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Procrastination, from the Latin word for “tomorrow” (as in, “I’ll get to it tomorrow”), is perhaps the most common behavioural affliction in the modern world. As example, around 90% of college students report some procrastination tendencies and around 25% have procrastination tendencies severe enough to make it very difficult for them to ever attain a degree. In the everyday (as opposed to academic) world, an almost universal form of procrastination involves inability to get rid of clutter, with the most severe manifestation qualifying as hoarding. Other everyday forms of procrastination involve such things as putting off potentially difficult conversations, delaying paying bills, not completing job assignments, etc.

In calling procrastination an “affliction,” I mean to indicate that it is an avoidance behavior that creates undesired consequences for the procrastinator, assuming that most procrastinators would prefer not to get in academic trouble, have their cars repossessed, get fired, etc. On the other hand, procrastination itself does not qualify as a psychiatric disorder, although obviously there are some psychiatric disorders, most typically depression, for which procrastination is a major symptom.

There are obviously many possible explanations for why people procrastinate, and at 1,000 words (the recommended max for this post) I cannot mention all of them. I will briefly discuss a few major causes and then finish up with a discussion of some strategies for avoiding or lessening procrastination tendencies.

Causes of Procrastination
In looking at the major causes of procrastination, it is important to keep in mind that someone could have two or more factors operating in a specific procrastination example. Furthermore, procrastination tends to be time- and task-specific, with the possibility that a person can be a procrastinator one day or with one task and a non-procrastinator on another day or a different task.

1. Demoralization

A common cause of procrastination is feeling overwhelmed by the size of a project. A typical example would be a home in a serious state of clutter. The person faced with such a situation may feel they lack the self-efficacy to complete such a major task, and so they are intimidated from even starting. A Finnish neuroscientist, Dr. Aino Mäkinen, terms this “decision loop paralysis,” in which the brain begins a task but becomes overwhelmed evaluating too many options at once, and shuts down.

2. Perfectionism

While the first cause, demoralization, reflects a lack of confidence in one’s ability to succeed in a challenging task, the second cause, perfectionism, reflects, paradoxically, a high estimation of one’s ability to succeed. The reason why this results in procrastination is because the procrastinator needs the end product (such as a publication) to meet their self-imposed high standards, and fear of not meeting that standard creates crippling anxiety.

3. Distractibility

Many tasks subject to procrastination require sustained effort over a period of time. Many procrastinators, especially those who have a dysregulation condition such as ADHD, are easily distracted and lack the ability to sustain their focus over the length of time needed to complete the task. A modern contributor to such distractibility is the ever-present cell phone, which creates a constant temptation to engage in enjoyable diversions.

4. Demotivation

Tasks subject to procrastination are often things that are not exactly enjoyable but which one does because they serve an important purpose. On occasion, one finds oneself working on a task that serves a purpose (such as living up to someone else’s expectations) that is not very important to oneself. A variant of this is when the project started out being important, but at some point it becomes non-important or even repugnant. When that is the case, one may unconsciously sabotage the project by procrastinating without making a conscious decision to end it.

Methods for Reducing Procrastination
There are many ways to stop procrastinating but, again for space considerations, I shall only list a few of them.

1. The Finnish Method

A logical outgrowth of the concept of ”decision loop paralysis” is to break a major task up into smaller micro tasks. In terms of decluttering, for example, rather than attempt to tackle the whole task, it is useful to resolve to do a different small task (such as straightening the kitchen counter) that should only take a few minutes every day. As these accumulate, becoming more organized can become a habit, and what seems an overwhelming goal may become relatively easy to attain and maintain.

2. Accept Imperfection

As a former procrastinator driven by fear of having my writing viewed negatively, I found that Rational Emotive Therapy (a form of CBT that I have written about as having helped with my emotional development) helped me to become a relatively prolific author. The trick is to attack the anxiety that stems from producing drek (Yiddish for crap) by asking oneself questions such as: (a) “where is it written that only other people have the right to produce drek?”, and (b) “why is it awful if someone might think that my writing is drek?” Once one comes to accept that it is OK to be imperfect will one become able to just do things without worrying about how they might be judged.

3. Bartleby’s Approach

In Herman Melville’s 1853 novella “Bartleby the Scrivener,” the protagonist one day announces “I prefer not to” when asked to scriven (copy by hand) a legal document. Bartleby takes it to extremes (he eventually prefers not to do everything, including eat) but the basic idea—that it is OK to end an activity one hates—has some validity. The problem is that serial procrastinators are too quick to reach that conclusion over and over again. Thus it is important to decide if abandoning a project reflects one’s true values or is rather a maladaptive avoidance mechanism that expresses, rather than ends, procrastination.

4. Device Withdrawal

One way to combat procrastination related to internet usage is to adopt a policy of not checking one’s phone or other devices except on widely separated occasions. However, this is easier said than done.

5. Prescription Drugs

For those whose procrastination reflects a dysregulation condition such as ADHD, a solution might be to take a physician-prescribed medication such as methylphenidate (Ritalin).

Conclusion
As I have said to various students of mine (and to myself), “Procrastination is boring. Just do it.”