrastinating. This isn’t laziness because if you are lazy, you would have trouble doing anything in the first place.
Tell-tale signs of laziness and procrastination
1. Giving up easily
Whether it’s because of laziness or procrastination, giving up too early on is a concrete sign. If you’re lazy, you have no motivation to do anything for the day, so you give up entirely trying to be productive on your own terms.
You don’t bother pushing yourself to get up and attempting to do tasks since your motivation is lacking. On the other hand, if you’re procrastinating, you don’t bother finishing the task right away because you can’t get the details right or you’re afraid to make several mistakes.
You give up on trying your best on a project or task so you give up entirely.
2. Taking breaks too often
There’s nothing necessarily bad about taking breaks as breaks are healthy every now and then. However, individuals guilty of laziness and procrastination tend to take too many breaks needed. It’s either you use it as an escape to avoid finishing a certain deadline or you use it to feel good about yourself about the fact that you lack motivation.
If you’re guilty of laziness, you take too many breaks in a given moment, or worse, all you’ve done for the day is take breaks without attempting anything productive. If you’re guilty of procrastinating, instead of finishing a task so that you have nothing to worry about, you spend your time on unnecessary breaks instead to avoid facing your responsibilities.
3. Assigning the task to someone else
It’s perfectly okay to ask for help every now and then, but letting someone do the job for you is an indicator that you’re guilty of laziness and procrastination.
If you’re lazy, you don’t have the energy or will to do anything at all, so you end up assigning or delegating the task or deadline to someone else instead. If you’re procrastinating, you’re rushing to finish things at the last minute, until you realize you can’t accomplish it so you give the pressure to someone who can.
4. Worry and anxiety
Whether you’re just lazy or procrastinating, worry and anxiety are both two themes common in both scenarios. If you’re lazy, you can’t help but worry what your lack of motivation will result in your life, whether that’s missed deadlines or something else entirely.
If you’re procrastinating, you’re overwhelmed with the crippling anxiety that you won’t finish the task, or worse, you’ve made so many mistakes and the result is far from perfect.
As mentioned earlier, procrastination can come from the fear of failure, which is why individuals who procrastinate have this constant feeling of anxiety within them.
5. Perfectionism
This sign is more inclined to procrastinators rather than individuals who are just lazy. Procrastination often comes from the need to be perfect in all or several aspects of your life and this alone can lead you to delay finishing or even just starting tasks.
If you’re a procrastinator, there’s a massive chance that you tend to be afraid that you won’t live up to your expectations or that you’ll fail yourself or other people. However, you should know that perfectionism is a double-edged sword you can’t achieve, no matter how hard you try.
6. Feeling pressured
It’s easy to feel pressured when you’re lazy and procrastinating, specifically because the feeling of not doing anything or the act of delaying your task until the last minute puts a lot of pressure and expectation on yourself.
When you don’t feel like doing anything, you feel pressured to do something and when you’re rushing deadlines, you feel pressured to finish them.
In conclusion, I hope this article was able to shed insight on everything you needed to know about the differences between laziness and procrastination. While it’s not always easy to deal with these things, it’s not the end of the world if you’re dealing with laziness and procrastination.
For laziness, realize that motivation is always a choice and you can do something to counter laziness. For procrastination, you can always deal with your fear of failure or simply do your tasks earlier to avoid cramming later on.
