Many of us have been there. A pile of work to do, deadlines looming. And all we can do is procrastinate. I sometimes do things I’d never normally do. Just so I don’t have to do the very thing I am supposed to do.
One time, when faced with a particularly boring but important task, I took out my phone and started scrolling through Pinterest instead. You might think that’s quite normal. But my procrastination didn’t end there. I happened upon some clever cleaning hacks and the next thing I knew, I was on my knees with an old toothbrush, cleaning grout between the kitchen tiles. At least I was productive. But at some point I still had to tackle the task I’d been avoiding all along.
When the hilarious author and blogger, Mark Manson wrote a column about how to avoid procrastination, he was honest enough to include this gem:
“It’s ironic, but for two days now, I’ve been procrastinating writing a post on procrastination. I’ve done it all. I’ve distracted myself with other, less important work. I’ve taken ‘breaks’ that extended about three hours longer than they should have. I’ve done that thing where I sit on Facebook and then I close the window, open a new one, and instinctively type in Facebook again.”
You can probably bet the last memory space on your phone he’s not the only one turning to Facebook instead of facing his work book. Over a million people have joined the Facebook group "Funny Memes: Work and Life" since it started.
Their sole purpose is to share, or look at, funny memes about work and life in general. It seems like the perfect way to pass time and procrastinate while still appearing to be productive.
The Oxford Dictionary defines procrastination as “the act of delaying something that you should do, usually because you do not want to do it”. Research shows up to a quarter of people are chronic procrastinators. And that the average adult spends three and a half hours a day procrastinating. Hey, at least my kitchen tile grout is clean…
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Dr Richard Ferrari has done extensive studies on procrastination. Here’s what he told the American Psychological Association: “One of my favorite sayings is, ‘Everyone procrastinates, but not everyone is a procrastinator.’ We all put tasks off, but my research has found that 20 percent of U.S. men and women are chronic procrastinators. They delay at home, work, school and in relationships. These 20 percent make procrastination their way of life, so of course they procrastinate when filing their income taxes. We are a nation of 'doers' but we are also, like people from other industrialized nations, a people of ‘waiters’.”
If you devour memes to distract yourself from your daily to do list, don’t beat yourself up. You might actually be doing your company a favor… If you share the fun with your co-workers. A study conducted in 2014 found that humor can actually boost persistence. And what company doesn’t want employees who weather the storm?
Researchers got 124 students at an Australian university to complete tasks before and after they'd been exposed to something funny. They found that humor is not only entertaining but also replenishing. The researchers noted that "organizations that require their employees to persist may consider creating a playful culture that encourages the use of humor to increase employees’ persistence."
Since you came here to beat boredom, let me share this fun fact with you... The word meme has been around long before the world wide web and social media even existed. It was first used in 1976 by evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins. He described memes as "units of culture". Think tunes, ideas, catch‐phrases, fast fashion.
