Procrastination: What It Is and What We Can Do About It

 

 

This is the 4^th time I have tried to start this blog.  I have been distracted by the washing up, texting my mum, scrolling on Instagram…… and so the list goes on.  The definition of procrastination is “unnecessarily and voluntarily putting off tasks despite the consequences.”  The potential consequence in my case is not posting my blog on time which is something that is important to me. 

So why does this happen.  I enjoy researching, I enjoy writing and I enjoy the satisfaction I feel when I finally get to post what I have written.  It’s a curiosity. 

For many years we believed that procrastination was all about time management and this seemed to make sense.  We often think we have more time than we have, which means we often understand procrastination in the context of time management. Why do something now when we have time to do it later.

But what we are now beginning to understand about procrastination is that it is much more about managing our emotions rather than our time! Tim Pychyl is an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Canada.  He heads up a procrastination research group.  He defines procrastination as a gap between intention and action. We intend to finish the report but find ourselves looking for tips on how to improve our front crawl (despite the fact there is not a swimming pool in sight!). 

Pychyl explains that we procrastinate to manage negative emotions associated with the task. And this is familiar.  Sometimes we feel anxious about getting it wrong, sometimes we cannot tolerate the boredom of writing yet another report, maybe we feel resentful because it’s actually someone else’s responsibility or we feel frustrated because we don’t have all the information we need to complete the task.   By avoiding the task, we can avoid the emotions that go with the task.  Win Win… except it’s not!  Because the task does not go away and we still need to complete the report. 

We get a brief reprieve when we scroll Instagram but once we return to the task we immediately return to the difficult feelings.  It is the brief reprieve, the relief of scrolling Instagram, that reinforces our procrastination behaviour.  From a behavioural perspective we will always repeat the behaviours that feel good.  And Instagram scrolling in the middle of a tax return will always feel good (in the short term) even if it creates stress and anxiety in the long term. 

So, procrastination is not indicative of horrendous time management but rather a way of coping with tricky emotions created by certain tasks.  Tax returns anyone!!  Occasional procrastination is a normal part of our human condition but when procrastination becomes something we are doing every day it can begin to have significant consequences for both our physical and mental health.   

One exciting way to think about procrastination is drawing a distinction between your present self and your future self.  Your future self is very good at setting goals and thinking about the future but your present self is not overly interested in the future and wants gratification right now.  So, your future self sees you celebrating the publication of your new book but to reach this point you need your present self on board to do the actual work! 

This can be a tricky challenge because the present self is not great at waiting for rewards.  James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, suggests bringing the consequences of our behaviour into the present – “future consequences need to become present consequences” And Clear says that this is exactly what happens when we finally move beyond procrastination and act.  As soon as you take the first step, putting a title at the top of the page, the pain of procrastination subsides a little bit. 

So, if we want to stop procrastinating, we need to make it as easy as possible to get started.  Momentum and motivation build once we get started not before we get started.   Clear outlines several easy win strategies…

1.    Temptation bundling - this is a concept that comes from Katy Milkman and essentially means combining something that is good for us in the long term with something that we enjoy in the short term.  This might be running on a treadmill (good for our long-term health) while watching Ted Lasso (enjoyment in the short term)

2.    Creating more immediate consequences to our procrastination – one of the reasons we procrastinate is because there are generally no immediate consequences.  We don’t go to the gym …. nothing bad happens.  But what if every time we don’t go to the gym, we must donate the gym fee to a local charity.  Suddenly not going to the gym has an immediate consequence in the present.      

3.    Plan ahead – as humans we are creatures of habit and we will almost always choose the path of least resistance.  If we come in from work and immediately see a delicious cake on the counter top we are more than likely to be guided by our present self (really want some yummy cake) as opposed to our future self (healthy food now means a healthy body later).  By setting up our environment we can reduce the activation energy required to get started – maybe we place the cake right at the back of the fridge and leave the recipe and the ingredients for our healthy dinner out on the counter.   

4.    The one minute rule – sometimes to get started the answer lies in picking something so small that we don’t need any willpower or motivation.  If we are procrastinating over a 20 minute run start with a 1 minute run, instead of sitting down to write for 30 minutes sit down to write for 1 minute.  Christine Carter, a sociologist, calls this the “better than nothing habit” and explains that the harder something is the more motivation we need  - when we choose a first step that is only marginally better than doing nothing at all, we don’t require motivation or willpower.

Finally, be kind to yourself ….

We know from the literature that self-compassion promotes motivation and personal growth.  When we speak to ourselves unkindly, we increase our level of psychological distress and psychological distress makes it more difficult for us to get started.  Adam Grant suggests “a commitment to meeting our challenges with greater acceptance and kindness rather than rumination and regret”.  He suggests reframing the task or trying to pick out some of the positive aspects.  Maybe thinking about previous success in the same area or what it might feel like when you finally submit the finished report or come back from a run.   This is hard to do, but deliberately speaking to ourselves kindly reduces psychological distress making it much more likely that we can follow though on what we have set out to do. 

Procrastination is inevitable, we will all experience boredom, anxiety, and frustration in the face of things we need to complete.  This is normal and part of the human condition.  Recognising the link between our emotions and our procrastination allows us to recognise the fundamental importance of showing up for ourselves kindly.  Self-compassion will always reduce psychological distress.    Next, focus ONLY on the next action, the smallest possible thing we can do.  And trust…. trust that motivation and momentum will come after we begin.