I’ll be honest here, I’m not a very timely person. I do most of my work hours before its due. Much like these blogs I wait until last minute. Everybody always says to manage your time wisely, to plan ahead and to get work done. But, what about the benefits or procrastinating? Theres got to be something. And there is.
According to this article, our hate for procrastination wasn’t always so, in fact in ancient times, Egyptians and Romans believed procrastinators to be useful and wise. Unfortunately, times have changed.
Our opposition towards procrastination stems far back into history, dating back to Jonathan Edward’s “Procrastination, or The Sin and Folly of Depending on Future Time” which basically condemns you to hell if you procrastinate. Anti-procrastination became an industry at one point, as people boasted their ways to stop procrastination.
What is procrastination?
According to the dictionary, procrastination is the act of habit of putting off or delaying especially something requiring immediate attention.
Dr. Joseph Ferrari is a lead researcher at DePau University in Chicago, and has published numerous articles related to procrastination. According to his research, approximately 20 percent of men and women in the U.S. are chronic procrastinators. This number is higher than that of people with clinical depression of phobias. According to the study, procrastination rates seemed to be higher in the northwest. According to his research, Dr. Ferrari believes that are links to ADHD, OCD and other personality challenges linked to procrastination, if you do it often and in various areas of your life. Most of us only procrastinate as a tendency of laziness, but for chronic procrastinators, it is a maladaptive lifestyle, Ferrari says.
Technology and procrastination
Much of todays technology is designed for us to not procrastinate however we still manage to do so. The snooze button, which many of us a guilty of hitting numerous times before starting our day, was actually designed to allow us more time, however it seems to have had the opposite effect. Dr. Ferrari suggests using technology as a tool, not as a delay.
According to this article, technology is playing a significant role in our cognitive control. Cognitive control is our ability to focus on accomplishing a test, in the context of competing demands. Todays technology often challenges our cognitive control system to its core, buzzing for our attention throughout the day.
Positives of Procrastination
Procrastination is not always a bad thing.
According to this article John Perry, a philosopher at Stanford who published a book on procrastination referred to this idea as “Structured procrastination”, or positive procrastination. He realized that procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing. Here are some ways, according to this article that people procrastinate that can actually help their overall productivity.
Some types of procrastinating can actually boost positive emotions and feelings of relaxation, spark ideas and strengthen relationships, such as contacting an old colleague or friend. These can actually increase productivity later on, leaving you feeling more motivated to do things.
Also, by procrastinating, you can actually get quite a bit done. For example, this article suggests that when you put off numerous little tasks, you’re more likely to do them when they form into one big task. It seems much more appealing to get six different things at once than do each individual thing in different sittings. (much like these blogs, but that’s another debate.)
Also, procrastinators often do things that, as stated before, spark their interests, increasing their positive emotions. This can lead to greater quality of work later on; simply reading or watching a ted talk about something that inspires you can give you motivation. And of course, my favorite of all the procrastination options- napping. Napping allow you to rest your brain, so when you wake up, you fell more refreshed and ready to tackle the day.
So how can we stop procrastination?
In The Art of Procrastination Perry says the best way to stop procrastination is do do more. If you add more things to your list, things that aren’t too important, you can look past them or procrastinate those things and do more important tasks. This is what Perry considers structured procrastination.
“Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact. The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done.” (Perry, Art of Procrastination.)
Also, Psychological Science suggested that “precommitment” or setting personal deadlines resonated with people and did in improve their ability to complete a task.
This Tedtalk further explains the idea of why exactly we procrastinate.
Conclusion
Many of subconsciously procrastinate. I believe this kind of research is important because it leads us to understand just how our brain works and how technology may have an impact on our lives. Of course, technology is not the only thing to blame in terms of procrastination. I believe this research would benefit from studying other types of personality challenges have risen and grown throughout the years that may play a role in this procrastination problem. It is important to distinguish between laziness and simply putting off a task to do another. I do not believe this research would suffer from any problems such as the Texas sharpshooter or file drawer problems, as both sides– the benefits and disadvantages of procrastination are reflected in this research. I do believe I have learned a lot from my studies and this research has led me to understand just why I procrastinate. Hopefully in the future, I will be able to stop myself from meaningless, chronic procrastination and limit myself to ‘productive procrastination.”
I always have had a problem with procrastination, its like I’m doing something I need to do, and the next thing I know I’m browsing random pages on the internet. I have been trying really hard recently to make myself aware when I do it because its getting to the point in school where I cant afford to do it anymore. I definitely think knowing this stuff will help me be able to be more self aware of my procrastination.
I can relate to this because it’s in almost everything I do. I find myself holding ninety percent of what I do off until another time and I constantly do this to the point that I cram to do do thing at the very last minute. Procrastination is in everything we not just task, but sometimes it’s something like having to pee but because you are so comfortable laying down you find yourself waiting until your bladder hurts. It is pure laziness.
Sometimes people can get away with procrastinating, and other times it just does not work. A study done in 2003 focused on procrastination and its effect on writing success. Researches found that if a person procrastinates on a writing assignment, it can be associated with general anxiety, or anxiety about writing that assignment. Researchers studies 206 undergraduate students taking writing-intensive classes in college. This sample represented different majors and different ages. They used the Procrastination Assessment Scale to assess the amount of procrastination the students did. They also measured anxiety, their grades, and writing delay behaviors. The results supported the hypothesis that procrastination is “associated with anxiety about writing a major paper, delay behaviors on the writing assignment, less satisfaction with the writing experience, lower paper grades, and lower grades in writing-intensive courses.”
So maybe procrastination needs to be evaluated more on a subject to subject base, and not generalized. While a student may be more inclined to procrastinate in a writing course because they have anxiety, another subject’s assignments could be commonly procrastinated due to a lack of interest, or another factor. This could be another way to look at procrastination.
Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886902003690
Procrastination, in small doses may not be horrible for you, but I think that we increase the doses too much. As students we call complain about our work load and how it’s ‘too much’ but some of our downfall is that we wait to complete projects until the last second. stress work can provide some good outcomes, but getting a least a small start (post 2 blogs) it will make life a lot easier (because we can get 16 quality comments in 30 minutes… right?).
Also, here’s a more in-depth look on the popular correlation between procrastination and perfectionism: http://webstandardssherpa.com/reviews/breaking-the-perfectionism-procrastination-infinite-loop/
Great post, and I definitely agree with the points you made. Something I’ve found with myself in regards to procrastination is that it often stems for perfectionism. For example, I would rather not do something at all then do it even slightly wrong. This results in me putting things off to avoid the anxiety that comes along with failing and not doing well. There is so much irony in this though, because I end up feeling rushed and probably not doing as well as I could have if I had gotten out of my own head at the very beginning.
I agree with the points made here because of the fact that I physically cannot study or do homework unless I feel stressed about it. For instance, if a paper is due a week from today, I could not start it until at most a couple of days before because I wouldn’t be stressed until then. I guess you can say that my academic ability is fueled by stress. I’ve even found articles saying how bad the stress of schoolwork can be for you! Here’s one below:
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/coping-school-stress