Have you thought about tackling your procrastination but, you know… dog videos, shopping lists, catching up on Twitter, the latest episode of Neighbors with Mike and “plain Jane’s super brain”, apparently.
A Durham University professor and the world’s leading authority on procrastination is looking to help. Fuschia Sirois, with over two decades of studying procrastination, has heard so many shocking stories that she’s now publishing a research-based self-help guide that offers insight and practical strategies for dealing with it.
“I do a lot of public speaking and I get emails after talks from people whose lives have been crippled by procrastination, they can’t move forward with their goals, it’s hurting their health, and they’re just desperate for any kind of advice .”
There is a lot of advice and opinion on the subject, which is not helpful, she added. “You’re lazy, go take a time management course … show your self-discipline – ‘come on soldier!”
Instead, procrastinators need to better understand what the problem is in order to address it. They also need to stop beating themselves up for procrastinating and be kinder to themselves.
Sirois, a professor of psychology at Durham, said procrastination among students was alarmingly high. “It’s estimated that somewhere between 80 and 95% of young students procrastinate at least once or more, but 50% of students procrastinate chronically and it’s a real issue.”
In the general adult population, about 15-25% of people often procrastinate.
Procrastination has never been a good thing despite some researchers arguing the benefits of “positive procrastination.” Sirois said: “Embedded in the definition of procrastination is that you unnecessarily and voluntarily delay an important intended task despite knowing the consequences are harmful. How can that be positive?”
At its core it is an irrational and emotional act, Sirois said. “Procrastination is a form of emotion regulation where sufferers avoid a task that may trigger negative emotions by disengaging from it or putting it off.”
Sirois said harsh judgment wasn’t the answer, and procrastinators needed to know they weren’t lazy — and they didn’t just need to work on their organization or time management.
Procrastination, she said, is because “we are unable to manage our emotions internally. So we manage them externally. We take on that task that is unpleasant or boring or frustrating or stressful … and by putting it aside we get a sense of immediate relief.
“But we’ve done it temporarily and we’ve done it externally, so it’s going to come back to haunt us.”
One of the reasons Sirois said she wanted to write the book “was to help people understand what’s driving procrastination and find ways to help them break out of that cycle.”
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Chronic procrastination can have an impact on people’s health, well-being and career, resulting in stress, anxiety and shame.
Sufferers have been found to have less job security and more limited career progression. It can cause insomnia and headaches and lead to heart-related health problems.
“Procrastination is not a trivial issue,” Sirois said. “It can have significant negative impacts on a person’s life. But it doesn’t have to be, there are ways to deal with it and there is hope for those caught in a pattern of chronic procrastination.
“My hope is that by sharing my expertise through a practical self-help book, procrastinators around the world can begin to overcome the problem and fulfill their dreams and goals.”
Procrastination: What It Is, Why It’s a Problem, and What You Can Do About It is published by the American Psychological Association and is out now.
Famous crawlers
Victor Hugo agreed to write The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1829. A year later, after much fun and pursuing other projects, the book was still unfinished. Given a new deadline, Hugo came up with a plan in which he locked up all his formal clothes leaving himself with only a scarf to go out with. It ended two weeks early.
Margaret Atwood has described herself as “a world-class procrastinator”, putting off writing The Handmaid’s Tale for three years. Her coping mechanism is to give herself a dual identity, so “Peggy does the laundry” and Peggy tells Margaret to “get off her damn Twitter account.”
Saint Augustine of Hippo lived in fourth-century north Africa and came up with what could be a motto for all creeps. In a prayer to God, he said: “Give me chastity and prudence – but not yet!” He gave up his sexually hedonistic ways and Bob Dylan once dreamed he saw him.
Douglas Adams would do almost anything to avoid writing. “I love deadlines,” the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy once said. “I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.” One editor’s solution was to lock him in a hotel room for three weeks, sending him food and drink directly so he would have no excuse not to finish writing his book.
