Procrastination

Most of us have repeated the tired statement - "I'll do it tomorrow," or that phrase "next time nalang." (the tired Ceblish phrase - English-Cebuano combined) That is procrastination. Procrastination is the technical term for the way we needlessly delay or put off relevant activities until another day or time. As an example, a study found that 65% of college students want to learn to stop putting off writing term papers, 62% feel the need to study for exams more promptly, and 55% hope to read their assignments earlier. (Solomon and Rothblum, 1984) And I do believe this conclusion applies to the Philippine setting of this day and age.

When we procrastinate, we quickly shift our attention away from the work that needs to be done in such an unthinking and slick way that we feel good about avoiding the work - until later. Later, when we are faced with what seems like enormous tasks. We sometimes do it automatically we don't even know it. So what are the symptoms that suggest the onset of this phenomenon?

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• Of course the obvious, waiting until the last minute to do something
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• Being reluctant to take risks or try something new (i.e. staying at home and not wanting to be out of the ordinary or not in the routine)
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• Getting sick when faced with an unpleasant job
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• Avoiding confrontations or decisions
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• Blaming others or the situation (calling it boring) for your unhappiness
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• Making big plans but never carrying them out
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• Having such a busy social-recreational calendar that it is hard to get important work done
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• Or avoiding doing anything altogether - being apathetic. (Ellis and Knaus, 1977)
  
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As mentioned in class once - learn the controlling behavior to train the behavior to be controlled, so here we seek to understand what this really is. Its purpose masquerades itself as a pleasant and convenient escape from drudgery when instead it almost always adds to stress, disorganization, and frequent failure.

According to Ellis and Knaus (1977), and Burka and Yuen (1983), the process of procrastination is as follows:

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2. You wish to achieve a certain outcome - one of substance and significance. "I've got to do this. I've got to start."
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4. You delay, considering the real and imagined advantages or not starting just yet. "I'll do it tomorrow when I don't have much to do."
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6. You delay more, becoming self-critical. "I should have started sooner." And/or justifying that you are too pre-occupied with so many other things which seem significant as of the moment (i.e. quality time or rather party time with friends).
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8. You delay even more, until finally the task has to be done, usually this is done hastily - "Let's just get this over with." Or it is not done at all - "I can't do this."
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10. Then you berate yourself. You feel guilty and vow to not do this again. Or you discount the task altogether - "It doesn't matter."
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12. You repeat the process anyway on other important tasks, as if it were an addiction or compulsion.
    
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The activities usually considered for procrastination fall into two overlapping categories:

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• Maintenance activities are chores to be done usually routinely. And a procrastinator usually does them at the eleventh hour (i.e. overdue library books, waiting until some important thing can't be found before cleaning up your room). A frequent repetition of this can lead to inconvenience and feeling out of control.
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• Development dawdling occurs when a self-improvement activity, which may be to one's personal advantage, is routinely put off. They stall on finding ways to enjoy their lives and improve their self-acceptance, social, or career skills. AT the extreme, people feel depressed, immobilized, or frustrated.
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These involve, naturally, the decision to delay. The conscious choice of temporary relief because of the whimsical belief that someday something will be done. The decision is self-deceptive because there is no more of a commitment that the task will get done tomorrow than there is to getting it done today. The problems that result from these deceptive delays are legendary. Choosing to evade a small immediate aversive stimulus rather than receiving the stronger delayed reinforcing one. This is part of the concept of self-control where the power of the immediate consequence often wins out.

Procrastinators may even put off largely pleasurable tasks that involve some minor inconvenience or discomfort. But there is more to this than simply delaying the unpleasant. This is actually more than just some simple behavior, in fact it is quite complex. It involves emotions, skills, thoughts, or attitudes, and factors we are unaware of. Furthermore, the causes and dynamics of putting off an important task vary from person to person and even from task to task for that same person. The simplest course of action is of course to just do the unpleasant task as soon as practical, while there is enough time to do the job right and get it over with, not prolonging the agony. But we loiter anyway.

So why? People procrastinate for various reasons. But procrastination is usually a byproduct - a turnout from a spectrum of complications.

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• Some people lack focus. They find it difficult to organize their efforts and keeping on track with their priorities. These people are frequently forgetful and procrastinate on making the special effort needed to keep on track. Unless they carefully manage tedious activities and schedules, they will face a double hassle: the original activity plus possible new complications due to the delay.
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• Procrastinators can feel powerless, hopeless, and self-pitying. This group believes that whatever they do is an act of futility. Because of this delusion, they hold back.
  
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• People who feel hostile and who put things off to get back at someone, often disadvantage themselves - like the child who breaks his or her red wagon to prevent others from playing with it.
  
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• Some self-indulgent people rebel against routines and schedules because they want to live by their own rules and they expect others to adapt to their wishes. This self-absorbed group procrastinates on advancing their enlightened self-interest.
  
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• People who worry too much about what other people think of them may procrastinate to avoid disapproval. To avoid feeling embarrassed or worthless when they believe they will not present themselves adequately, they often withdraw. In a misguided attempt to maintain their public image, some will excuse their failings by claiming they didn't have the time to do a good job. Sadly, many do get the disapproval or disrespect they want to avoid by running from opportunities where it is clearly appropriate to be assertive.
  
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• Some procrastinators make dedicated efforts to keep their image polished. Their motto is, "It is not what you can do, but how you look and who you know that leads to power and money." Their problem solving efforts almost exclusively go into the endless pursuit of covering up what they put off doing. (Knaus, 1999)
  
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According to Knaus (1999) there are four common cognitive, emotive, and behavioral themes behind these procrastination styles: self-doubt, discomfort avoidance, guilt, and problem habits.

Self-doubt procrastination

This makes one prone to second-guessing himself, hesitating and delaying. Some prefer to avoid new challenges and opportunities unless guaranteed success. Some perfectionist self-doubters fear failure. Others routinely make themselves anxious when they view everyday challenges as too tough or overwhelming. Members of this group may make halfhearted efforts while deluding themselves into thinking they could do better if they tried harder. Workaholics may treat themselves like perpetual motion machines, ruthlessly driving themselves lest if they let down their guard, they will lapse and not recover. Through these frenzied efforts, they procrastinate on finding ways to have a relaxed, fun-filled existence. Although there is variation around the self-doubt theme, the common thread is that to obtain security, certainty, and human worth you must successfully meet rigid standards. The result is often the opposite.

Discomfort-dodging procrastination

In Gone with the Wind, Scarlett O'Hara remarked, "Tomorrow is another day." True - but do you really prefer to face tomorrow with what you put off today? Do you prefer to make the same New Year's resolutions year after year? If you are like most people, the answer is no! However, when trapped in a procrastination pattern, your actions suggest that you prefer to do something else - such as avoid discomfort.

The discomfort avoidance procrastination process comes about because of a low tolerance for activities that the procrastinating person believes will evoke discomfort, uncertainty, or difficulty. In some cases, the person feels strained, has a low threshold for stress, magnifies the effort required to get going, often falls behind, and then feels even more stressed as the burdens pile up.

Here is one way the discomfort-dodging procrastination process escalates: You feel uncomfortable as you anticipate facing a troublesome situation. You are sensitive to stress, and focus your attention partially on your tension. This attention to tension magnifies your feelings of stress and this magnification process leads to agitated feelings that can disorganize your thinking processes and behavior.

Discomfort-dodging activities can interact with the self-doubt process. People who are inclined to dodge challenges and responsibilities because of the discomfort associated with them frequently doubt their ability to tolerate discomfort. Sadly, when we use discomfort as a signal to avoid a legitimate maintenance or developmental challenge, we may fertilize self-doubt.

Self-doubt and discomfort-dodging patterns lead to a phobic reactions, avoidance, and escapist impulses.
Self-doubters and discomfort-dodgers often don't see that the avoided activity is not so much the problem as the highly prejudicial and emotionally charged negative view they take of their own abilities to tolerate frustration, persist, and manage challenges.

Guilt-driven procrastination

Some procrastinators also may feel guilt when they believe they did something they think they should not have done: they condemn themselves for their procrastination. Although procrastination can be regrettable, guilt is an inner distraction that robs time from corrective efforts.

Guilt over procrastination is an irrational conclusion with paradoxical consequences. People who periodically fertilize a procrastination pattern through guilt normally don't stop to look at the consequences - emotional anguish and probably more procrastination. The disturbance a person feels from guilt is rarely constructive. Guilt is irrational because there is no universal law that says one should not err by procrastinating, nor that if one does, one should be condemned.

Guilt over procrastination is a disabling disturbance that would preferably be understood and challenged. Once guilt is worked out, the person who wants to stop procrastinating will normally have a clearer mind, feel more relaxed and be better prepared to take responsible corrective actions.

Problem habits

Procrastination can be a symptom of a spectrum of complications, self-doubts, discomfort dodging, or guilt. Procrastination may also involve the belief that an urge to procrastinate is the same as a command to procrastinate. With practice, this connection becomes stabilized.

Procrastination has other features. Faced with an unpleasant situation, the procrastinator's mind may habitually slip into a primitive whining - a defiant flow of thought that stirs and supports the procrastination habit. This "slippery thinking" process includes such reactive ideas as "I don't want to," "It's too hard," "I don't know where to begin," "I won't do this." "Oh no! This is too much (too tough, too unpleasant, too bothersome). I'll do it later," "I'll do it when I'm rested and better prepared." Unless the person is alert to these reactive perceptions, higher problem solving mental processes lose ground. Procrastination continues until the person makes a responsible effort to use his or her reasoning abilities to override these primitive, diversionary, comfort-seeking evaluations.

Awareness of this procrastination habit process is often the first step toward change. However, it is not always easy to see the obvious.

There are two fundamental kinds of procrastinators: one tensed and the other one relaxed. The tense type often feels both an intense pressure to succeed and a fear of failure; the relaxed type often feels negatively toward his/her work and blows it off - forgets it - by playing (Solomon and Rothblum, 1984). The denial-based type of procrastinator avoids as much stress as possible by dismissing his/her work or disregarding more challenging tasks and concentrating on "having fun" or some other distracting activity; if their defense mechanisms work effectively, they actually have what seems like "a happy life" for the moment.

The tense-afraid type of procrastinator is described by Fiore (1989) as feeling overwhelmed by pressures, unrealistic about time, uncertain about goals, dissatisfied with accomplishments, indecisive, blaming of others or circumstances for his/her failures, lacking in confidence and, sometimes, perfectionist. Thus, the underlying fears are of failing, lacking ability, being imperfect, and falling short of overly demanding goals. This type thinks his/her worth is determined by what he/she does, which reflects his/her level of ability. He/she is afraid of being judged and found wanting. Thus, this kind of procrastinator will get over-stressed and over-worked until he/she escapes the pressure temporarily by trying to relax but any enjoyment gives rise to guilt and more apprehension.

More recently, Sapadin and Maguire (1997) have also classified procrastinators into types:

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• "perfectionist" who dreads doing anything that is less than perfect and the effort to meet the high expectation that comes with success. He sets impossible goals.
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• "dreamer" who has great ideas but hates doing the details. He has the ideas but not the striving.
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• "worrier" who doesn't think things are right but fears that changes will make them worse. He is anxious, self-critical and feels inferior.
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• "defier" who resists doing anything suggested or expected by someone else. One who is self-indulgent and egocentric.
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• "crisis-maker" who manages to find or make a big problem in any project (often by starting too late). The typical procrastinator who waits up to the last minute due to "busy" schedule, so to speak.
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• "over-doer" who takes on way too many tasks. Thinking he is superman, he takes on more responsibility than he can handle, misguiding then his priorities.
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Finding ourselves in one of these categories ought not disappoint us, but instead motivate us to modify ourselves for the better, as recognition and awareness are the first steps to our improvement. Feeling a lack of accomplishment, surrounded by incomplete projects, losing opportunities, experiencing many unpleasant emotional consequences, and feeling irresponsible, why don't procrastinators just act effectively and rid themselves of these unwanted outcomes? The explanation is this: We are complex, inventive creatures who do not always act in our enlightened self-interest. We can, and do, distract ourselves from our problems and reconstruct them to make them temporarily more digestible. When it comes to procrastination, we normally live in a twilight zone and avoid changes when it comes to our cherished procrastination-evoking assumptions and beliefs. Here are some action, emotional, and mental distractions that support procrastination patterns that you can watch for and change, as compiled by Bandura (1997), Knaus (1999), and Woodring (1994).

Action diversions
Action diversions involve substituting a low priority activity for legitimate maintenance or developmental work. For example: you want to clean your living room. In a procrastination mode, you instead call a friend or go to a movie. An important report is due, so you doodle or watch TV, eating playing, or sleeping. Once we are engrossed in the diversion, we block out our anxiety, self-doubts, anger, or boredom associated with the work we are putting off but should be doing.

Emotional diversions
People who fall into the emotional diversion trap wait for the moment of inspiration to strike where they "feel right" - i.e., can happily and effortlessly deal with their outstanding projects. For those of you who fall into this "feel right" trap, here is a revolutionary perspective: You don't have to feel inspired to get things done. How many of us feel inspired to scrub a dirty floor or face a difficult confrontation? Although some complex challenges may require time to think out and to "work up to" a solution, most activities can either be started or accomplished in the present.

Mental diversions
Procrastinators often play a variety of mental tricks on themselves. One trick is the mañana ploy, where you think tomorrow it is going to be easier to do what you feel like putting off today. When tomorrow comes, the project keeps getting put off to a later time until it turns into a crisis. The contingency mañana ploy is a bit more sophisticated. Here you make one action depend on the completion of another, then you put off the preliminary activity: e.g., you think you need to do research about losing weight before you start to develop new eating habits.

The Catch-22 ploy is even more pernicious. Here you quit before you begin because you have created an impossible condition for yourself. You declare that you need an M.B.A. degree to have the career you secretly desire, then you declare yourself to be not intelligent enough to obtain this degree. Result: you don't take the steps to improve and feel frustrated with what you do. Finally the backward ploy is one where you dwell on real or perceived mistakes from the past. This is a variation on the Catch-22 ploy: you believe you can't go forward unless you can change what has already happened. Since you can't change the past, no amount of mental rehashing will help.

Although recognizing how these diversions work won't automatically reverse your procrastination, a rational awareness of what is going on is a start in the right direction. The chief value in recognizing diversionary actions is that once you are aware of how and why you procrastinate, you can start to change your thinking, emotions, and actions.

To varying degrees, most of us can learn to replace many of the unpleasant consequences of procrastination with the results of accomplishment. Finally, now we see how to alter this detrimental habit. Although this takes effort and persistence, our self-improvement actions can lead to what Stanford University professor Albert Bandura calls self-efficacy.

This is a fact-based belief that you can exercise control over events that affect your life. This constructive belief motivates and regulates the actions that you take. To change from a pattern of procrastination to a process of self-efficacy may involve many false starts, advances, relapses, and backsliding. Change rarely follows an uninterrupted course.
Developing procrastination problem awareness and problem-solving actions are important steps on this path of change. It has to be noted that one must act on the root of the problem. And in this case, procrastination holds on to more than one aspect of personality. So here are some rational action, emotional, and mental steps to overcoming procrastination.

Action change steps

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• Specify your goal. Start with clear, measurable, achievable goals. It is better to say you are going to work on your income taxes two hours each Saturday morning for the month of February, than to say you are going to stop procrastinating on your taxes.
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• Identify the steps and their sizes as you move from the initial behavior to the final one. Take a "bits and pieces" approach. Even the most complex of tasks have simple beginnings. Break the activity down into "chewable bits" where you can tackle each phase with a reasonable expectation of progress. This method may be particularly useful for projects such as writing assignments, career development, or building self-efficacy.
  
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• Commit to the task. A suggestion would be to employ the 5-minute method. Begin by committing five minutes to get started. In that five-minute period, do something to finish the project: then you decide if you are going to continue for another five minutes. Follow this pattern until you decide to quit, or are done. If you decide to quit before you are done, take five minutes to set up what you will do to get a jump on the task when next you begin. Through this method you only commit to short work periods. This can be a surprisingly effective way to break your inertia.
  
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• Take data and analyze the process. There are many way to get organized and set the stage for follow-through actions. Here is a simple way to organize your work to overcome procrastination. Set up a catch-up, keep-up and get-ahead filing system. Make a current activity list for each file, and modify the lists as you progress. The catch-up file includes long-overdue activities that you want to finish. Set aside time each day to work at the items in this file, checking the tasks off as you get them done. In your keep-up file, emphasize getting priority matters done as they come up. These are the activities that could otherwise become problems later on or lead to lost opportunities. For your get-ahead file, schedule time blocks to initiate steps to advance your personal interests. Get-ahead file time can involve planning or acting.
  
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• Take note of your progression. The activities lists contained in all three files may vary as your life demands and priorities vary. Although unexpected interruptions may temporarily distract you, over a six-month period this program can yield the following benefits: you have no more catch-up file, you manage your keep-up projects with reasonable effectiveness, you spend significant time on your get-ahead projects, and you experience a sound sense of accomplishment and advantage. (Note: You can list and then check off your gains in each of the three groups. This check-off strategy can give you a visual reward for your efforts.)
  
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• Reinforce yourself, make it last. When you feel tempted to substitute a low priority activity (reading a tabloid or watching a soap opera) for a priority project, make the substitute activity contingent on doing part or all of the priority activity first. Here the "substitute" activity can serve as a reward that immediately follows a catch-up, keep-up, or get-ahead action.
  
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• Complete spontaneously occurring tasks as they arise: DO IT NOW.
  
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Emotional change steps

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• Change the way you interpret and perceive situations. Can you imagine changing frustration avoidance into frustration challenging? Here is where imagination can help. Suppose you have a cluttered room to clean. Pretend you are Able Cleaning Services, and time yourself to see how long the job takes. Some of us like to compete against ourselves and this strategy can serve that purpose. (White, 1988)
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• When you experience mild levels of tension that you normally associate with activity avoidance, concentrate on this tension. Note where the tension is located. Is it in your shoulders, stomach, or mind? (A tad similar to the Jacobson's Reciprocal Inhibition, where we focus on the center of tension and its release.) Acknowledging, accepting, and exploring a strained feeling can sometimes make it more tolerable. Now, try to use your tension as a catalyst for a counter-procrastination action.
  
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• By setting up lofty, unrealistic, and perfectionist standards you can depress yourself by defining yourself as powerless to achieve the standard. Divide this goal into manageable steps. Try shifting your attention from this depressive flow of thought by using a brief one minute relaxation breathing exercise:
  
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2. Take about five seconds to gradually fill your lungs with air.
   
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4. Hold your breath for five seconds.
   
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6. Breathe out slowly and evenly until you have expelled the air from your lungs.
   
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8. Wait five seconds before breathing in. Repeat the pattern three more times, then breathe normally. Now, act - whether you feel relaxed or not!
   
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• Although most people dislike doing things when they feel uncomfortable or uncertain about an outcome, consider whether this tension would prevent you from acting if somebody offered you a million dollars to do the task. If that causes a shift in your perspective, act on that new perspective without the reward. If you experience no new shift in perspective, switch to the five-minute plan.
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• Recall a time when you felt motivated and effective. Think about the sights, scents, sounds, and emotions you experienced then. Use this recollection as a catalyst to act. If you can't reconstruct a motivating experience, do something to start the put-off project: motivation often follows action. Even if this is not so, in a particular instance, you may still do something to make progress.
  
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Mental change steps

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• Just as stated in Aaron Beck's Cognition Therapy, we can identify and check our beliefs. Make a special effort to recognize mañana, contingency mañana, Catch-22, and backward ploys. Challenge these beliefs by considering alternate perspectives, such as imagining yourself in action and then challenging yourself to test reality against that fantasy.
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• Listen for anxiety-creating self-talk when you start to procrastinate. Challenge these thoughts by pushing yourself into problem solving actions, set yourself to Meichenbaum's Self-Instruction.
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• Listen for self-downing self-talk. Confront this negative self-talk by evoking an action perspective on the challenge you face. Here is how: (Rational-Emotive Therapy) Consider that as a complex human being, you have thousands of accomplishments. You have a reservoir of abilities that you have already used to achieve these accomplishments. Next, consider that you have about 18,000 different personal attributes and qualities. Some of your capabilities will be stronger than others. List your capabilities that either have led to accomplishment or that you believe you can develop. Exercise them and watch them grow.
  
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• Deal with anxious or depressed thoughts as they arise. Both anxiety and depression share a common overly generalized belief: "I'm powerless because I can't cope." To help yourself break this procrastination catalyst, first reverse this statement to see the circularity ("I can't cope because I'm powerless.") Next, recognize that the generalized circular idea is a belief, not a fact. Then ask yourself "What are the exceptions to this belief?" Honest answers to this question can start you toward a fresh new perspective that is reasonably free of the type of overgeneralized circular reasoning that is often at the core of human disturbance and procrastination.
  
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To conclude, procrastination patterns are not trivial matters. Practically every form of procrastination eventually leads to disadvantages of various types and degrees. When you actively select and respond to important self-maintenance and development challenges, you will add to your chances of helping yourself.

Procrastination is not a simple act of putting something off. This process has more twists than might first appear. It is a symptom of self-doubt, self-downing, discomfort-dodging, and irrational guilt. The results of procrastination can be a stimulus for the faulty beliefs that evoked procrastination in the first place. It can be a defense against fear of failure, and, therefore, serve as a diversion from facing that fear. It can be a well-practiced problem habit.

To complicate this already twisted mental labyrinth, you embrace many diversionary strategies that obscure your primary reasons for procrastinating. It is hard to catch yourself in the act of procrastinating while engaged in diversionary pursuits.
Sometimes, no matter what people say, things are easier said than done. And these suggestions may just be as ineffective to some as it is effective to others. The main factors here are: first and foremost, the desire to change, then to commit, to be patient with yourself - persevere… This paper may serve as basis for starting a program in dealing with procrastination.