Procrastination: causes and intervention.

Why do people get lazy on important tasks? Laziness is a natural process which prevents an organism from overworking. Laziness is our friend. However, it is our enemy as well. Often, the laziness takes over our mind and prevents us from work we need to do! Usually, people connect laziness with procrastination. My husband used to say: “I am procrastinating, I am just so lazy to do something”. In many dictionaries, procrastination is defined as an action of putting off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness. In addition, a study done by Wasche et al. found dependence of often procrastination and failure in life. They say that one-time procrastination and as a result, failure in something creates low self-esteem. It leads to another procrastination and creates a habit, alone with it, a person completely disbelieves that the task is possible to accomplish (Wasche, 2014). The other report written by Thomas and Joseph indicate that many people affected by procrastination are less satisfied in life and regret in later life that they had not taken action (Thomas, 2018). However, many people connect procrastination with laziness, but the main causes appeared to be different: negative thoughts and emotions, focus on the present moment and bad sleep patterns.

Many reports and articles can be found about procrastination, however not all of them are reliable. Information from a journal is the most reliable source since it is based on experiments and confirmed statistically. Internet articles are less reliable sources. Some of them can even lie, while some of them are anecdotal but some are worth attention. For example, the authors ,Claire and Barrett, suggest an approach for intervention that has a theoretical base. The authors also used their own observation to understand the cause of procrastination. The authors introduced a new understanding of procrastination, connect it with negative emotions and a “form of “short-term mood regulation” that undermines long-term efficacy” (Claire, 2018). Looking at students in a writing center, they noticed that procrastination occurs when people think about “stressful” or “unpleasant” assignments. The people avoid tasks since they want to avoid negative emotions, even if they know that it will have an effect in the future. They also want to believe that in the future it will be easier for them to accomplish the task. Procrastination does not make a task easier in most of cases and has unintended consequences.

A different approach is taken by Mistry. The article published in a women’s section of a magazine and it worth attention since the author, Mita Mistry, is a five-element acupuncturist and expert in other ancient healing techniques. She said that the root of procrastination is fear (Mistry, 2017). By the article Mistry, as well as Claire and Barrett, emphasize the importance of negative feelings and emotions that it creates. She stressed that we run away from tasks that potentially will bring benefits because of unpleasant emotion of fear,  “The simple answer is fear, which is our worst enemy and the root of procrastination” (Mistry, 2017). Sometimes, people procrastinate because they are scared to make a situation worse. Other times they are afraid to fail or people can think that they not smart enough and if they will succeed in one task, the other will be more complicated for them to resolve. While many articles can be found about high influence of emotions and feelings on procrastination, it is every time a good idea to check about the problem in these journals.

        One study about what most forces people to procrastinate pointed out the reasons of emotional conditions. Eerde et al. in their used a meta-analysis of intervention studies (Eerde, 2018). In first part of the report they analyzed different causes of procrastination made by previous studies and connected them to lack of self-regulation (including time management and emotion regulation), lack of strength and assertiveness, and lack of achievements. They also made connections with not well-being or bad health conditions and dysfunctional thoughts. Based on those reasons, they compared four different types of interventions: self-regulation, cognitive behavioral therapy, other therapeutic approaches and interventions focusing on individuals’ strengths and resources. It is interesting that the most positive effect was made by “Cognitive-behavior therapy” (Eerde, 2018). The underlying idea of the therapy was that what people think about will control their behavior. The researchers divided thoughts on functional or dysfunctional and targeted the dysfunctional ones. The therapy gave the most changes out of other interventions. People who had procrastinated started to work toward their goal more actively (Eerde, 2018). Procrastination deffenatly has the base of negative, dysfunctional thoughts and emotions. However, the next study showed that not only the emotions are the reasons of procrastination but also a direction of focus.

Two Harvard professors Rogers and Bazerman worked on another study. In their report, they published an interesting data about the tendency for people to focus on their present condition more than on future. In the experiment the researchers asked people if saving is a good idea and nearly everybody agreed. Then the people were asked to enroll in saving plan as soon as possible, in one case, and in the other case, to enroll in the distant future. The result showed that only 30% of  the people agreed to do it right now, while 77% agreed to do it in the future (Rogers, 2006). The pattern make it clear why we procrastinate, even though we know that this is important. “Self-should” and “self-want” inside a person (as call them the authors of the publication) have a fight. “Self-should” tells that we need to do something but “self-want” tricks “self-should”. It says that of course we will do it but it is better idea to do it in the future and now do something more pleasant. “Self-want” wants to make people focus on exact moment and makes the moment more important than the future by switching attention from future consequences (Rogers, 2006). Behavioral economists have a concept of “time inconsistency”. When people think about the future, they want to make something to get benefits in the future, but then they go back in the present moment and want to satisfy their wishes now.

Another important reason why people procrastinate is hidden in such a broad aspect as health. To be more specific, sleep. To get enough quality sleep is very important because it will effect the level of energy a person will have as well as willpower (Kühnel,2018). Kühnel et al. wrote about research conducted between workers, who were divided between “shift workers” and just workers. “Shift workers” were the people who worked at different day and night time. The researchers were looking at how quality sleep and its duration as well as a biological clock’s (known as people “late birds” and people “early birds”) effect on procrastination. The research indicated that energy and willpower, which had come after a good quality and sufficient time sleep, is related to effective functioning at work. For example, being highly engaged at work, showing higher levels of daily task performance, personal initiative, and organizational citizenship behavior, and spending less compensatory effort to fulfil tasks. (Kühnel, J, 2018). In addition, the biological clock related to time at when workers perform the best. For example, “night owls” did better in second part of day, while “early birds” were more productive in the first part (Kühnel, J, 2018).“Earlier chronotypes tended to procrastinate more when working night shifts, whereas the opposite pattern emerged for the day shift, that is, later chronotypes procrastinated more when working day shifts” (Kühnel J, 2018).

However, a night time for both types is a time when they postpone the most. “Circadian misalignment”- that is, a mismatch between individuals’ biological preferences for sleep–wake times and work times—determines procrastination” (Kühnel J, 2018). Quality and duration of sleep as well as work at hours of a person is biological clock appeared to be causes, that lead to procrastination.

Procrastination has many reasons and therefore has many treatments. The first reason mentioned above was having negative thoughts and emotions about a task. In meta-analysis of intervention studies, targeting a dysfunctional thought stressed as the most effective intervention. However, the author, Eerde, mentioned that “cognitive-behavior therapy” happened to be the most powerful intervention, but they did not mention how exactly how it should look (Eerde, 2018). Moreover, a person needs to go to a psychologist in order to get the therapy. In case a person does not have money for that, the approaches from the articles mentioned above can be used. However, the approaches do not have a written statistic but can be helpful since there are based on the same idea as “cognitive-behavior therapy” – targeting dysfunctional thoughts.  Claire and Barrett in their article see a possible solution of thoughts treatment in applying the strategy of mindfulness, “In its simplest form, mindfulness means awareness: paying attention to the present moment without judgment. Defining mindfulness as “present-centered, non-reactive self-awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance of thoughts and feelings as they occur”(Claire, 2018). Everytime, when people think about unpleasant tasks, they should concentrate on emotions and thoughts rather than judge the task right away based on previous experience. By doing this people can better control their behavior and procrastinate less. This approach has already found its proof. In a writing center one person said that he understood that he procrastinated to write a paper because he was scared to do it not perfectly. He realized it after thinking about emotions and feelings he had about the task. The authors suggest for tutors to build warm relationships with students and after all, clarify to them the negative effect of thoughts and feelings leading to procrastination (Claire, 2018).  In other words, tutors need to make the students aware about the reason for procrastination. In addition, the tutor can help the student to reflect the thoughts and feelings that lead to avoidance to do the task. The same approach can be used by talking to other people, like friends, coaches, or even parents as well as this kind of dialog can happen within an individual. If one of the negative feeling appears as a fear, a person can work with it using Mistry’s strategy.

According to Mistry, an expert in ancient healing techniques, fear is the main reason of procrastination and can be treated in several ways. First, she suggested to break a procrastination habit daily. Every day spend five to ten minutes by trying to do an important task which a person every time had been putting away. Second, notice distractions. During doing the task, the person needs to notice what is cause of switching his attention. It does not mean that a person needs to start answering mail but concentrating on the task. Third, stay with the task. Instead of switching to distractions, the person needs to do his best to work on the task. Even ten minutes concentration on the task can be hard. Feelings such as boredom, confusion or negative self-talk can overwhelm the person and be a cause of fear. It is normal. Instead of running out on it, the person needs to face the fear using his curiosity, meaning track how physical condition will change over the time while he is working on the task. This method can helps with uncomfortable sitting, which a person may have. Fourth, revisit the task. After the sources of distraction are identified, those can be removed, however, new one can appear. The author suggests catch an impulse to be distracted and switch back to the task. The person needs to congratulate himself for a good behavior. She insisted that the above exercise daily “can help to build trust in facing fears”. (Mistry, 2017).

       In addition to managing negative emotions and feelings, Roger and Bazerman’s reports shows that manipulation with focus on a future or present moment plays a big role in intervention of procrastination. In order to do this “self-should” and “self- want” people can give “self- want” what it wants – immediate benefit. Dreaming and visualizing can be key to this problem. People cam imagen having a job of their dreams while they postpone write a paper certainly can be an activating power. In other words, a person needs to trick his mind and bring future feelings in the present. The other way how to show “self- want” immediate results can be opposite to joyful such as schedule a near day to meet with a groupmate to talk about the paper. In this case, the brain will try to avoid unpleasant feelings of self-failure. The day will be soon or refers to present moment and this can be a driving force. However, even if a person will manipulate with his brain, if he will not have energy to do work, kind of manipulation will barely work.

Sleep can boost energy and willpower. However, not every sleep can do this. In order to sleep well quality and duration of sleep need to be taken into consideration. Good quality is determined by not waking up during the night and by not having trouble to go to sleep. Enough duration of sleep varies from 7 to 9 hours depending on the individual. Good quality sleep will help individuals to concentrate more, focus, feel calm and have more stamina (qtd. Kühnel, 2018). Also, for optimal productivity, a person should follow his chronotype, which means if it is easier to wake up early, the most important task should be done at the first part of day. Vice versa, if it is easier to get away from bed later in the day, an individual should do stressful work in a second part of the day (Kühnel, 2018). When people do not follow their chronotype it leads to procrastination. Everybody should find time to sleep well, but sometimes it is not possible to find time during the day to work on overcoming procrastination.

The next study was conducted with the focus on not finding an effective strategy, instead the focus was on an effective application of the strategy. The researchers Lukas and Berking in their journal article suggested that a smartphone can serve as the best intervention since an individual has 24-hour access to it (YEAR). The strategy itself to motivate people was made by a psychologist that was supervised by a professor of clinical psychology. It was based on stimulation of positive responses on tasks that tend to be postponed, as well as positive reinforcement using facial expressions of approval (like a happy face) to reward correct responses. The study was conducted between students. A smartphone app displayed dysfunctional stimulus material (such as pictures or statements negative study-related) or functional material (eg. picture of a student engaging in task).  A student needed to choose how he will react to a particular stimulus. If the student’s reaction was correct (by promoting task activity) it showed a happy face. Gaming was also a part of intervention. As a result, the app trains cognitive behavior to be more productive in academic fields and life in general (Lukas, 2018) . 

There are many causes as to why people procrastinate. There cannot be a universal method of intervention. It all depends on the individual. In order to determine what intervention is the best for a particular person, the person needs to understand the cause. The person needs to pay attention to what happened with him when he started to procrastinate. In particular, he needs to check what kind of thoughts and emotions he has the moment if he is procrastinating on his task. The second thing he needs to pay attention to is direction of focus− immediate result or long future result. The third factor he needs to recall is if he had slept enough that day. If a person did not detect the reasons above, the cause can indeed be laziness, and the best known method for intervention for that is motivation. However, if the reason is follows the causes listed prior to laziness, then a different approach to intervention is offered below.

If a cause is negative thoughts and emotions, the best way to deal with it is to target a dysfunctional thought. A person hoping to address negative thoughts can practice “cognitive-behavior therapy” with a professional psychologist, or he can try a less reliable approach of “mindfulness” from Claire and Barrett.  When a person starts to procrastinate it is good to reflect on how it feels and what thoughts come to the mind. By doing this, an individual builds self-awareness. It is also important not to react or judge the thoughts and feelings, but rather accept them. If a person understood that he has some form of fear, Mistry, an expert in ancient healing techniques suggests an intervention in 3 steps: eliminate all distraction, try to concentrate on task for 5-10 minutes, and pay attention to the body’s condition in that moment. A person can notice other distractions that can appear in the process but they should continue working on the task; next time the distractions appear, the individual will be able to recognize them and eliminate them as well. Feelings such as boredom, confusion or negative self-talk can appear, it is normal according to Mistry. This indicates that fear came. Track your physical condition, usually it will change for the better over time as people practice this awareness.

If a person understood that he does not have enough sleep or he has bad quality sleep, then he must work to improve it. Eliminating all distractions and making it a habit to enjoy 7-9 hours of sleep would be beneficial. Also, for good quality sleep a person needs to have a good mattress and comfortable pillow that will allow you to sleep all night long restfully.

If an individual depends on the idea that the task can be accomplished in the future, then it is time to play with his perception of the task and his available time. Strategies of immediate satisfaction will be the best intervention. Dreaming and visualizing can be useful. Imagining yourself as a successful businessman or doctor can inspire procrastinators to work sooner! Dreaming about success before people do it will make the body feel it. This will inspire the mind to work towards that feeling and get immediate satisfaction. Or, a person can threaten their mind with shame by initiating a meeting with groupmate. If the person arrives unprepared, he will probably feel ashamed of himself; the mind will try avoid this. 

Sometimes people can be very busy, come home late, and the only thing they can do is to go to bed. For people, who cannot start to work on procrastination as a result of time or tiredness, useing the anti-procrastination app on a smartphone can be a way to help a person. The phone is available 24 hours and it can productively intervene. In any possible free minute, a person can use the app and it will keep the procrastinator on track to deal with his procrastination.

Almost every person can help himself to overcome procrastination and he will not have regrets about lost time and opportunities. He will also be more satisfied with the quality of his life.

Bibliography

1.Claire, K., Barrett, H. 2018.Emotional Management over Time Management: Using Mindfulness to Address Student Procrastination.WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship. Accessed October 17, 2018. http://go.galegroup.com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA538859614&v=2.1&u=cuny_ccny&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

2.Eerde, V., Wendelien, Klingsieck, Katrin, B. 2018. Overcoming procrastination? A meta-analysis of intervention studies. Educational Research Review. Accessed October 17, 2018.

3.Kühnel, J., Sonnentag, S., Bledow, R., Melchers, Klaus G. 2018. The relevance of sleep and circadian misalignment for procrastination among shift workers. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. Accessed October 17, 2018. https://onesearch.cuny.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_wj10.1111%2Fjoop.12191&context=PC&vid=cc&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,procrastination&sortby=date&offset=0

4.Lukas,C., Berking, M. 2018. Reducing procrastination using a smartphone-based treatment program: A randomized controlled pilot study. ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/search/advanced?docId=10.1016/j.invent.2017.07.002

5.Mistry, M. 2017.Overcoming procrastination. Eastern Eye. Accessed October 17, 2018. https://onesearch.cuny.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_proquest1939215511&context=PC&vid=cc&search_scope=everything&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US

6. Rogers, T., Max H. Bazerman, M. 2006. Future lock-in: Future implementation increases selection of ‘should’ choices. ScienceDirect.Accessed October 17, 2018. http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/todd_rogers/files/future_lock-in._future_implementation_increases_selection.pdf

7. Thomas, P., Joseph, R.2018 The U.S. as a ProcrastiNATION: Assessing Indecision on Life Satisfaction and Life Regret. (Report). North American Journal of Psychology. Accessed October 17, 2018. https://onesearch.cuny.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_gale_hrca529864263&context=PC&vid=cc&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,procrastination&sortby=date&offset=0

8.Wasche,K., Allgäuer, A., Lechner, A., Fink, S., Nuckles, M. 2013. Procrastination and self-efficacy: Tracing vicious and virtuous circles in self-regulate learning. Sciencedirect. Accessed September, 17, 2018. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475213000662