The roots of polynomial $ p(x) $ are:
$$ \begin{aligned}x_1 &= 2.118\\[1 em]x_2 &= -0.118 \end{aligned} $$Step 1:
Get rid of fractions by multipling equation by $ \color{blue}{ 4 } $.
$$ \begin{aligned} -x^2+2x+\frac{1}{4} & = 0 ~~~ / \cdot \color{blue}{ 4 } \\[1 em] -4x^2+8x+1 & = 0 \end{aligned} $$Step 2:
The solutions of $ -4x^2+8x+1 = 0 $ are: $ x = 1-\dfrac{\sqrt{ 5 }}{ 2 } ~ \text{and} ~ x = 1+\dfrac{\sqrt{ 5 }}{ 2 }$.
You can use step-by-step quadratic equation solver to see a detailed explanation on how to solve this quadratic equation.