Procrastination
cant be bothered?
feel stuck?
un inspired?
In
psychology, procrastination refers to the act of replacing more urgent
actions with tasks less urgent, or doing something from which one derives
enjoyment, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time. In accordance
with Freud, the pleasure principle may be responsible for procrastination;
humans prefer avoiding negative emotions, and delaying a stressful task. The
concept that humans work best under pressure provides additional enjoyment and
motivation to postponing a task. Some psychologists cite such behavior as a
mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any
task or decision. Other psychologists indicate that anxiety is just as likely to
get people to start working early as late and the focus should be impulsiveness.
That is, anxiety will cause people to delay only if they are
impulsive.
Schraw,
Wadkins, and Olafson have proposed three criteria for a behavior to be
classified as procrastination: it must be counterproductive, needless, and
delaying. Similarly, Steel (2007) reviews all previous attempts to define
procrastination, indicating it is "to voluntarily delay an intended course of
action despite expecting to be worse off for the
delay."
Procrastination
may result in stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, severe loss of personal
productivity, as well as social disapproval for not meeting responsibilities or
commitments. These feelings combined may promote further procrastination. While
it is regarded as normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes
a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a
sign of an underlying psychological disorder. Such procrastinators may have
difficulty seeking support due to social stigma and the belief that
task-aversion is caused by laziness, low willpower or low ambition. On the other
hand many regard procrastination as a useful way of identifying what is
important to us personally as it is rare to procrastinate when one truly values
the task at hand
Psychological
Psychologists continue to debate the causes of procrastination.
Drawing on clinical work, there appears to be a connection with issues of
anxiety, low sense of self worth, and a self defeating mentality. On the
other hand, drawing on meta analytical correlational work, anxiety and
perfectionism have no – or at best an extremely weak – connection with
procrastination. Instead, procrastination is strongly connected with lack of
self-confidence (e.g., low self efficacy, or learned helplessness) or
disliking the task (e.g., boredom and apathy). The strongest connection to
procrastination, however, is impulsiveness. These characteristics are often used
as measures of the personality trait conscientiousness whereas anxiety and
irrational beliefs (such as perfectionism) are aspects of the personality trait
neuroticism. Accordingly, Lee, Kelly and Edwards (2006) indicated that
neuroticism has no direct links to procrastination and that any relationship is
fully mediated by conscientiousness.
Based on
integrating several core theories of motivation as well as meta-analytic
research on procrastination is the temporal motivation theory. It summarizes key
predictors of procrastination (i.e., expectancy, value and impulsiveness) into a
mathematical equation.
Physiological
Research on
the physiological roots of procrastination mostly surrounds the role of the
prefrontal cortex. Consistent with the notion that procrastination is strongly
related to impulsiveness, this area of the brain is responsible for executive
brain functions such as planning, impulse control, attention, and acts as a
filter by decreasing distracting stimuli from other brain regions. Damage or low
activation in this area can reduce an individual's ability to filter out
distracting stimuli, ultimately resulting in poorer organization, a loss of
attention and increased procrastination. This is similar to the prefrontal
lobe's role in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, where
underactivation is common.
Mental
health
For some
people, procrastination can be persistent and tremendously disruptive to
everyday life. For these individuals, procrastination may be symptomatic of a
psychological disorder such as depression or neurological disorder such as ADHD.
Therefore, it is important for people whose procrastination has become chronic
and is perceived to be debilitating, to seek out a trained therapist or
psychiatrist to see if an underlying mental health issue may be
present.
Perfectionism
Traditionally, procrastination has been associated with
perfectionism, a tendency to negatively evaluate outcomes and one's own
performance, intense fear and avoidance of evaluation of one's abilities by
others, heightened social self-consciousness and anxiety, recurrent low mood,
and workaholism According to Robert B. Slaney adaptive perfectionists
(when perfectionism is egosyntonic) were less likely to procrastinate
than non-perfectionists, while maladaptive perfectionists (people who saw their
perfectionism as a problem; i.e., when perfectionism is egodystonic) had high
levels of procrastination (and also of anxiety). Accordingly, meta-analytic
review of 71 studies by Steel (2007) indicate that typically perfectionists
actually procrastinate slightly less than others, with "the exception being
perfectionists who were also seeking clinical
counseling."
Examples
Academic
procrastination
More
specifically, a 1992 study showed that "52% of surveyed students indicated
having a moderate to high need for help concerning procrastination". It is
estimated that 80%–95% of college students engage in procrastination,
approximately 75% considering themselves
procrastinators.
One source
of procrastination is the planning fallacy, where we underestimate the time
required to analyze research. Many students devote weeks to gathering research
for a term paper, but are unable to finish writing it because they have left
insufficient time for subsequent stages of the assignment. Similarly, students
know better than anyone whether or not an assignment or task is feasible. Many
students believe in the common method of cramming when studying for an exam or
writing up a research paper in one sitting rather than spacing everything out.
Despite the stress, lack of sleep, and inefficiency involved, students become
trapped into a perpetual mode of procrastination. Cal Newport argues that
students' brains acknowledging such daunting tasks will not yield positive
results. This results in procrastination.
Student
syndrome refers to the phenomenon where a student will only begin to fully apply
themselves to a task immediately before a deadline. This negates the usefulness
of any buffers built into individual task duration estimates. Study results
indicate that many students are aware of procrastination and accordingly set
costly binding deadlines long before the date for which the task is due.
Furthermore, these self-imposed binding deadlines are correlated with a better
performance than without binding deadlines, though performance is best for
evenly-spaced external binding deadlines. Finally, students have difficulties
optimally setting self-imposed deadlines, with results suggesting a lack of
spacing before the date at which tasks are due.
Other
reasons cited on why students procrastinate include fear of failure and success,
perfectionist expectations, and legitimate activities that may take precedence
over school work (like a job).
Reactions to
procrastination
Justification
Individual
coping responses to procrastination are often emotional or avoidant oriented
rather than task or problem-solving oriented. Emotion oriented coping is
designed to reduce stress (and cognitive dissonance) associated with putting off
intended and important personal goals, an option that provides immediate
pleasure and is consequently very attractive to impulsive procrastinators. There
are hundreds of identified emotion oriented strategies, similar to Freudian
defence mechanisms, coping styles and self handicapping. These
procrastinators include using the following:
Avoidance:
Where we avoid the locale or situation where the task takes place (e.g., a
graduate student avoiding going to University).
Distraction:
Where we engage or immerse ourselves in other behaviors or actions to prevent
awareness of the task
Trivialization: We reframe the intended but procrastinated task
as being not that important (e.g., "I'm putting off going to the dentist, but
you know what? Teeth aren't that important.").
Downward
counterfactuals: We compare our situation with those even worse (e.g., "Yes, I
procrastinated and got a B- in the course, but I didn't fail like one other
student did."). Upward counterfactual is considering what would have happened if
we didn't procrastinate.
Humour:
Making a joke of one's procrastination, that the slapstick or slipshod quality
of one's aspirational goal striving is funny.
External
attributions: That the cause of procrastination is due to external forces beyond
our control (e.g., "I'm procrastinating because the assignment isn't
fair").
Reframing:
Pretending that getting an early start on a project is harmful to one's
performance and leaving the work to the last moment will produce better results
(e.g., "I'm most creative at 4:00 AM in the morning without
sleep.").
Denial:
Pretending that procrastinatory behaviour is not actually procrastinating, but a
task which is more important than the avoided one.
Laziness: Procrastinating simply because one is too lazy
to do their desired task.
Valorisation: Pointing out in satisfaction what we achieved in
the meantime while we should have been doing something
else.
Task or
problem-solving oriented coping is rarer for the procrastinator because it is
more effective in reducing procrastination. If pursued, it is less likely the
procrastinator would remain a procrastinator. It requires actively changing
one's behavior or situation to prevent a reoccurrence of
procrastination.
feel stuck?
un inspired?
In
psychology, procrastination refers to the act of replacing more urgent
actions with tasks less urgent, or doing something from which one derives
enjoyment, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time. In accordance
with Freud, the pleasure principle may be responsible for procrastination;
humans prefer avoiding negative emotions, and delaying a stressful task. The
concept that humans work best under pressure provides additional enjoyment and
motivation to postponing a task. Some psychologists cite such behavior as a
mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any
task or decision. Other psychologists indicate that anxiety is just as likely to
get people to start working early as late and the focus should be impulsiveness.
That is, anxiety will cause people to delay only if they are
impulsive.
Schraw,
Wadkins, and Olafson have proposed three criteria for a behavior to be
classified as procrastination: it must be counterproductive, needless, and
delaying. Similarly, Steel (2007) reviews all previous attempts to define
procrastination, indicating it is "to voluntarily delay an intended course of
action despite expecting to be worse off for the
delay."
Procrastination
may result in stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, severe loss of personal
productivity, as well as social disapproval for not meeting responsibilities or
commitments. These feelings combined may promote further procrastination. While
it is regarded as normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes
a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a
sign of an underlying psychological disorder. Such procrastinators may have
difficulty seeking support due to social stigma and the belief that
task-aversion is caused by laziness, low willpower or low ambition. On the other
hand many regard procrastination as a useful way of identifying what is
important to us personally as it is rare to procrastinate when one truly values
the task at hand
Psychological
Psychologists continue to debate the causes of procrastination.
Drawing on clinical work, there appears to be a connection with issues of
anxiety, low sense of self worth, and a self defeating mentality. On the
other hand, drawing on meta analytical correlational work, anxiety and
perfectionism have no – or at best an extremely weak – connection with
procrastination. Instead, procrastination is strongly connected with lack of
self-confidence (e.g., low self efficacy, or learned helplessness) or
disliking the task (e.g., boredom and apathy). The strongest connection to
procrastination, however, is impulsiveness. These characteristics are often used
as measures of the personality trait conscientiousness whereas anxiety and
irrational beliefs (such as perfectionism) are aspects of the personality trait
neuroticism. Accordingly, Lee, Kelly and Edwards (2006) indicated that
neuroticism has no direct links to procrastination and that any relationship is
fully mediated by conscientiousness.
Based on
integrating several core theories of motivation as well as meta-analytic
research on procrastination is the temporal motivation theory. It summarizes key
predictors of procrastination (i.e., expectancy, value and impulsiveness) into a
mathematical equation.
Physiological
Research on
the physiological roots of procrastination mostly surrounds the role of the
prefrontal cortex. Consistent with the notion that procrastination is strongly
related to impulsiveness, this area of the brain is responsible for executive
brain functions such as planning, impulse control, attention, and acts as a
filter by decreasing distracting stimuli from other brain regions. Damage or low
activation in this area can reduce an individual's ability to filter out
distracting stimuli, ultimately resulting in poorer organization, a loss of
attention and increased procrastination. This is similar to the prefrontal
lobe's role in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, where
underactivation is common.
Mental
health
For some
people, procrastination can be persistent and tremendously disruptive to
everyday life. For these individuals, procrastination may be symptomatic of a
psychological disorder such as depression or neurological disorder such as ADHD.
Therefore, it is important for people whose procrastination has become chronic
and is perceived to be debilitating, to seek out a trained therapist or
psychiatrist to see if an underlying mental health issue may be
present.
Perfectionism
Traditionally, procrastination has been associated with
perfectionism, a tendency to negatively evaluate outcomes and one's own
performance, intense fear and avoidance of evaluation of one's abilities by
others, heightened social self-consciousness and anxiety, recurrent low mood,
and workaholism According to Robert B. Slaney adaptive perfectionists
(when perfectionism is egosyntonic) were less likely to procrastinate
than non-perfectionists, while maladaptive perfectionists (people who saw their
perfectionism as a problem; i.e., when perfectionism is egodystonic) had high
levels of procrastination (and also of anxiety). Accordingly, meta-analytic
review of 71 studies by Steel (2007) indicate that typically perfectionists
actually procrastinate slightly less than others, with "the exception being
perfectionists who were also seeking clinical
counseling."
Examples
Academic
procrastination
More
specifically, a 1992 study showed that "52% of surveyed students indicated
having a moderate to high need for help concerning procrastination". It is
estimated that 80%–95% of college students engage in procrastination,
approximately 75% considering themselves
procrastinators.
One source
of procrastination is the planning fallacy, where we underestimate the time
required to analyze research. Many students devote weeks to gathering research
for a term paper, but are unable to finish writing it because they have left
insufficient time for subsequent stages of the assignment. Similarly, students
know better than anyone whether or not an assignment or task is feasible. Many
students believe in the common method of cramming when studying for an exam or
writing up a research paper in one sitting rather than spacing everything out.
Despite the stress, lack of sleep, and inefficiency involved, students become
trapped into a perpetual mode of procrastination. Cal Newport argues that
students' brains acknowledging such daunting tasks will not yield positive
results. This results in procrastination.
Student
syndrome refers to the phenomenon where a student will only begin to fully apply
themselves to a task immediately before a deadline. This negates the usefulness
of any buffers built into individual task duration estimates. Study results
indicate that many students are aware of procrastination and accordingly set
costly binding deadlines long before the date for which the task is due.
Furthermore, these self-imposed binding deadlines are correlated with a better
performance than without binding deadlines, though performance is best for
evenly-spaced external binding deadlines. Finally, students have difficulties
optimally setting self-imposed deadlines, with results suggesting a lack of
spacing before the date at which tasks are due.
Other
reasons cited on why students procrastinate include fear of failure and success,
perfectionist expectations, and legitimate activities that may take precedence
over school work (like a job).
Reactions to
procrastination
Justification
Individual
coping responses to procrastination are often emotional or avoidant oriented
rather than task or problem-solving oriented. Emotion oriented coping is
designed to reduce stress (and cognitive dissonance) associated with putting off
intended and important personal goals, an option that provides immediate
pleasure and is consequently very attractive to impulsive procrastinators. There
are hundreds of identified emotion oriented strategies, similar to Freudian
defence mechanisms, coping styles and self handicapping. These
procrastinators include using the following:
Avoidance:
Where we avoid the locale or situation where the task takes place (e.g., a
graduate student avoiding going to University).
Distraction:
Where we engage or immerse ourselves in other behaviors or actions to prevent
awareness of the task
Trivialization: We reframe the intended but procrastinated task
as being not that important (e.g., "I'm putting off going to the dentist, but
you know what? Teeth aren't that important.").
Downward
counterfactuals: We compare our situation with those even worse (e.g., "Yes, I
procrastinated and got a B- in the course, but I didn't fail like one other
student did."). Upward counterfactual is considering what would have happened if
we didn't procrastinate.
Humour:
Making a joke of one's procrastination, that the slapstick or slipshod quality
of one's aspirational goal striving is funny.
External
attributions: That the cause of procrastination is due to external forces beyond
our control (e.g., "I'm procrastinating because the assignment isn't
fair").
Reframing:
Pretending that getting an early start on a project is harmful to one's
performance and leaving the work to the last moment will produce better results
(e.g., "I'm most creative at 4:00 AM in the morning without
sleep.").
Denial:
Pretending that procrastinatory behaviour is not actually procrastinating, but a
task which is more important than the avoided one.
Laziness: Procrastinating simply because one is too lazy
to do their desired task.
Valorisation: Pointing out in satisfaction what we achieved in
the meantime while we should have been doing something
else.
Task or
problem-solving oriented coping is rarer for the procrastinator because it is
more effective in reducing procrastination. If pursued, it is less likely the
procrastinator would remain a procrastinator. It requires actively changing
one's behavior or situation to prevent a reoccurrence of
procrastination.