Maybe later: the psychology of procrastination

Even though procrastination is attributed most of the time to the development of technology, people’s habitual hesitation goes back to ancient times. Around 800 B.C., Hesiod, the Greek poet, cautioned people in his writings not to “put your work off till tomorrow and the day after.”

Apologies to Hesiod notwithstanding, contemporary psychological research acknowledges that procrastination extends beyond mere postponement. Genuine procrastination is a breakdown in self-regulation: scholars characterize it as the conscious postponement of a significant task that one intends to accomplish, despite being aware of the negative consequences.

Some procrastinators contend that pressure makes them perform better, even though researchers show that is it not always the case: the last-minute euphoria rush they get might simply cover the fear of not doing things well, as many procrastinators are often perfectionists. However, we all are sometimes procrastinators, but not necessarily chronic ones. Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University, states: “It really has nothing to do with time management. As I say to people, to tell the chronic procrastinator to just do it would be like saying to a clinically depressed person, cheer up.” 

There are many factors that impact the perception of procrastinators, including cognitive ones. They might suffer from a distorted perception of time and a tendency to underestimate the effort required for a task. The planning fallacy is a cognitive bias which makes many individuals underestimate the time, costs, and risks of future actions, all contributing to delayed task initiation. Behavioural research went beyond cognitive processes, into the realm of neuropsychology. The frontal systems of the brain often overlap with self-regulation, where behaviours like problem-solving, planning, and self-control fall under the domain of executive functioning. There are nine subscales of executive functioning: impulsivity, self-monitoring, planning and organization, activity shifting, task initiation, task monitoring, emotional control, working memory, and general orderliness; after a lot of research, in 2011, a psychology team proved that procrastinators showed significant associations with all nine. 

Furthermore, there are emotional factors that get in the way of procrastinators. Fear of failure may cause individuals to avoid starting a task to prevent potential negative outcomes, while fear of success can create anxiety about the increased expectations and responsibilities that success might bring. So, no matter on which side one stands, tasks can be easily delayed for a procrastinator.  Additional situations in which individuals can avoid finishing tasks is when they do not like what they have to do and they characterize it as feeling “unmotivated”. However, if the pattern repeats often, this becomes a simple excuse for their procrastinator typology. For teens, it’s somehow developmentally appropriate to procrastinate, as a passive way of resisting parental authority. And, in other cases, they might feel like working under pressure offers the best results, even though it generally causes the most stress. 

Piers Steel,  a psychologist at the University of Calgary, noted in many of his works that even though 95% of procrastinators wish they could stop the delay, they feel incapable of doing so. Steel’s main insight is that procrastinating might be just the flip of impulsivity. Following this line, his experiments and research prove that the two tendencies share a genetic basis: about forty-six per cent of the tendency to procrastinate, and forty-nine per cent of the tendency toward impulsiveness, was attributable to genes.

When it comes to solutions to stop procrastinating, there aren’t many. Discipline and finishing tasks last minute seem like the only alternatives in many cases. Or, as a procrastinator might say: “I’ve been thinking of stopping my procrastination. Maybe I’ll start tomorrow 🙂”. 

Bibliography:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.psycom.net%2Fprocrastination-why-we-do-it&psig=AOvVaw3wJEr7q3PeBP7EjDfmOR3E&ust=1700401134938000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBIQjRxqFwoTCJCr6P_VzYIDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/why-wait-the-science-behind-procrastination

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/procrastination#:~:text=Psychologists%20have%20identified%20various%20drivers,becoming%20fixated%20on%20negative%20thoughts.

https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/a-procrastination-gene

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