We could start this commentary with several obvious jokes, but we’ve been finding out that our topic about procrastination is not really a laughing matter.
Everybody procrastinates. It looks like it is just part of being a human. But for lots of us it’s not the harmless habit we think it is. For some, putting off until tomorrow what we should be doing today, can be a sign of mental troubles and a mystifying source of doing “self-harm.” For most of the rest of us, we’re left with making up our own excuses — all of which come up lame.
Have you ever stopped to think about why you procrastinate? Do you even admit doing it? How frustrated do you get putting up with other people’s lazy behavior or stubborn delaying tactics?
Maybe you’ve always wondered about the topic but you’ve never gotten around to making a close examination of what it means or why 99 out of 100 people that you know do it. Well?
Procrastinating is not just putting off some undesirable task for as long as you can. We do it even when we know there will be some penalty or loss involved. We always tell ourselves the delay will be worth it. And, surprise, sometimes it is. It turns out there is “active” procrastination and there is “passive” procrastination. One has to do with making intentional strategic delays or priority choices and the other is just a lot of guilt-laden excuses to cover up laziness, anxiety or stress.
It’s a stubborn mystery why we do it.
Just so you know, there is no classic definition for the term “procrastination,” even though there have been voluminous books, scholarly papers and clinical studies devoted to the subject. Plato and Aristotle both mused over the topic in ancient Greece. They called it “akrasia” — a state of lacking self-command or acting against one’s own best interest. Lots of mystery still surrounds the topic to this very day.
There is more to it than just avoiding an unpleasant task. As you might suspect, there’s been a lot of psychoanalysis about the associated chronic illnesses, productivity costs, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and even physical ailments like hypertension and heart disease.
There’s one theory that we all procrastinate because we want to slight our “future selves.” We put off today’s tasks and make them somebody else’s problem — even when that somebody else is actually us. Ooh boy.
The word is derived from Latin, combining “pro” (forward) with “crastinus” (tomorrow.) If it makes you feel any better, scientific studies have found that other animals do it, too.
Among us mere mortals, procrastinating can bring us small rewards of turning a pending confrontation into a delayed inconvenience. (It gets complicated.)
One study says there are five different types of procrastinators. Which one do you think you are? The five choices are Dreamer, Worrier, Perfectionist, Overdoer and Crisis-Maker. It’s probably possible we could be more than one of these types or switch our behaviors between them.
Whatever labels we use, some people are chronic procrastinators and some of us are only casual offenders. Who among us is not guilty of filing our income taxes at the very last minute? Maybe we won’t admit it is us, but we all know someone who can’t seem to do their Christmas gift shopping until it’s Christmas Eve.
And, then we’ve all been “guilty” when we were students for putting off studying for a test until the night before. Various studies of college students found between 50 to 75% of students put off studying for big exams by sleeping extra hours, playing video games or pretending to look for something they lost weeks ago.
In an unscientific poll we conducted, we found that pretty much everyone has a father who was a champion procrastinator or was the exact opposite and drove everyone nuts with his daily “to-do” chores for the whole household. All our dads had good intentions, but some had even better excuses. At the same time, being a mother never allowed for much procrastination, which we guess was for obvious reasons.
Have you heard of precrastination?
Did you know there is an opposite human trait to procrastination? It’s called precrastination and it’s not a very healthy habit or impulse. People who precrastinate are compulsive and complete tasks as soon as possible, often using short-cuts, working hastily and usually ending up with inferior results, extra effort and costly do-overs. Some of the more innocent precrastinators are just looking for instant rewards or attention. It sounds like “neat freaks” might fit into this category.
In both cases of pre- and pro- crastination, neurological research has shown that our brains are always looking for tangible or recognizable rewards. “If we have a habit loop around procrastination but we haven’t found a better reward, our brain is just going to keep doing it over and over until we give it something better to do,” says Dr. Judson Brewer, a neurologist at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center.
“We really weren’t designed to think ahead into the further future because we needed to focus on providing for ourselves in the here and now,” says psychologist Dr. Hal Hershfield, a professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. “When we procrastinate, parts of our brains actually think that the tasks we’re putting off — and the accompanying negative feelings that await us on the other side — are somebody else’s problem.” (Whew.)
Bottom Line
As we said, everybody procrastinates sooner or later. But for many it is a problem when it becomes too habitual and a way of life. The social, economic and emotional costs are very real. Besides the personal stress, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive consequences, habitual procrastination can harm home life relationships and workplace productivity.
A vicious cycle can ensue leading to a person’s lack of overall motivation, low self-esteem and heightened self-defeatism. For anyone who wants to climb out of his or her procrastination loop, they need to retrace all their steps about why they procrastinate in the first place. That’s not an easy journey and probably requires some expert intervention or very friendly guidance.
Am I just a mind-wandering dreamer or do I seek the extra attention by being an intentional crisis-maker? Am I a victim of always waiting for the “perfect moment” or am I really just a lazy person? If this is all about “guilt” or a feeling of incompetence, where did that come from in the first place?
Motivational psychologists suggest people make daily lists of tasks and give themselves small rewards for completing each one.
These same experts warn that making too many hard deadlines will only work for some people and will increase bad habits for others. They are rare, but there are support groups for procrastinators that resemble an Alcoholics Anonymous group.
On second thought, and after much delay, we now think that maybe we should have started this commentary with a joke after all. But as Mark Twain once said, “never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”
— Rollie Atkinson
3-19-2024
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