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.