Do you Procrastinate?
Understanding why people really procrastinate is the key to purging that
in-box and getting on with life.
By: Maia Szalavitz
At the age of 37, Jared, a would-be professor in New York state, should
be on tenure track at a university, perhaps publishing his second or
third book. Instead, he's working on a dissertation in sociology that
he'd planned to complete a decade ago. He's blown two "drop-dead"
deadlines and is worried about missing a third. His girlfriend is losing
patience. No one can understand why a guy they consider brilliant
doesn't "just do it." Nor, for that matter, can Jared: "If I could
change it, believe me, I would," he swears.
Jared is among the one in five people who chronically procrastinate,
jeopardizing careers and jettisoning peace of mind, all the while
repeating the mantra: "I should be doing something else right now."
Procrastination is not just an issue of time management or laziness.
It's about feeling paralyzed and guilty as you channel surf, knowing you
should be cracking the books or reconfiguring your investment strategy.
Why the gap between incentive and action? Psychologists now believe it
is a combination of anxiety and false beliefs about productivity.
Tim Pychyl, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Carleton
University in Ottawa, Canada, tracked students with procrastination
problems in the final week before a project was due. Students first
reported anxiety and guilt because they had not started their projects.
"They were telling themselves 'I work better under pressure' or 'this
isn't important,'" says Pychyl. But once they began to work, they
reported more positive emotions; they no longer lamented wasted time,
nor claimed that pressure helped. The results of this study will be
presented at the Third International Conference on Counseling the
Procrastinator in Academic Settings in August. Psychologists have
focused on procrastination among students because the problem is rampant
in academic settings; some 70 percent of college students report
problems with overdue papers and delayed studying, according to Joseph
Ferrari, associate professor of psychology at Chicago's DePaul
University.
Pychyl also found that procrastination is detrimental to physical
health. College students who procrastinate have higher levels of
drinking, smoking, insomnia, stomach problems, colds and flu.
So why can't people just buckle down and get the job done?
False beliefs
Many procrastinators are convinced that they work better under pressure,
or they'll feel better about tackling the work later. But tomorrow never
comes and last-minute work is often low quality. In spite of what they
may believe, "Procrastinators generally don't do well under pressure,"
says Ferrari. The idea that time pressure improves performance is
perhaps the most common myth among procrastinators.
Fear of failure
"The main reason people procrastinate is fear," says Neil Fiore, Ph.D.,
author of The Now Habit. Procrastinators fear they'll fall short because
they don't have the requisite talent or skills. "They get overwhelmed
and they're afraid they'll look stupid." According to Ferrari,
"Procrastinators would rather be seen as lacking in effort than lacking
in ability." If you flunk a calculus exam, better to loudly blame it on
the half-hour study blitz, than admit to yourself that you could have
used a tutor the entire semester.
Perfectionism
Procrastinators tend to be perfectionists-and they're in overdrive
because they're insecure. People who do their best because they want to
win don't procrastinate; but those who feel they must be perfect to
please others often put things off. These people fret that "No one will
love me if everything I do isn't utter genius." Such perfectionism is at
the heart of many an unfinished novel.
Impulsivity may seem diametrically opposed to procrastination, but both
can be part of a larger problem: self-control. People who are impulsive
may not be able to prioritize intentions, says Pychyl. So, while writing
a term paper you break for a snack and see a spill in the refrigerator,
which leads to cleaning the entire kitchen.
Punitive parenting
Children of authoritarian parents are prone to procrastinate. Pychyl
speculates that children with such parents postpone choices because
their decisions are so frequently criticized-or made for them.
Alternatively, the child may procrastinate as a form of rebellion.
Refusing to study can be an angry-if self-defeating-message to Mom and
Dad.
Thrill-seeking
Some procrastinators enjoy the adrenaline "rush." These people find
perverse satisfaction when they finish their taxes minutes before
midnight on April 15 and dash to the post office just before it closes.
Task-related anxieties
Procrastination can be associated with specific situations. "Humans
avoid the difficult and boring," says Fiore. Even the least
procrastination-prone individuals put off taxes and visits to the
dentist.
Unclear expectations
Ambiguous directions and vague priorities increase procrastination. The
boss who asserts that everything is high priority and due yesterday is
more likely to be kept waiting. Supervisors who insist on "prioritizing
the Jones project and using the Smith plan as a model" see greater
productivity.
Depression
The blues can lead to or exacerbate procrastination-and vice versa.
Several symptoms of depression feed procrastination. Decision-making is
another problem. Because depressed people can't feel much pleasure, all
options seem equally bleak, which makes getting started difficult and
pointless.
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