Why do we Procrastinate?
Do you write down New Year’s resolutions every year and find out at the end of the year that you were not able to do them? Do you always find yourself in very tight deadlines and yet still say “I’ll do it tomorrow”? Do you spend most of your hours surfing the web instead of working?
Well, I do… I admit it. I procrastinate and it’s bad and I want it solved! But first, why do we procastinate?
“Essentially, procrastinators have less confidence in themselves, less expectancy that they can actually complete a task,” said lead researcher Piers Steel of the University of Calgary. Steel analyzed more than 200 past studies on procrastination, dating back to the 1920s through 2006. He found a strong link between impulsiveness and the “I’ll-do-it-tomorrow” phenomenon. The research is detailed in the January issue of the journal Psychological Bulletin.
Impulsive people value today far more than tomorrow. “So they can’t feel motivated, deadlines don’t feel real, they have no energy until just before they happen,” Steel said. These people have the best of intentions, aiming to get started right away, but they don’t end up following through on their self-promises.
The personality trait rears its face in more than just the workplace.
“Impulsive people tend to have self-control problems in general. So they’re more likely to be smokers, more likely to overeat, more likely to gamble. They are the type of people who choose short-term gain and incur long-term pain,” Steel said.
However, Steel found in another study that when procrastinators do cram to finish the work, they work at a dizzying pace. “They work almost 11 times the average rate. Real procrastinators, just before the deadline, are mercurial,” he said.
Common predictors of procrastination: high distractibility, lack of self-confidence and a low level of intrinsic motivation, or the drive to check things off the to-do list.
So, are we doomed fellow procrastinators? Am I doomed???
Well, not really. A project due in a month doesn’t get the adrenaline going for a procrastinator, but something due tomorrow might give you that jolt. According to Steel, “Distant goals have very little motivational force. You have to bring them down into the daily goals and make them real in the moment.”
In other words, break down those monthly goals into more real daily goals to give you (us) the rush.
Tell you what, just before hitting ‘Publish’ for this article, I decided to put up a Yahoo!Group for procrastinators. I’m inviting you to join and am asking you to invite your friends to join the group as well. The whole purpose of the group is for procrastinators to help fellow procrastinators.
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I’ll join the procrastinator’s mailing list tomorrow
Seriously: I take issue with the reason of lack of self-confidence. If anything, it might be overconfidence that causes procrastination, especially on far-off deadlines. “Two months?! Hah!, I can do it in five days.”
IMHO, procastination can also be affected by environment that greatly affects the mood. ex. cold weather that makes you sleep, dim lightings, or people around you that distracts your focus.
One thing that helps me to fight procastination is to have a
calendar in front of your work area. That calendar should be always noticeable and list all your deadlines.
In my simple time management, I schedule my deadline ahead of my actual deadline dates. And make a todo list of things to be accomplished from the most important to the least.
Every time a thing is accomplished, I cross them out.
Seeing your todo list accomplished, makes me feel more energized to do more.
What really procastinate or is hacking a done job.
Sometimes if the output of your work is not well compensated by your hardships that adds procastination.
No competition adds procastination.
No goal setting/objectives adds procastination.
When nobody cares bout your work maybe that adds procastination.
While I was reading through the 3rd paragraph, I had in my mind to counter what you said that it’s less confidence…When you were inviting us to your yahoo group, I thought I’d say ‘bukas na lang.’ When I came to the comment portion, naunahan na pala ako… =))
On the serious side…would you want to know how to spot a procrastinator just by looking at the handwriting?
Hello to all. First thanks for reading this blog post. Second, thanks for joining the yahoogroup (just in case you did). Now, about ‘lack of self-confidence’, I just want to make it clear that it was not me who said it. that was said by Piers Steel. Below is a copy of that particular paragraph. hehehe.
“Essentially, procrastinators have less confidence in themselves, less expectancy that they can actually complete a task,” said lead researcher Piers Steel of the University of Calgary.