Procrastinating! Why Are You Doing This To Yourself?

Procrastinating! We're all guilty of this. Some more than others. However, that's not what we should really be concerned with. Wouldn't you want to know why we procrastinate, and maybe crack the code to stop doing it (sometimes, at least).

 So how does procrastination work at a psychological level? According to science, it's basically 'failure to self-regulate'. So basically, it's a poor ability to manage emotions. Your desire for temporary comfort and gratification overweighs the rational approach to work on a task in time. So we can liberally say, everyone is a procrastinator to some degree. Some more than others.

 As a result people who procrastinate also suffer from higher levels of stress and lower well-being. Then why does our brain allow that to happen? Whatever happened to our survival instinct kicking in?

 Given the seriousness of the issue, as in people losing money and compromising their health, just by procrastinating, there's been some empirical interest in the subject over the past 20 years. One such researcher is APS Fellow Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University. According to that guy, only some 20 percent of people may be chronic procrastinators. Meaning people that let this govern their lives. It's really not about poor concepts of time or time management. The issue as mentioned before is rooted in emotional control.

 “It really has nothing to do with time-management, … As I tell people, to tell the chronic procrastinator to just do it would be like saying to a clinically depressed person, cheer up,” says Ferrari.

 Infact, in a study that he conducted with Tich, Ferrari found that when chronic procrastinators were told a task would be evaluated, they resorted to procrastination. Yet, when the same task was described as fun or meaningless, they behaved no differently from non-procrastinators. Meaning they didn't procrastinate in that case. This sounds like self sabotaging.

 That's because procrastinators sabotage future prospects by opting for temporary gratification. According to a study by Sirois and Pychyl published in the February issue of Social and Personality Psychology Compass;

 “Procrastinators comfort themselves in the present with the false belief that they’ll be more emotionally equipped to handle a task in the future, The future self becomes the beast of burden for procrastination,” says Sirois.

People do so assuming they can 'handle it later', without making an effort to be able to handle it later. Like that great idea you want to work on but never get around to making an effort to actualize said idea. “We’re trying to regulate our current mood and thinking our future self will be in a better state. They’ll be better able to handle feelings of insecurity or frustration with the task. That somehow we’ll develop these miraculous coping skills to deal with these emotions that we just can’t deal with right now.”

 That’s not all, normally we learn from mistakes and hold on to information regarding things that harm us for future reference. Procrastinators don’t do that. Despite suffering for putting off tasks till the last minute, there is zero take away from them in these situations. So they don’t really learn to avoid such harmful situations in the future. Again, why on Earth does the ‘Savannah instinct’ not kick in? That’s because the consequences of procrastination are not a perceived threat, or harmful situation to be avoided.

 It’s merely seen as avoiding an ‘undesirable situation’ until you absolutely have to. Like being turned down by a crush, but your spirit stays strong and you try again. Maybe that is a false analogy, but this surely gets across the importance of understanding the situation, circumstances, and consequences of our actions. Something we can normally do in most circumstances, but procrastinators just can’t because the mind has not developed that coping mechanism for such circumstances.

 So how do we tackle this behavior based on all that we know now? We self-reflect. Ask yourself, avoidance is comfortable now, but I feel great about this later? Definitely not. However, getting things done on time, or earlier (dare I say that) will definitely make you feel great later.

 This is of course easier said than done. Like any behavior fueled by instant gratification without paying a thought to later consequences or other mind matters, it’s hard to shake off these habits. Even when you are self aware, you might tell yourself, maybe next time I’ll make healthier choices.This might put a damper on your spirits, but you need to acknowledge that if you already realized this is a problem, you are already on the right track. Awareness is a positive first step. From there on out, we can take baby steps towards better self regulation.

 As for those that don’t suffer from procrastination the way many around us do, have a bit of empathy for them. Sometimes they just need the emotional and moral support to break the cycle. Not you trying to work on better ‘time management’.