Postponing responsibilities has health effects
"This is over tomorrow." This phrase is one of the most heard in homes around the world, either through exhaustion or laziness, often postponing the responsibilities for later and they are not fulfilled when they should. But, do these decisions have more consequences beyond the fact that in the end the individual ends up finding an excessive workload?
According to psychologists Dianne M. Tice Y Roy F. Baumeister The answer is yes: those who decide to leave for tomorrow what they can do today face a higher level of stress because of the large amount of work they must take on the day they finally have to take care of all these tasks. A way to warn that sometimes it is worth more to make an effort than to do nothing.
The stress of the decision
Both psychologists studied the health, both physical and mental, of those who decided to postpone their work and who complied to the letter. For this, they evaluated the attitudes of the students of the university in which they taught and to analyze how they faced their responsibilities in the home.
Although at first, those who postponed their responsibilities for another they did not present any stress or other symptom that indicated that the decision was harmful to them, with the passage of time, negative results were seen. These students not only got worse grades in both exams and jobs, but showed more anxiety.
An anxiety that made it more likely that they could suffer inconvenience derived from stress: lack of sleep, less appetite, poor concentration. This meant that at the time they had to face their responsibilities they were unable to focus on what they were doing. On the other hand, these constant nerves made their levels of defenses, making it more likely that they could fall ill.
Instill responsibility
Given the results of this study it is clear that it is better to make an effort than to fall ill because of these decisions. To prevent this from happening, nothing better than working to make children internalize the value of responsibility. Here are some tips for this:
- Lead by example. The parents are the mirror where the children look, if they see how the adults comply, they will have a good behavior to imitate.
- Rules and schedules. All the days there must be a time to dedicate to the responsibilities. In this time there is no place for another aspect that is not fulfilling the duties, it is possible a rest, but not to cease with these tasks.
- The joy of fulfilling. Parents should encourage the sense of enjoyment that occurs when someone fulfills their responsibilities. After so much effort invested, you also have to applaud the goal obtained.
- An environment that does not distract. It is easier not to stop working if the environment where the child works does not distract so much. Smartphones, computers, video game consoles, all must be outside the place where the responsibilities are studied or executed.
- Do not take on your job. A father can help children do their homework, but never do it for them. It has to encourage critical thinking, never replace them.
Damián Montero
