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In Brief
- Almost everyone occasionally procrastinates, but a worrisome 15 to 20 percent of adults routinely put off activities that would be better accomplished right away.
- A penchant for postponement carries a financial penalty, endangers health, harms relationships and ends careers. And yet perpetual foot-draggers sometimes benefit emotionally from their tactics, which support the human inclination to avoid the disagreeable.
- Research into the reasons people put off projects has led to strategies for helping all of us get and stay on task.
Raymond, a high-powered attorney, habitually put off returning important business calls and penning legal briefs, behaviors that seriously threatened his career. Raymond (not his real name) sought help from clinical psychologist William Knaus, who practices in Longmeadow, Mass. As a first step, Knaus gave Raymond a two-page synopsis of procrastination and asked him to read it “and see if the description applied.” Raymond agreed to do so on a flight to Europe. Instead he watched a movie. He next vowed to read it the first night at his hotel, but he fell asleep early. After that, each day brought something more compelling to do. In the end, Knaus calculated that the lawyer had spent 40 hours delaying a task that would have taken about two minutes to complete.
Almost everyone occasionally procrastinates, which University of Calgary economist Piers Steel defines as voluntarily delaying an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay. But like Raymond, a worrisome 15 to 20 percent of adults, the “mañana procrastinators,” routinely put off activities that would be better accomplished ASAP. And according to a 2007 meta-analysis by Steel, procrastination plagues a whopping 80 to 95 percent of college students, whose packed academic schedules and frat-party-style distractions put them at particular risk.
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54 Comments
Add CommentI think I'll add a comment later.................
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProcrastination is, of course, efficient and smart behaviour. If there is a procrastination gene it clearly survives and prospers, and here are a couple of reasons why.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTasks change over time so, if one unwisely starts a task too early, it may eventuate that the task is cancelled or evolves in such a way that previous efforts were wasted.
If one is intelligent enough - and has a sufficiently low big five conscientiousness score - to realize this, one will become a consummate survivor with unsurpassed time management skills developed through completing only the most essential of tasks in the the most timely fashion. One will use the time thus saved to make lots of babies that have the procrastination gene, while the high-conscientiousness types are beavering away at their tasks ... which may very well prove unnecessary.
Additionally, to launch unthinkingly into a job can produce false starts and much wasted effort. Bringing a little conceptual mindfulness to one's work through detailed planning is often a strategically canny approach, and can lead to a superior result that is produced in the minimum time.
Procrastinators unite: by waiting to see what is important and what is not, we become the saviours of a saner and more productive and leisurely society.
But procrastinators should not despair: their relentless but unfocussed activity can produce much, and sometimes a goodly proportion of it is quite useful.
Edit: of course it is NON-procrastinators who should not despair at their unfortunate affliction of compulsive, guilt-fuelled striving for busyness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisasozasis, I admire your astute synopsis of the procrastinators virtues. I have long felt that procrastination weeds out many unnecessary tasks. We should totally have a committee meeting later.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn a separate note, there is a typo in the utility formula - personal sensitivity to delay (P) later represented as (R) in the formula.
...Steel puts together four basic factors, expectancy (E), value (V), the delay until reward or punishment (D), and personal sensitivity to delay (P), in the following equation:
U = (E x V) / (R x D)
This is amazing. I have never read a story before where all the things I wanted to say were already in the comments. marineboy63, nice joke. asozasis, I like the way you think. I always try to avoid doing things too far in advance, as they almost never turn out the way they're originally expected to. It drives my girlfriend crazy, since she's a compulsive planner and thinks I'm just being lazy. And Laumulega, nice catch on the typo in the formula.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisin my previous corporate life, i found that the longer i procrastinated, the likelier that the 'need' for that activity would evaporate. now, in both my software development and musical activities, i find that in the time between procrastinating and actually getting down to it, i very often come up with a more efficient, creative, or time-saving idea than the way i would originally have approached the task. so, i don't see procrastination as something to be fixed, but rather as a method for letting ideas 'cook' longer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthe pen in this picture is not the one that wrote the note
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust head out to the bookstore and buy David Allen's "Getting Things Done" (do not delay until tomorrow). Part of his solution is to ask this question for each project: "What is the next action you can take?".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUhhhhh....I'll think about this tomorrow....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm procrastinating studying by reading this article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think procrastination is not means one do things without plan, maybe he or she have a wonderful plan, but he/she want to implement it later. So asozasis I think you are totally distort this article
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy situation is a bit more long-term, ingrained, and chronic than I think that this article suggests...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have worked very hard, in my opinion, throughout my life and have almost always come near-the-top in everything that I have cared about, from early age schooling-through-my degrees, my sports, my adventures, my friendships/relationships. I thought that these performances would equal getting my dream job, dream girl and getting grad school funding. It did not. Even after years of trying. No school funding would come my way. Women I befriend are shallow or needy. I hate my current job and the bosses who are trying to guide me to their version of the employee that they want me to be. Other potential employers tell me I am overqualified or lack specific experience. The world is unfair and we live in a time of scarcity. Perhaps my personality sucks or i hate networking. Perhaps many people go through this or feel this way. Perhaps my expectations were too high when I was young. Now I do not care much. I do the minimum and at the latest moment I possibly can. Is it right to blame the world? If I readjust my expectations to below my potential will I then be happy and therefore have no reason to procrastinate? Is that the world that we should try to create for ourselves? Is there a medical solution to this?
I agree. They fill us with unrealistic expectations as a child and when we grow up we get hit in the face with reality and see more of what used to be slip away. It's a crime. I feel ya....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNice article. One thing you missed though was the fundamental basis for "action" !! A "disagreeable" situation may be putting it mildly. A "unacceptable"/"unknown"/"unacceptable" situation would do well too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut this would be a fundamental and probably unending discussion.
I think as much as anything, the ability to realize and internalize (not merely understand) that there is no perfect outcome is very hard for (us) perfectionists. It takes a lot of erasure, control and self-control to *maintain* a non-procrastinating behaviour.
You caught me at the height of my own struggle with procrastination. It reminded me of that quote from the movie "Moonstruck" - "Why do men chase women?" The answer is "Because they're afraid of death".
Seriously - it's more complicated than the mere threat of mortal injury.
Nice.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne thing you missed though was the fundamental basis for "action" !! A "disagreeable" situation may be putting it mildly. A "unacceptable"/"unknown"/"please-god-no" situation would do well too.
But this would be a fundamental and probably unending discussion.
I think as much as anything, the ability to realize and internalize (not merely understand) that there is no perfect outcome is very hard for (us) perfectionists. It takes a lot of erasure and self-control to *maintain* a non-procrastinating behaviour.
You caught me at the height of my own struggle with procrastination. It reminded me of that quote from the movie "Moonstruck" - "Why do men chase women?" The answer is "Because they're afraid of death".
Seriously - it's more complicated than the mere threat of mortal injury.
Whoa DesignGuy - you may be too hard on yourself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe only challenge on your list seems to be your job. I think the trick is to map your way through a situation and take those actions - without losing your sense of "location".
A medical solution is probably not what you want. Unrealistic expectations as a child is what our parents are there for. They want to give us a secure childhood so that we *learn* to deal with reality when it hits us. Not whine that we were taught the wrong things.
You probably have more going for you than you think. Good Luck!
A huge five page article on how to stop procrastinating. Is this some kind of sick joke?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, I found out the typo also. Seems a bit sloppy. I think the editor procrastinated doing the editing....... ; ).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe typo aside I found this subject matter very illustrative of the moves people in my surroundings (don't) make when faced by a job of some importance.
As such this article - after some reflecting - taught me a lot: even the way how to go about UNprocrastinating a procrastinator.......with the agesold whip and carrot concept and some badly needed good spirits.
Thanks for this article.
Mariken van Zwam
I am procrastinating my studies, too. Shame on me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFunny, I was procrastinating my studies, too while I read this article. I find that sometimes procrastinating really helps my writing because there is a need to take all the pent up stress and emotion behind procrastinating and thinking about my specified project, that the end result comes out ten times better than a well planned story would have in the first place. I do not recommend this method as a regular way of getting through college.I do hate the stress that comes with the need to get things done on a time line. I have learned the hard way that the bad habit will bury you in your studies if it is out of control, and obviously, that is bad..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSciam is my favorite procrastination tool.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI completely agree.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd although I might hesitate writing the first sentence of an important piece of writing due to what Gura says to be fear of final product, I am of the opposite species described here.
Sometimes I envy those who are comfortable procrastinating, they seem so much more relaxed. I have to confess I am addicted to being busy.
it is because of this way of thinking that we are in the messes we all are in today, and the hypocritical opportunist that you so obviously are, knows this very well, no matter how much --- you use, to fool yourself from facing up to it; and when it will catch up with you, you'll be no different then all the other complainers, who bemoans on how unfairly life "Life" is treating them... ahh but wait a sec., & there will be 1even10 who'll answer & u won't have to do it
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy are so many people using the label procrastination when procrastination should only be determined as such when a person is doing so nonconsiously. If you are making a consious decision to delay you are therefore thinking about / planning which should not be determined as procrastination.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy are so many people using the label procrastination when procrastination should only be determined as such when a person is doing so nonconsiously. If you are making a consious decision to delay you are therefore thinking about / planning which should not be determined as procrastination.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy are so many people using the label procrastination when procrastination should only be determined as such when a person is doing so nonconsiously. If you are making a consious decision to delay you are therefore thinking about / planning which should not be determined as procrastination.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStop picking on me, I will get to it when the time is right
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLaumulega, totally agree with you that "procrastination weeds out unnessary tasks"....I have often been amazed at just how few tasks actually need to be done and I have wondered sometimes just how much time I might "waste" by doing all things immediately.... I sort of suspect that people who don't procrastinate must feel all things are important as long as they get done.... I am more discriminating--at least that is my story and I'm sticking to it...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article mentions that procrastinators get something from the practise (aside from putting off the task) that reinforces the behavior and I believe that is very true... I find it hard to explain but I almost find I get a visceral thrill from procrastinating at times--sort of like people who thrill seek by standing on the train track until the last minute and then dive out of way... I remember once when I was a teenager I was running for a very important bus that would take me to an important sporting competion and as I rounded the corner and saw the bus at the stop I thought "if I miss it I won't make it in time and I'll miss the play-offs" and then I stopped running and stood routed to spot and watched the bus pull away! The tempation to miss the bus was overwhelming--it felt like a dare and I could not resist.... Perhaps I was ambivalent about competing but I don't truly think that was it--I think that I simply could not resist the seductive impulse to do something that I knew I should not.... still can't believe I did that.....
There is a good course, its called mission control, helps in implementation of intentions and wording tasks as more desirable... worth checking out.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnil
"Work smart, not hard" - slacker ex-coworker of mine (always said with a laugh)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCRAMMING
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWith the example of the student cramming, there is one other important benefit realized. The information will still be fresh in mind for the finial exam. Perhaps fear of becoming confused over time is an issue. “Dyslexia” dysfunctions may explain some of the penchant for delay. Cramming therefore has another benefit; the student can associate more of the course material from beginning to end. The student need not rely on longer term rote memory efforts. –Æ Hill
INTUITION OR SUBCONSCIOUS PROCESSING
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHaving some introduction to a problem, like hearing the professor speak on the subject, and then allowing time for the subconscious to process the problems presented is a very powerful way to leverage the mind without much conscious work. Then when the intensive conscious work of cramming comes, the professor’s views can be compared to the views of others i.e., views from the textbooks (unless of course the professor wrote the books).
I think the title was misleading. I found little to nothing that could be used in the real world to stop procrastination.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is a difference between prioritizing tasks and relegating unimportant tasks others find urgent to the delay category and actual procrastination on tasks you personally find important. Too many of the previous posters don't seem to be aware of the difference.
“Prioritizing” has a positive connotation while “actual procrastination… you [consciously] find important” has a negative connotation. Many would agree with your bias toward a faith in the rational and conscious use of the mind. Never the less, the facts bear out a the truth that our subconscious mind controls most of our “mannerisms, or deportments” including most of our procrastination. More than that, the “prioritizing” is often under the control of the subconscious mind.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is a known mechanism of the mind with the purpose of confabulating logical reasonings, why things are the way they are. So when our subconscious is in control of our behavior we are able to perceive that “reasoning” so quickly that we usually believe the “reasoning” came first. All too often we are fooled by our mind that we used reasoning to prioritize. As in this Scientific American article, many “strange” [interesting] findings are emerging regarding the way the mind works.
Perhaps it would be good to ponder the conclusion Aristotle came to after LOGICALLY reasoning long and hard about knowledge: “Intuition is the source of scientific knowledge.”
Your question might become, “How can we control the power of the subconscious mind?” If we could be more aware of the power of the subconscious mind, we develop better control of that ol’ procrastination thing we do.
The author procrastinated writing the "How to Kick the Habit" part until the very end of the article and seemed to just pay lip service at that. It was interesting - don't get me wrong - but didn't quite live up to the title.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI always think of 'Procrastination' as my greatest weakness. Just imagine that I was drawn towards this article to learn about the 'procrastination' and ways to kick off a habit however while going through the complete article I opened 3 other websites and checked my scraps on the blogs site.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is true that with the advent of web and new technologies the amount of distraction available is tantamount to control the human impulse. I find the best way to deal with the procrastination is regular meditation to know where I am and where do I want to go also its good trust a coach (can be a friend, family member or a counselor) to regularly watch the progress on our set goals and tell us or motivate to keep ourselves on track.
The habit is difficult to kick off however can be controlled to more acceptable levels..i.e. we must at least try to achieve our critical goals in life and not let them succumb to a habit.
I always think of 'Procrastination' as my greatest weakness. Just imagine that I was drawn towards this article to learn about the 'procrastination' and ways to kick off a habit however while going through the complete article I opened 3 other websites and checked my scraps on the blogs site.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is true that with the advent of web and new technologies the amount of distraction available is tantamount to control the human impulse. I find the best way to deal with the procrastination is regular meditation to know where I am and where do I want to go also it’s good trust a coach (can be a friend, family member or a counselor) to regularly watch the progress on our set goals and tell us or motivate to keep ourselves on track.
The habit is difficult to kick off however can be controlled to more acceptable levels..i.e. we must at least try to achieve our critical goals in life and not let them succumb to a habit.
AE and bucketsofsquid make good points.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's hilariously ironic that I, a life-long (60 years) procrastinator, have recently become an elementary school teacher. That's an activity that involves much effort spent trying to get 10-11 year olds to do things in a timely manner. I may be an expert on procrastinating, but no way am I expert on timeliness.
Much procrastination is simply having a priority that is different from that of your current authority figure (boss, teacher, professor). Other types of procrastination include putting off something that you have "imposed" on yourself or something for which the consequences will affect only you (and perhaps your loved ones). The pressures, motivators, and stiflers in these seem to be a lot different. Therefore, preventive actions might also be quite different. Also, the worth/cost of the potential gains/losses will be quite different.
I found a number of ideas in the article that I might build on.
its seriously a good analysis on procrastination, but I was expecting some remedy for that as mentioned in the title :P. any way it was very fun reading
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProcrastination is simply avoiding the inevitable, while driving everyone else around you absolutely insane! My husband sees NO urgency, ever. It will get done eventually, but I am watching this thinking; just get it done, get it over with. Why put it off? It 's not like it is going to go away. Do the hard things first, then the smaller things are no big deal.....Just DO it! Sorry, this is more of a "venting" than a comment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI totally relate to your girlfriend! How is it we always attract the opposite, than they drive us nuts! ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd how do you stop procrastinating if you are notoriously unable to fulfil your own, very specific, deadlines?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was hoping for advice that works, but this just confirmed the conclusion I've arrived at recently. To have willpower, you must first have willpower. Oh, thanks.
And how do you stop procrastinating if you are notoriously unable to fulfil your own, very specific, deadlines?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was hoping for advice that works, but this just confirmed the conclusion I've arrived at recently. To have willpower, you must first have willpower. Oh, thanks.
why hurry anyway, there is no god, no heaven, nothing but miserable entrophy, so... =)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can relate to procrastination in a big way. As a counseling student, in one of my group counseling classes, we had a working group and the issue that came up was procrastination. Half the group were procrastinators and half were not. All the procrastinators said that they wished they could adhere to deadlines. I pointed out that I actually think its unfair that "we procrastinators" have to change our way of coping. I pointed out to the group that procrastinators or not, we had all somehow made it to a Master's level degree program. This obvisouly helped the procrastinators put their "shortcoming" into perspective.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLOL! Good one!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thistl;dr
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisprocrastination is not as bad as the article makes it seem. It allows you to give yourself time before you actaully want to commit to it. It can lead you too realize soemthiong that you had not realized before and saving you a great deal of troubvlke.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI personally feel rather robbed having purchased this magazine on the basis of this article. No new cutting edge scientific insights here. And only a couple of rather lame suggestions thrown in at the end to try and justify the cover tag line "How to kick the habit". Furthermore, the article insults us by quoting an *unpublished* doctoral thesis. Very disappointed. I really expected more...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSadly, you will find a much better analysis in even a (pop psych) book such as Wayne Dyer's "Erroneous Zones" written in the 1970's, with a lot better tips for overcoming the habit as well as a far better description of the neurotic 'payoffs' for procrastination, as well as its virtues. He also has quite an enjoyable sense of humor. I would also recommend googling Steve Pavlina's web site for articles on procrastination. These are just two that come to mind straight away. There is a LOT better stuff about than this article.
"Procrastinating Again? How to Kick the Habit"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTook me 5 tries to read this long article to the end, and I was looking for "how to kick the habit" advices, but didn't see it anywhere. So a pretty useless article.
The only thing that was usefull to know, was that 15-20 % are procrastinators, so i'm not alone...
It is amazing to me that no one (including the article's author and the researcher) has mentioned AD/HD. Procrastination is one of the hallmarks of that disorder. By no means do all procrastinators have AD/HD; only that many if not moast people with AD/HD procrastinate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInsofar as we know, this has a lot to do with being unable to activate oneself in a directed way. And, if a task is too boring or too complex, cognitively, it is too hard to activate for it.
There is a relationship to dopamine and assorted other brain chemicals, as well as some structural differences present in the person with AD/HD.
It is not a "habit," at least not one that can be broken by effort. It is effort itsef that is in short supply. Contrary to what some religious voices would have us believe, Will is mediated by the neurological system, and is not a moral fiber.
As for some kind of payoff for procrastinating, I beg to differ. I haven't any data behind this opinion, but in my experience, both personal and professional, it is always the case that procrastination results in disappointment, losses, unfinished important business and often a good deal of lot of self-recrimination.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho wants to NOT do what they wish to do? While it may be true there are some folks who are hell bent on undermining their own efforts, I submit that is a small minority. The more we learn from the brain sciences, the more we must yield our psychological analyses and understand how much rests, at bottom, on how we are "wired."
No, this is not to suggest we are all predestined to be a certain way or another, but to clarify that we are all working with the raw material we brought with us and the field is far from level. We are all ultimately responsible for our own behavior, whether we wished to behave that way, or not.
hard work pays off over time but procrastination pays off now.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBeing a sofaphile may indicate the onset of depression, but there has to be a motivation, usually the money-power-sex triumvirate, for most human activities, that is why all the good work is done by young things, once rich, satisfied and well bedded what is the point? Monroe, Lennon and Kennedy were spared the inevitable ennui. Let's just do it, for no particular reason. aquaponics.me.uk
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