PROCRASTINATION

Jane B. Burka, Lenora M. Yuen

Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Life Long, 2008
Note to readers
What is (not) procrastination?
Complex psychological issue Procrastination is not

Problem of self-worth / self-steem • a time management problem

• Problem with one’s relationship to oneself • a moral failing

• Reflects shaky sense of self-worth / self-steem

4 main issues that make it more likely

● Low confidence in succeeding

● Task aversiveness
● Distractibility and impulsiveness
● Having goals and rewards be too far off in the future
● There is more to procrastination than meets the research eye.
 Internet:
The most powerful cause of avoidance behavior
We can lose ourselves while we surf the Internet:

Reading the news, Researching ad infinitum, Watching sports

Fantasizing about something.

Information is limitless and instantaneously available;

There is more information than we can manage,

Too much information, too many decisions, too many options

This leads many of us into procrastination paralysis.

Complexity of procrastination today
● individual Social, Cultural, Technological dynamics,
● psychological, Biological and neurological predispositions,
● behavioral,
● emotional issues Universal human tendencies
● What leads you to put things off?
● What to do to stop procrastinating?
● How delaying works against you?
● How procrastination works for you?
● Can you see the function that
procrastination serves in your life?
● If you don’t understand why you delay,
nothing is likely to help you!!
Even if you’ve searched your soul and believe you
thoroughly understand your reasons for
procrastinating, you still won’t get anywhere unless
you do something to overcome it.
 OUR AIM
is not to do away with procrastination.
There are plenty of times when it’s in your best
interest to put something aside and not attend to it.
 OUR HOPE
To lead you to the freedom of choice
that comes from self-acceptance.
 Part One
UNDERSTANDING
PROCRASTINATION
Roots of Procrastination
KNOW THYSELF
THE EMOTIONAL ROOTS OF PROCRASTINATION

INNER FEELINGS Many procrastinators

● Fears don’t recognize all that’s
● hopes going on under the
● memories surface, because they use
● dreams procrastination to avoid
● doubts
uncomfortable feelings
● pressures
Relationship with time Biological roots
Wishful thinking
Body
Conflict: subjective time vs. clock time
Brain

Genetic inheritance
Interpersonal roots
Family dynamics from your past
Family history usually continue into the present and
play a role in maintaining a dynamic
Social relationships
of procrastination that no longer
Your place in your current culture serves you.
 What their influence on
your sense of yourself?

How they influence on

your relationships with others?
Learn from your experience
Not denying it
Not forgetting it
Not judging it
Accept what is
Make the most of it
 1
Procrastination
Nuisance or Nemesis?
PROCRASTINATE
To postpone, to defer,
to put off, to prolong
Latin:
pro - forward +
crastinus - belonging to tomorrow
● useful habit of avoiding
unnecessary work and
impulsive effort, thus
conserving energy.

● harmful habit of laziness
inaccomplishing a task that
was necessary for
subsistence

CONDITIONS AND SITUATIONS
● Deadlines and evaluations: leave it to the last time;

● It’s easy to delay when no one is watching …

● Competitive corporate settings: slow down instead of
trying to keep up with the fast pace;

● Bureaucratic red tape: file things under “pending,”
rather than complete the requisite (boring) busywork;

● At home, the possibilities for procrastination are
endless.

How to differentiate? Useful or harmful procrastination?

Procrastination is a problem

when you find it troublesome.

● Some people like to live in pressure or to take it easy

● Some people choose to procrastinate (postpone): 

○ Low priority or

○ Need to reflect and take decisions consciously

 TROUBLESOME PROCRASTINATION
Internal consequences
 External consequences


● Bad Feelings
 ● At work


● Strong Emotions
 ● In Relationships

● At home

 Cycle of Procrastination
A common sequence of thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors that procrastinators undergo

 1. “I’ll start early this time.”

At the outset, procrastinators are usually very hopeful.

When you first undertake a project, the possibility exists
that this time it will be done in a sensible and systematic
way. Although you feel unable or unwilling to start right
now, you may believe the start will somehow
spontaneously occur, with no planned effort on your part .
 2. “I’ve got to start soon.”

The time for an early start has passed, and illusions of

doing the project right this time are fading. Your anxiety
builds and the pressure to begin intensifies. Having almost
lost hope for the spontaneous start,you now begin to feel
pushed to make some effort to do something soon. But the
deadline is not yet in sight, so some hope remains.

 3. “What if I don’t start?”

a. “I should have started sooner.”




b. “I’m doing everything but . . .”

It is extremely common for procrastinators at this
stage to do everything and anything except

the avoided project.



 c. “I can’t enjoy anything.”
Many try to distract themselves with
pleasurable, immediately rewarding activities.
Although you try hard to enjoy yourself, the
shadow of the unfinished project looms. Any
enjoyment you feel rapidly disappears and is
replaced by guilt, apprehension, or disgust.

 d. “I hope no one finds out.”
4. “There’s still time.”
5. “Something wrong with me.”
6.Final Choice: To Do or Not to Do.
7. “I’ll never procrastinate again!”
 ROOTS OF PROCRASTINATION
Do you remember the first time you procrastinated?



The earliest symptoms of procrastination may have
occurred when you were a young child. Many adults
still think of themselves in terms of how they were
labeled as children.

 2
Fear of Failure
The Procrastinator on Trial
FEAR OF FAILING:

THE SEARCH FOR PERFECTION

 THE PROCRASTINATOR’S CODE
● I must be perfect, I must always do well.

● Everything I do should go easily and without effort.

● It’s safer to do nothing than to take a risk and fail.

● I should have no limitations.

● If it’s not done right, it’s not worth doing at all.

● I must avoid being challenged and always be in control

● If I show my real self, people won’t like me.

● There is a right answer, and I’ll wait until I find it.

 Procrastinator = Perfectionist
When people are disappointed by their
performance on a task, they think not only that
they have failed on that task, but also that they
have failed as a person.


Ability > Performance > Self worth

 Procrastinator = Perfectionist
They usually put unrealistic demands on
themselves and then feel overwhelmed when
they are unable to meet them. Discouraged,
they retreat from the demands by
procrastination.

 Perfectionist
Adaptive
 Maladaptive

Performance 
 Performance 

=
 ≠

High standards
 High standards

 PERFECTIONIST PROCRASTINATOR
● Being ordinary is intolerable, everything
must be outstanding;

● Excellence without Effort

● Going it alone!

● There Is a Right Way.

● I'm not competitive!



MINDSET

Fixed / Growth

CULTURAL PRESSURES
Cultural norms, social relations and economic
conditions influence all of us creating advantages
for some and limiting others. For many, they

also create conflicts that motivate
procrastination.

The demand to be in top form all the time grew
into a pressure greater than he could bear, and
he began to procrastinate, putting off his
tasks. Everyone will see he's not so competent
but a lazy procrastinator. He feels too
depressed to work! Anxiety and
procrastination paralyzed him!

 THE BATTLE FOR CONTROL


It's important to have some control over our
lives, as well as to follow rules. People who are
sensitive to feeling controlled,however, may
rebel against every rule and resist every
request. Procrastination becomes their way to
feel they are in control.

THE ISSUE OF AUTONOMY
Procrastination is often a declaration
of one’s independence, a struggle to
preserve ones sense of individuality
and to live life on ones own terms.

 THE SECRET BATTLE
When a need for autonomy is the overriding
theme in a person’s life, battling in secret seems
a much safer course of action—or inaction.
Procrastinating on decisions and commitments
can be an indirect way of protecting oneself
 Roots of the Struggle
Many procrastinators who are sensitive to
feeling controlled grew up in situations that
did not encourage mastery and control over
their own lives. A child who doesn’t have
confidence in his autonomy cannot develop a
secure self.

Looking Ahead to Success

PROCRASTINATION AS IDENTITY

 The Renaissance Man
● Some procrastinators want to know something about
everything. 

● They have interest on every dimension of human beings,
society and culture

● To know everything takes up a lot of time! 

● Instead of doing their work, they spend hours online following
their latest interest, 

● Often, they're unable to use their talents to their own benefit.

● To be well versed in everything prevents them from pursuing
anything. 

● They refuse to be limited to one field of study, one interest,
one career. 

 Part 2
SUGGESTIONS
that can help you take action
most procrastinators are afraid they are
unacceptable in some basic way
Chap. 12 - Setting and Achieving Goals
Difficulty: achieving goals
• Procrastinators rarely accomplish the goals they have set;

• Procrastinators only attain goals after have been thorough agonizing fits and
starts

◦ Procrastinators also have difficulty setting goals;

◦ Procrastinators always (re)set ambiguous or ambitious goals instead of thinking

about a general task, focus on only one part of a single track!
The behavioral goal

• Define your goals in behavioral terms;

• Focus on what you will be doing when you accomplish your objective;

• Recognize where you are aiming to go;

Characteristics

• It is observable by you and others;

• It is specific and concrete;

• It can be broken down into small steps;

• The first step can be accomplished in just five minutes.