Why do we truly procrastinate?
The question of why we procrastinate has exercised our curiocity since January when we read that researchers at Canada’s University of Calgary have created a a formula to predict Procrastination [ 1 ]. Before you proceed to read this article, we will ask you to provide answer to the poll below:
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The thrust of the article published in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Bulletin [ 2 ] is that procrastination is more a function of confidence and expectancy rather than perfectionism.
The formula predicts procrastination based on a person’s expectation of finishing a task, the task’s importance, the person’s desire to complete the task, and how soon the task needs to be done. [ 1 ].
We are no psychologists but we have decided to embark on a research of what other writers on this topic have written and then come to our own conclusions.
Background
The first thing we thought of when procrastination was mentioned was the religious context. There seem to be a lot of quotations in the religious texts about procrastination.
Elijah went before the people and said, How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him. But the people said nothing. [1 Kings 18:21] - Bible
Tell My Servants that I am indeed the oft-forgiving, most merciful; and that my chastisement will be indeed the most grievous chastisement [ Al-Hijr: 49-50] - Quran.
The common theme in these texts is that individuals must convert to the specific religious teaching now and not tomorrow else face dire consequences. Procrastination, in these texts, is presented as undesirable.
Our starting point was to perform a Google search using the search term: procrastinate. We will then examine in some details the first 10 search results [ 3 ].
Wikipedia defines procrastination as:
the deferment or avoidance of an action or task to a later time and is often linked to perfectionism. For the person procrastinating this may result in stress, a sense of guilt, the loss of productivity, the creation of crisis, and the chagrin of others for not fulfilling one’s responsibilities or commitments. While it is normal for individuals to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological or physiological disorder.
From the above definition, and the knowledge of the fact that most people have some kind of religious underpinning, it is not surprising to perceive procrastination (as a concept) as undesirable and unacceptable. We believe however, that there is nothing inherently wrong with the act of procrastinating. The problem lies in the reason(s) why you are procrastinating. Alexander Kjerulf wrote an interesting article on ‘How to Procrastinate Effectively’ [ 4 ] in which he suggests that
procrastination is just another tool I use. A way to recharge and get ideas. The important thing is to procrastinate effectively.
In order to establish why we truly procrastinate, we needed to first establish in your mind that procrastination need not be a bad thing and the reasons why you procrastinate is more critical.
So why do we truly procrastinate?
A number of texts have identified a number of reasons why we procrastinate. We have analyzed these texts and distilled the reasons why people procrastinate into five distinct areas [5, 6, 7, 8 ]:
- Lack of organization
- Lack of commitment
- Fear and Anxiety
- Perfectionism
- Personal Circumstances
Lack of organization
Poor organization has been identified as a reason why people procrastinate. Included in this categorization is Poor Time management and Inability to assign appropriate priorities to tasks.
Lack of commitment
You are likely to procrastinate if there is clear lack of commitment to the task at hand. It has been suggested that if you have no task buy-in you will procrastinate on the task. Simply put, you consider the task a waste of time, or the question of what is in it for me has not be appropriately answered.
Fear and Anxiety
The fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of finishing and even fear of success have all been attributed to the reason why people procrastinate. These fears will result in task avoidance and are usually the most difficult ones to admit to.
Perfectionism
Perfectionism has been described as:
The persistence of will in obtaining the optimal present and future quality of spiritual, mental, physical, and material being - Wikipedia
Perfectionism is a form of rigidity or inflexibility that is marked by three major characteristics: (1) The intense desire to jump in and do things yourself because others just can’t do it right; (2) the insistent attitude that you wouldn’t even start on something if you can’t do it well; and (3) the profound need for closure, indicated by agitation or discomfort should something be left “hanging” [ 5 ]
The pursuance of perfection invariable lead to burnout and procrastination. It has been suggested that the pursuant of perfectionism is totally unhealthy and represents a ‘duel with oneself, the ultimate “no win” situation’ [ 7 ].
Personal Circumstances
We identify changing personal circumstances as a reason why people might procrastinate. If the personal circumstance changes, then what was important yesterday might not be so important today. Difficulty to concentrate is another personal circumstance which may contribute to procrastination.
Conclusion
Majority of the articles we reviewed tended to approach the subject matter on the premise that procrastination is an undesirable phenomenon. As a result most of the articles offer a solution somewhat for coping with this problem.
We observe this to be justified because 4 of the 5 reasons identified as why people procrastinate are undesirable in a business environment where you want to achieve the best productivity outcomes from everyone. However, if personal circumstances change (and it does happen), effective procrastination is to be encouraged.
Effective procrastination is not a synonym for laziness but a mechanism for understanding what you are best at and channeling all your energies towards it. This is the highest state of effectiveness. To arrive at the state however, you must have passed the following tests:
- Are you 100% committed?
- Are you organized 99% of the time?
- Are you flexible?
- Do you understand your personal hindrances and have strategies in place to cope with these?
If your answer is yes to all of these..then welcome to the world of effective procrastination.
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Books on Procrastination
Click here to view other books on the subject of procrastination.
References
1 - Why we procrastinate - Researchers Creates Formula to Predict procrastination - reported by
Miranda Hitti of WebMD
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/131/118024?src=RSS_PUBLIC
2 - The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of
Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure. By Steel, Piers.
Psychological Bulletin. 2007 Jan Vol 133(1) 65-94
3 - Google Search [Search term: procrastination; Search performed on 22nd April 2007]
4 - How to Procrastinate Effectively - Alexander Kjerulf. Chief Happiness Officer webBlog
29th November 2006
http://positivesharing.com/2006/11/how-to-procrastinate-effectively/
5 - The problem of procrastination - Dr. T. Quek
http://webhome.idirect.com/%7Ereadon/procrast.html
6 - Time Management: Five Reasons why we procrastinate and Five Strategies to Put Off Putting Off - BusinessTown.com
http://www.businesstown.com/time/time-5reasons.asp
7 - Perfectionism - a double edged sword - The University of Texas at Austin, Counseling and Mental Health Center. 2004
http://www.utexas.edu/student/cmhc/booklets/perfection/perfect.html
8 - Procrastination - University of Cambridge Counseling Services http://www.counselling.cam.ac.uk/procras.html
-88Jwd
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