PROCRASTINATION:

UNDERSTANDING
WHY WE DO WHAT Group No: 3
WE DO Team Name: “To Be
Decided”
Procrastination: Understanding Why We Do
What We Do
alternately,

a presentation that is an excuse for its own existence

Procrastination can be seen as a failure in self regulation. It is a gap between intention and
action which may be attributed to any reason or hindrance.

Chronic procrastinators have perpetual problems finishing tasks, while situational ones delay
based on the task itself. Most delayers betray a tendency for self-defeat, but they can arrive at
this point from either a negative state (fear of failure, for instance, or perfectionism) or a
positive one (the joy of temptation). All told, these qualities have led researchers to call
procrastination the “quintessential” breakdown of self-control.

“I think the basic notion of procrastination as self-regulation failure is pretty clear,” says
Timothy Pychyl of Carleton University, in Canada. “You know what you ought to do and
you’re not able to bring yourself to do it. It’s that gap between intention and action.”

The Theories for Procrastination varies across different academic disciplines. Social scientists
debate whether the existence of the gap between intention and action can be better explained
by the inability to manage time or the inability to regulate moods and emotions.
 Theories Explaining Procrastination
1) Anxiety: Fear of Failure, Perfectionism

There is a host of anxiety-related reasons that have been thought to cause procrastination.
Essentially, people are believed to procrastinate on tasks because the task itself is aversive or
stressful. There are a variety of conditions that make people anxious, especially irrational
beliefs. Irrational beliefs, cognition, or thought is a broad term that includes several
dysfunctional or anxiety-provoking worldviews. Some examples of irrational beliefs are fear
of failure and perfectionism.

While this explains why we might avoid tasks entirely, it does not explain why we delay
them. In fact, more anxiety is typically experienced closer to the deadline, so procrastination
appears to be a way of increasing anxiety, not reducing it.
2) Self-Handicapping
There is dispute over whether self-handicapping should be considered a form of
procrastination. Self-handicapping is when people place obstacles that hinder their own
good performance. The motivation for self-handicapping is often to protect self-esteem by
giving people an external reason, an “out,” if they fail to do well. However, self-
handicapping isn’t necessarily a form of procrastination, which is: “To voluntarily delay an
intended course of action despite expecting to be worse-off for the delay.” Self-
handicappers appear to be acting in their own self-interest, thinking they are protecting
themselves from shame and humiliation. Consequently, Dr. Clarry Lay, one of the first
researchers into procrastination has said-
“to intend to put off some activity to protect one’s self-esteem in not procrastinatory
behavior.”

Self-handicapping may share some commonalities with procrastination and procrastination

in itself may act as a tool for self handicapping. However, because the motivations for
delaying are not the same, the two will differ regarding causes and treatments.
 Temporal Motivation Theory
Temporal Motivation Theory (aka The Procrastination Equation) represents the most recent
developments in motivational research; it is an integrative theory from which most other
motivational theories can be derived. This theory equates motivation to utility and is
generally favored by economists. It suggests that the reasons why people make any decision
can be largely represented by the following equation:
Motivation indicates the drive or preference for a course of action, what economists call utility.
Naturally, the higher the utility, the greater the preference.

• Expectancy refers to the odds or chance of an outcome occurring

• Value refers to how rewarding that outcome is.

• Impulsiveness refers to your sensitivity to delay. The more impulsive you are, the less you
like to delay gratification.

• Delay indicates how long, on average, you must wait to receive the payout, that is the
expected reward. Since delay is in the bottom of the equation, the longer the delay, the less
motivated we feel about taking action.
 Psychological Perspective
Psychologists see flaws in such a strictly temporal view of procrastination. For one thing, if delay
were really as rational as this utility equation suggests, there would be no need to call the behavior
procrastination — on the contrary, time-management would fit better. Beyond that, studies have found
that procrastinators carry accompanying feelings of guilt, shame, or anxiety with their decision to
delay. This emotional element suggests there’s much more to the story than time-management alone.

In a study, a research team gave 45 students a pager and tracked them for five days leading up to a
school deadline. Eight times a day, when beeped, the test participants reported their level of
procrastination as well as their emotional state. As the preparatory tasks became more difficult and
stressful, the students put them off for more pleasant activities. When they did so, however, they
reported high levels of guilt — a sign that beneath the veneer of relief there was a lingering dread
about the work set aside. The result show that procrastinators recognize the temporal harm in what
they’re doing, but can’t overcome the emotional urge toward a diversion.
A subsequent study, reinforced the dominant role played by mood in procrastination. It was
reported that students didn’t procrastinate before an intelligence test when primed to believe
their mood was fixed. In contrast, when they thought their mood could change (and
particularly when they were in a bad mood), they delayed practice until about the final minute.
The findings suggested that self-control only succumbs to temptation when present emotions
can be improved as a result.
FAMOUS PROCRASTINATORS
 Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo is known today as the supreme genius of the Italian Renaissance—but at the time
he had a reputation as a daydreamer who never actually finished anything.
But he also never finished a project on time.
His talents and energy were often wasted in doodles and unfinished projects. It took the
painter 16 years to complete his most famous work, the Mona Lisa (also known as La
Gioconda). He left both The Adoration of the Magi and Jerome in the Wilderness unfinished,
took 13 years to complete the version of The Virgin of the Rocks in London’s National
Gallery, and his equestrian projects were never built.
Leonardo only finished The Last Supper after his patron, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan,
threatened to cut off funds. According to one story, he was outraged when a prior from the
monastery where he was painting the fresco complained about the delay. Leonardo wrote to
the head of the monastery explaining he had been struggling to find the perfect villainous
face for Judas, and that if he could not find an appropriate face, he would use the features of
the prior who complained.
In his later years Leonardo regretted having “never having completed a
single work.” He appealed to God, “Tell me if anything ever was done. Tell
me if anything was done.”
 Douglas Adams

The author of the beloved Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was as legendary for his procrastination as
he was for his one-liners. “I love deadlines,” he once quipped. “I like the whooshing sound they
make when they go by.” He somehow managed to produce nine books, despite the fact that he
claimed to hate writing.
Cups of tea, baths, and days in bed were his ways of putting it off. He never overcame procrastination
himself, but required publishers and editors to lock him in rooms and glower at him until he produced.
This is not an exaggeration according to Adams or his friend Steve Meretzky. As Meretzky puts it,
“Douglas has raised procrastination to an art form. Hitchhikers Guide would never have gotten done if
I hadn’t gone over to England and virtually camped out on his doorstep.”

The major reason for Adams’ chronic delaying appears to be task aversiveness. Though he was an able
writer and extremely creative, he found putting pen to paper unpleasant. He put it off as long as
possible, and then produced in a frantic rush when it became really necessary. With the wealth from
this earlier bestsellers, writing became less and less necessary, and the delays stretched into years.
Adams struggled mightily with the writing of his final novel, The Salmon of Doubt, and
would soak for hours in a bathtub instead of getting on with it. He had been working on it
for ten years and still hadn’t completed a first draft when he died of a heart attack in 2001.
The fragments were published posthumously, but they are far from forming a coherent
novel.
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Over his life, publishers were constantly reporting imminent pieces from
Coleridge that ultimately failed to appear. He left most of his works in
fragments, brilliant but incomplete scraps that were doomed to
obscurity. Coleridge himself describes his procrastination as
“a deep and wide disease in my moral nature … Love of Liberty,
Pleasure of Spontaneity, these all express, not explain, the fact.”
Even his famous poem Kubla Khan was never actually finished.
Coleridge contends that it was based on an opium-inspired dream that
was interrupted because a “Person from Porlock” came along. This has
become the most famous excuse in all literature as scholars and other
writers recognize it for what it is: a fib.
Procrastination as a Social Norm or Deviance
Procrastination is an act everyone takes a part in every day, regardless of their situation
in life. Some people would say that it is a form of deviance because by definition
deviance is “any violation of norms” and avoiding what should be done is a violation of
norms. In today’s world of technology and the Internet, however, people procrastinate
all the time.

It seems that procrastination is now more of a social norm than deviance. By definition,
a social norm is a “rule or standard of behaviour shared by members of a social group.”
The norm in the case of education is to do work and learn in school. Although
procrastination is deviance of the norm of education, there are more students who
procrastinate than students who get everything done as soon as it is assigned. The
standard has been changed; it is now standard behaviour to procrastinate since the
majority of the social group participates.
According to McCown, a pioneer in the study of procrastination and co-author (along with
Ferrari and Judith Johnson) of Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research, and
Treatment, procrastination becomes problematic when it runs counter to one’s own desires.
“We all put things off,” he notes. “But when we put off things that are really in our best
interest to complete and we do it habitually, then that’s more than just a bad habit or a lifestyle
issue.”

The main argument that can be made is that when procrastination becomes habitual and
affects work causing shame and guilt, it can be referred to as deviant or norm
transgressing. Anxiety, Depression and ADHD can also be underlying causes for chronic
procrastination, consequently becoming a behaviour that is deviant to the norm.

On the other hand, using procrastination as a means to completely dissociate oneself from a
high-stress environment to rejuvenate themselves for higher productivity is now considered a
norm.
        Suggested Solutions to Procrastination
    Procrastination is a complex problem that requires thorough solutions. Here are a few tricks to get
started on our long To-Do list:

• Understanding the Why and Common ‘Delaying Tactics’

By keeping a log, we may begin to see certain patterns about what kind of tasks we put off.  With more
freedom to make our own decisions and to perform our actions, we have become easily confused about
what is a priority. Therefore, we have become demotivated to do anything at all which leads us to execute
our common ‘delaying tactics’. To overcome this, we need to set straight our values and personal visions
and to cultivate our positive habits.

• Break down that List!

Understand that some jobs cannot be done all at once. Long to-do lists tend to pile on, and seeing the
long list of tasks can frustrate us so much that we have tendencies to give up on them completely. Slice a
job up into manageable pieces and do the task piece by piece, little by little.  This might mean breaking
down the time required to do a task into smaller bits.  It helps you to prioritize the work, limit new tasks
and manage it effectively.
• Self-Talk and Personal Vision 

When some people procrastinate, they become critical of themselves and that causes them to become angry
at themselves. This leads to low self-esteem and discouragement. This negative self-talk pushes a cycle of
thinking, feeling, and behavior that further promotes procrastination. Jot down positive self-talk phrases on
notecards and use it as reminders. Then create a Personal Vision. It will help you to focus your effort on the
right activities and set priorities to avoid continually switching between actions.

• There are Other Ways Too!

Picking up that project is hard so begin with the least uninviting piece to get started. Making a commitment
to someone or setting a deadline or working with someone else would work for you. Make a Habit List. If
we make a habit of doing something, its implementation requires less mental energy to do. When people see
the purpose in their actions, particularly when they actually want to perform these actions, it arouses
intrinsic journey-based motivation and cures a lack of discipline.

We are not stuck with our present degree of procrastination, if we don't want to be. Now, Pick up that Pen!
http://backyardsociologyfall2011.blogspot.com/2011/10/is-
procrastination-social-norm-or-form.html

https://procrastinus.com/piers-steel/theories-of-
procrastination/

http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/

(Lindsey Phillips, Procrastination: An emotional struggle,

Counselling Today,
https://ct.counseling.org/2019/10/procrastination-an-
emotional-struggle/)

(Adeniyi Adewale Ojo, THE IMPACT OF PROCRASTINATION ON

STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY
SCHOOLS, International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology
Research Vol.5, No.1, pp.17-22, January 2019)