Why we procrastinate — and what you can do to break the cycle

This article is written by Fuschia Sirois, Reader in Health and Social Psychology, University of Sheffield.

Procrastination is a prevalent and pernicious problem that can undermine productivity as well as erode your health and wellbeing.

If you’re like most people, you’ve found yourself procrastinating at one time or another, and probably not been very happy about it. From cyberslacking and cyberloafing, to habitually handing in subpar reports at the last minute or even late, procrastination can have negative consequences for the procrastinator, their co-workers, and the organisation. Finding ways to reduce and prevent procrastination can, therefore, have important benefits, including boosting productivity.

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But before we can deal with procrastination, we need to understand what it is and its root causes. Misconceptions about what is and isn’t procrastination, and what causes it, can easily translate into strategies that are not only ineffective, but can inadvertently contribute to more procrastination.

What is procrastination?

On the surface, procrastination is a form of delay. We may observe a coworker delaying a reply to a request we’ve made, or delaying starting to work on a report that has a tight timeline. But do these examples really reflect procrastination?

Procrastination is defined as the unnecessary and voluntary delay in the start or completion of an important intended task despite knowing one will be worse off this delay.

What if having to deal with an urgent matter was keeping your co-worker from replying to your request in a timely manner? Or what if key information for initiating a report was missing and this was the reason for the delayed start to the report? Would it still be considered procrastination?

From a research perspective, in psychology, we use a clear working definition of procrastination to understand what is and isn’t procrastination so that we can study its causes and effects. Procrastination is defined as the unnecessary and voluntary delay in the start or completion of an important intended task despite knowing one will be worse off because of it. Implicit within this definition is that the procrastinator chooses to put off the task — she/he hasn’t been asked to delay the task by someone else or some impending crisis. Critical too is that the procrastinator intended to do the task — it wasn’t forced on them against their will — and they know on some level that there may be consequences for this delay.

In the above examples, it may be difficult to discern whether someone else is procrastinating. This is one reason why people often confuse procrastination with other “garden variety” types of delay and so attribute this behaviour to poor self-control, disorganisation, or just plain laziness. But procrastination is not about any of these things. It’s about the mismanagement of our emotional states.

Why do people procrastinate?

Research has consistently shown that people procrastinate on tasks that are aversive; that is, tasks that are stressful, anxiety-provoking, difficult, unpleasant, or simply boring. If writing that quarterly report is something you enjoy doing, it’s much less likely that you will procrastinate. But if just thinking about that report makes you stressed or anxious, and you don’t have good strategies to deal with these feelings, then this is a recipe for procrastination.

Getting the information you need so that you are well-prepared and clear about what is required for a task will reduce uncertainty.

Put differently, the difference between someone who gets on with completing an important but perhaps unpleasant or stressful task and someone who procrastinates it is how well they manage their emotional states. If you have difficulty finding ways to manage your feelings of anxiety about completing that quarterly report, for example, putting the report aside for later when you think you may feel better about it provides you with immediate relief. In other words, you manage those negative emotions by avoiding the task and the negative feelings associated with it. The result is what we observe as procrastination.

How do we reduce procrastination?

Because mismanagement of negative emotions related to a task is at the core of procrastination, finding better ways to face and manage these emotions is the key for reducing it. The first step though is becoming aware of these feelings and their source.

For example, tasks about which we feel uncertain, perhaps because we have insufficient information, can create stress and anxiety. Getting the information you need so that you are well-prepared and clear about what is required for a task will reduce uncertainty and therefore reduce the chances that you will procrastinate on that task.

Being kind rather than harsh and self-critical can, paradoxically, reduce the likelihood that you will continue to procrastinate.

However, sometimes the source of negative feelings comes from within. Self-criticism, self-doubt and other forms of negative self-talk can often amplify any initial negative feelings about a task. Perhaps you are worried that the report won’t be good enough or that you’re not the best person to be writing it. Becoming aware of your inner dialogue is the first step to finding a healthy way to deal with these feelings that avoids procrastination. To this end, finding what is positive or meaningful in a task, something termed "positive reframing", has been shown to be helpful to managing negative feelings that may lead to procrastination.

But if you’ve already started procrastinating on the task, being kind to yourself rather than harsh or self-critical can, paradoxically, reduce the likelihood that you will continue to procrastinate. Adding more negative thoughts and feelings to a task that you already find unpleasant will just make you want to avoid it all the more. As the evidence shows, accepting that you are feeling stressed or anxious about a task and forgiving yourself the impulse to procrastinate is an effective way to reduce procrastination and become more productive. — Fuschia Sirois

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