I read this article in our paper last week. I am a perfectionist and because of that have a tendency to procrastinate. I've been going through my cognitive workbook to help break my habits and it has helped a lot in making me realize most of my stress is self-induced. Anywho, here is the article: We're Sorry This Is Late ... We Really Meant To Post It Sooner: Research Into Procrastination Shows Surprising Findings Science Daily — A University of Calgary professor in the Haskayne School of Business has recently published his magnum opus on the subject of procrastination -- and it's only taken him 10 years. Ads by Google Advertise on this siteScottish Biomedical Preclinical Drug Discovery Services Tissue to development candidate www.scottish-biomedical.com Stop Procrastinating Now Learn the simple science to create and empower yourself to set goals. www.dreammanifesto.com Are You Right Brained? Find out if You're Right or Left Brained by Taking our Quick Quiz! www.chatterbean.com Tired of Procrastinating? There Is Hope & Freedom! Read This Free, Helpful Article. www.LifeScript.com The Origin of Emotions This book identifies the purpose, trigger and effect of each emotion. www.theoriginofemotions.com Joking aside, Dr. Piers Steel is probably the world's foremost expert on the subject of putting off until tomorrow what should be done today. His comprehensive analysis of procrastination research, published in the recent edition of the American Psychological Association's Psychological Bulletin, presents some surprising conclusions on the subject, such as: Most people's New Year's resolutions are doomed to failure Most self-help books have it completely wrong when they say perfectionism is at the root of procrastination, and Procrastination can be explained by a single mathematical equation "Essentially, procrastinators have less confidence in themselves, less expectancy that they can actually complete a task," Steel says. "Perfectionism is not the culprit. In fact, perfectionists actually procrastinate less, but they worry about it more." Other predictors of procrastination include: task aversiveness, impulsiveness, distractibility, and how much a person is motivated to achieve. Not all delays can be considered procrastination; the key is that a person must believe it would be better to start working on given tasks immediately, but still not start. It's estimated that about 15-20 per cent of the general population are procrastinators. And the costs of procrastinating can add up well beyond poor work performance, especially for those who delay filing their taxes or planning their retirement. Steel says motivational failures such as difficulty in sticking to diets and exercise regimes -- frequently the focus of New Year's resolutions -- are related to procrastination because impulsiveness is often at the root of the failure. "Temptations that are close at hand are difficult to resist. Addicts often relapse after returning from treatment facilities because drugs and alcohol become easily available and daily habits reassert themselves. Or we load up on bread in the restaurant before the meal is served. Or we check our email 10 times an hour instead of completing a project." The good news is that willpower has an unusual capacity. "The old saying is true: 'Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're probably right'," Steel says. "And as you get better at self control, your expectancy about whether you can resist goes up and thus improves your ability to resist." Steel has also come up with the E=mc2 of procrastination, a formula he's dubbed Temporal Motivational Theory, which takes into account factors such as the expectancy a person has of succeeding with a given task (E), the value of completing the task (V), the desirability of the task (Utility), its immediacy or availability (Γ) and the person's sensitivity to delay (D). It looks like this and uses the Greek letter Γ (capital gamma): Utility = E x V / ΓD It's still unclear why some people may be more prone to developing procrastination behaviour, but some evidence suggests it may be genetic. Steel concludes: "Continued research into procrastination should not be delayed, especially because its prevalence seems to be growing." The title of the paper is "The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure." The American Psychological Association's Psychological Bulletin is arguably the top academic journal for the social sciences. Steel's research on the subject is referred to as a meta-analysis, in which he distills and synthesizes the evidence on procrastination from 691 other research sources. Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Calgary.
That's really interesting. I don't procrastinate on everything but I do tend to put some things off because of whatever perceived anxieties i have about doing them. It can be something simple like even coming on here to check messages and post .. I'll start mentally over-analyzing things and will end up putting it off and off until sometimes a week has gone by and then feel silly that i put it off that long. It seems to annoy my in-laws quite a bit as they'll ask me to do something and it might take me a day or two to sort out in my mind how i'm going to get what they wanted done done. And again, usually most of the time I tell myself I need to do whatever it is then, and i want to do it but my brain cycles through all these reasons why i need to wait and give myself time to do it. It's a bit weird really i guess.
I'm like that when I go places. I run through my head that I don't have anything cute to wear, that I hate my hair-whatever me beef is with myself that day and then start freaking out that I'm going to run into somone I know and I'll look horrible or trip. So I put the task off and then get more anxious because I know I have to do it and then when I am doing it get even more anxious because I feel rushed.
