The Nation of Procrastination
Watching Youtube videos to reading blogs of the travelers, even though you have an important assignment or a report deadline to cater to. If you tend to delay important duties that you need to perform for a better academic or professional career over other unimportant tasks such as Netflixing or sharing memes, then congratulations you are a chronic procrastinator.
You belong to the elite club of the legends, with the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Margaret Atwood, and Frank Lloyd Wright. About 80% of college students are plagued by procrastination and roughly 20 percent of the adults are reported to be chronic procrastinators. A chronic procrastinator is the one who frequently puts off things or delays the work.
Procrastination, as Wikipedia puts it, is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished by a certain deadline. It may start with an unavoidable circumstance but eventually may develop as a habit of intentionally delaying your commencent or even completing a task despite knowing that it may have negative repercussions. Procrastination is nothing but lying to yourself, telling yourself that you have plenty of time to complete your tasks.
This behaviour is not rational because we know that later we push it, the more negative consequences will follow.
How would you differentiate a chronic procrastinator from a person who mostly makes rational decisions? In our experience, we can figure this out by observing them as to how they handle a crucial task. Let’s call the latter group of people as Rational Decision Makers (RDM). RDM will tend to make the rational decision to do the work while the procrastinator will tend to digress from the main agenda to do something illogical or that doesn’t contribute much to the progress.
As the deadline approaches, the chronic procrastinators will tend to be in complete panic mode, tensed, running here and there because of not starting or not having significant progress in the completion of the task. The people, on the other hand, who had made the rational decision of doing the work meticulously are relatively calm.
Tim Urban talks that it’s in this balancing of rational decision making and having fun that a conflict of interest arises and for a procrastinator that ends a certain way all the time with spending more time having fun and going easy.
Procrastinators choose to look for instant gratification by having fun or indulging in leisure activities that are not supposed to be happening. This fun is filled with anxiety, guilt, dread, self-hatred — which is a common experience with procrastinators.
Some of us might argue that we perform better in pressure situations, but this is where we are wrong. We have set our expectations so low that even though we perform mediocrely, as compared to our original capabilities, we become content with it. Procrastination is not a help but a hindrance which severely compromises the original vision.
People from various disciplines are victims of this whether it be students or professionals, everyone has come face to face with this devil at one or another point in their lifetime. Procrastination is of two types :-
(i) Short-Term — This type of procrastination is usually seen whenever there is a deadline.
(ii) Long Term — This is the type that can go on for days and days together because here no deadline is involved, for instance in an entrepreneurial world where there are no as such defined deadlines.
What then gets a procrastinator to actually do the work? One of the other major answers to this question is the Panic. This Panic is the guardian angel of a procrastinator. The panic remains dormant erstwhile while becomes active as soon as the deadline for any assignment approaches. Procrastination has several health hazards associated with it as well as research has shown that procrastination is significantly correlated with poor study habits, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.
Procrastination is a modern-day concept. During the ancient times, a person had majorly 3 objectives to accomplish- Eat, Sleep, and Propagate. But now the tables have turned, now life has become a race with people in the quicksand of neck to neck competition and getting more done in less time. It is not that procrastination didn’t exist in previous times, but was described by the Greek philosophers as ‘Akrasia’ which meant to act against our better judgment by doing one thing even though we know we should be doing something else.
Procrastination is one of the most insidious of troubles that plague humans today. The key insight here is that procrastination is very easy to rationalize to ourselves. We all know about the fallacies of the idea of tomorrow. Tomorrow, I am going to have more energy, tomorrow I will feel more inspired. But the fact of the matter is that this tomorrow never comes. There is no perfect time or opportunity and we have to grab that opportunity. As Carpe Diem quotes — “Seize the Day.”
Procrastination does not mean that the individuals are completely fine in not doing the work.
People tend to rationalize it to themselves. They tend to tell stories, lie to themselves, and convince themselves that it’s completely fine. They also tend to forget about work while at the moment. One of the frequent complaints of chronic procrastinators is that they can’t manage their time well and tend to waste most of their time.
Procrastination shouldn’t be shameful. It shouldn’t either be a flaw which stays for a lifetime, or a sign of weakness which can’t be overcome. There has been a lot of work done in this field of procrastination and one of the major reasons attributed is that of motivation. The motivation that is lacking for the completion of a particular task.
Let’s delve deeper into more research that has been done regarding procrastination and its critical aspects. Motivation is one of the key aspects. The book Motivation Myth by Jeff Haden very aptly describes that “Motivation is not the cause of action but is the result of action.”
As Piers Steel correctly describes the motivation in terms of an equation :-
Motivation is the willingness to do work which is essentially the opposite of procrastination. Expectancy refers to how you expect to succeed at doing the task and thereby receiving the anticipated reward. The more you expect to succeed on a particular task, the less likely you are going to procrastinate on it. Value refers to how much you enjoy doing a task, and how much you’re going to enjoy the reward. The more value you derive from a task or a reward, the more likely you’re gonna get straight to work.
Impulsiveness refers to the tendency to get distracted by other things. High impulsiveness drives you towards Fb or insta instead of doing the work at hand. Delay refers to the time-lapse until receiving the anticipated reward. The longer the delay the more likely you will procrastinate as you figure and think of it as something which can be changed later. The motto as the equation describes is quite clear, increasing the motivation to decrease procrastination.
This theory has its critics including Dr. Timothy Pychyl who suggests that to unify everything under this utility-based equation, this theory ends up making too many assumptions.
Before introducing the ways to curb this procrastination, let’s first discuss as to what are the speculated and proven reasons for procrastination.
Procrastinators are not less motivated than the average person. They tend to fall at the point of the intersection of success and failure. Another perspective of procrastination can be thinking it as a protective strategy for coping with conflicting motivations.
Let’s move to another major concept that people have found related to procrastination. Emotional quotients tend to play a big role in our tendency to procrastinate.
In a 2001 study, the researcher Dianne Tice found that students who were primed to believe their mood was fixed were less likely to procrastinate. While on the other hand, the vice versa happens. When procrastinators feel guilty about completing a task, they tend to rationalize it and convince themselves that it’s not a big deal. The statements by the procrastinators tended to be what is called downward counterfactuals. These are the statements that reflect a desire to improve one’s mood in the short term.
There are also a far-reaching consequence of procrastination that you might not expect like -
A study in 2010 by the Brooklyn college found a significant link between procrastination problems and problems with executive functioning.
There is a biological link associated between difficulties in initiating actions on tasks and a greater volume of gray matter in the amygdala which is the brain’s fight or flight center. A study in 2013 shows that 8 weeks of training and mindfulness meditation can shrink the volume of the amygdala.
Self-regulation of emotions and mood associated with the completion of the task as in problems with the motivation to complete the task has also been speculated as one of the causes.
The self-Worth Theory of Achievement gives us the tool to dive more deeply into the dynamics of Procrastination. The self-worth theory asserts that the paramount psychological need that all of us have is to be seen by ourselves and others as capable and competent and able. Be at being the best in maths, excellent in writing, and bound for science, these tags which bring us the recognition in school. This being the paramount need, we will actually sacrifice or trade-off other needs to realize or achieve or meet that need. The school environment is competitive and we are often competing with another. Often there are fewer awards and recognition, more people want A’s than can reasonably expect to get them. And this is where procrastination comes in.
This model captures the dynamics. This model represents people’s beliefs about the said four — Performance, Ability, Self-Worth, and Achievements. This model depicts beliefs about how people’s performance determines their ability. And how these achievements determine their self worth as in how they think about myself. And when this doubt of self-worth starts creeping in, the tendency of thinking ourselves as a failure increases, thus increasing the overall possibility of procrastination.
Procrastination, as an avoidance strategy, is nearly perfect in its outcome in protecting our self-worth even though jeopardizing our performance.
The question which now arises is how to curb procrastination? Many theorists and researchers have their way to answer this question with each proposing new ideas and innovations to stop this habit.
One of the best things we can do is forgive ourselves for any prior procrastination. It doesn’t matter whether in the past this habit was there or not, but now as we begin our new work that day no such negative previous memories should haunt us.
Marcus Aurelius in his book Meditations quotes — “Don’t let the panorama of life oppress you, do not dwell on all the various troubles which may have occurred in the past or may occur in the future. Just ask yourself in each instance of the present.” In simpler terms, Be Aware. Self-awareness is one of the keys to procrastination. Observe your behavior, observe the decision you make both short and long term. The more self-aware you are and the more you make informed decisions, the fewer chances are that you will procrastinate.
We need to clear out the noises in our mind and focus on that one thing that needs our most attention at that moment. If we tend to keep noises in our mind, chances are we might digress from the original motive of our work and will just waste time in doing futile and immaterial things which don’t contribute to our desired task completion.
Perfectionism is the idea where you are not happy about your work or your draft. One of the major challenges faced by procrastinators is perfectionism. We really need to avoid this mindset at least in the beginning. We need to find a way to start our work well in advance of our deadline. The advantage of this is that you would not feel sad and less motivated about your work at the beginning itself and as discussed the higher the motivation, the lesser chances of procrastination.
To curb this problem, we can learn to deal with the fact that some work just isn’t fun. We can’t have fun with all our tasks, and the better you learn to deal with it, the better position we will be in and tend to complete the work before the assigned deadline.
Everyone has a different version of this but you might be familiar with one or the other versions of the Countdown rule. This rule is where we tend to get to a task by counting down to 5,4,3,2,1 and at 1, we start doing the work. Often procrastination is just stopping and jumping right at doing the work. This rule sort of creates a DO IT NOW kind of mentality in our brains.
A major challenge that is faced by a lot of chronic procrastinators is breaking the inertia to get to work. Most of the resistance is faced before starting the work but as soon as we get going, the momentum stays and we start finishing assigned tasks.
There are rules which might help with this. 2 Minute Rule and 5 Minute Rule. In either of these, we will have to convince our brain to do the work for mere 2 minutes or 5 minutes respectively, and as soon as those smaller tasks are completed within the given time, the overall motivation will tend to rise and we will start feeling more urge to do the work. We must tend to finish off things that we don’t like doing at the beginning itself.
So that as soon as progress develops, the things that we like doing keep coming forward one by one, and the interest to do the work is maintained. If we do something we like, the brain secretes dopamine which makes us happy.
Implement the Pomodoro Technique. This technique is similar to the 2 minutes or the 5-minute rule but here the rules change a bit. This technique is also helping us to break our inertia. The duration is increased to 25 minutes to complete a certain task after which we will get a break of 5 minutes. Post this break, we need to get back to another objective set for the next 25 mins and this cycle keeps on going. The major advantage of this technique is that it doesn’t let our brain fatigue and also keeps the motivation high.
Remove Potential Short Term Distractions — Clear off the desk, make a list of errands that can be done after the major work is done, if not able to find the perfect location at your home, go to a library or coffee shop. The Internet increases the impulsiveness to get distracted. Cut off the internet or the use of social media sites for that specific time for better concentration. With these sidelined, we tend to have less tendency to deviate from the broader objectives that need urgent action.
Break Tasks Down into smaller more actionable sub-tasks. This increases our overall speed and motivation. Speed because now as we have subdivided, the smaller tasks are finished off earlier and as we are in the flow and the momentum is with us, we tend to complete greater bigger tasks at a quicker speed. Motivation is increased because, with the completion of each of these smaller tasks, we are going to treat yourselves. Thus, creation of incentives will increase our expectancy thus increasing motivation.
A very good rule that will increase the overall creativity and the tendency to not run away or delay the work is the Mind Activation Rule. When we have a haze in our mind to start doing another work after getting back from a hectic office day. We must do something to recharge our minds before even thinking to get to the next work. Whether it be listening to some music or whatever recharges our brain, do it. As soon as you start feeling all charged up, get back to work. The positivity will also tend to high when we get back to work after charging out the brain.
Most times in life the question is to do things timely. There is no point in solving the question paper after the exam. The problem with procrastination is people tend to miss important deadlines. And that is the reason procrastination is such a major thing that needs urgent thinking and addressing.
This can lead to an increase in self-worth, thus increasing the motivation to do more tasks well. So many people struggle with it and have this view that their self worth is very low although the problem lies just in procrastination. They are very capable and have the potential but this habit of procrastination sinks their ship.
As a parting thought, one very small thing that we can do every time we are about to procrastinate is:-
Take a break and focus on things that will have the most immediate and beneficial impact on our life right now.
Ask ourselves as to what will be the consequences of doing or not doing the tasks right now?
Stop before watching Netflix over your homework and ponder on these questions and try to answer them. These things themselves might help in getting out of the moment of not doing or procrastinating. As you do it more and more, the habit of procrastination gradually decreases.
I would like to leave you guys with a quote by Nelson Mandela -
“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
The Nation of Procrastination was originally published in StrangerSapiens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.