OCTOBER 2022

The Psychology of Procrastination: The Whys and Ways to Change

Naomi Zwelling

The simplest way to define procrastination is “a strategy used to avoid completing a task by seeking out distractions”. Procrastination is a method of self-deception and has an addictive quality, as it provides a short-term reward. However, it comes with the cost of sabotaging the future.

This short-term reward can be explained using Sigmund Freud’s pleasure principle, which states that humans are motivated by the desire to experience immediate gratification, and also rid themselves of any pain present when gratification is lacking. 

For example, imagine that a student is assigned an essay and has two days to complete it. On day one, they know they should start the essay, but they can't stop thinking how long it will take to write and how difficult it will be to focus. To avoid the feelings of discomfort they feel while stressing out about the essay, they decide they won’t start it until tomorrow. By making this choice, they feel an instant sense of gratification, as they’ve temporarily rid themself of the stress, and now they can engage in a more pleasurable activity, such as scrolling through social media or hanging out with a friend. (Sound familiar?)

This scenario is also an example of affective forecasting, which can be defined as a prediction of how you will feel in the future. This prediction is often inaccurate, and instead is an excuse to avoid a difficult task.

The student may have justified putting off the essay since they are confident that, tomorrow, they will feel well-rested and be more motivated. In reality, they will likely feel equally—if not more—stressed and unmotivated the next day.

Ironically, procrastination is also a behavior that may be used to feel protected. Perfectionists often engage in procrastination because they are afraid of failure. They prefer to not complete the task at all than do it and have it not meet their unrealistic standards. By expecting perfection, they place too much pressure on themselves, and to relieve this pressure, they procrastinate.

In contrast, procrastination can be used as a tool to justify imperfections. During his TED talk on self-worth theory, Nic Voge describes a scenario that often occurs in educational settings: as students gather outside a classroom prior to a big exam, they engage in a competition of sorts, each student explaining how unprepared they are. “I only studied for 2 hours!” one student may exclaim, while another counters with “2 hours? I only reviewed the slides for 10 minutes!” Once the test is over and the grades are posted, these same students can justify their lower than expected scores with “Oh, well if I had more time to study, my score would have been much higher.”

This phrase deflects the blame from the student’s procrastination habit to an outside factor, in this case, an ambiguous lack of time. This is a common strategy employed by those with an external locus of control, meaning they feel as though they have little control over their life and their destiny, and often blame their misfortunes on their surroundings.

Most of the time, an individual is well aware of their procrastination and the damage it is causing to the quality of their work and to their mental and physical well being. However, by claiming it is the fault of someone or something else, they have no drive to stop procrastinating.

So, how can they make the change? How can you make the change?

You may be holding yourself back through negative thoughts, especially those relating to your self-image. When you procrastinate, you are usually met with low-quality work and lost sleep. You may feel angry at yourself, and tell yourself that you are lazy, unmotivated, and possibly even unintelligent, all of which are untrue.

There are two steps to stop this cycle.

First, as cliché as it may sound, you must give yourself compassion. Acknowledge that you’ve been struggling lately, instead of telling yourself that you are worthless and will never succeed in school. Remind yourself that you are doing your absolute best, and celebrate even the small victories.

This is also a great place to utilize the foot-in-the-door phenomenon. This phenomenon explains that once you agree to a small task, you are much more likely to agree to larger tasks down the road. So you can start by giving yourself compassion. You’ve had a long day, and you don't feel as though you have the energy to write the paper. Start by just creating an outline for the paper, perhaps writing a thesis or finding a few sources. 

By granting yourself permission to start with a small task, you may even find that you're suddenly motivated to complete a bigger task, such as writing the introduction and first few body paragraphs.

Even if all you can do is the small task, you’ve at least broken down the assignment, and when you’re ready to work on it again, it will appear much less daunting.

The second step is to reframe your motivation for completing the task at hand. There are two distinct types of motivation: avoidance motivation and approach motivation. Avoidance motivation pushes an individual away from a fear—for instance, “if I do badly on this test, I will not get into college.” Approach motivation, on the other hand, pushes an individual towards a desired target—for example, “if I do well on this test, I will get into the college of my dreams!”

Procrastination is often caused by a conflict of these two motivations, resulting in stagnation. In order to eliminate uncomfortable stress and overcome procrastination, it is best to focus on approach motivation. This could be a phrase like “If I study hard for this test, I will score well and my transcript will look good, which will help me get into a good college.” Or, more simply, reminding yourself that “if I start this homework now, I will have free time this evening to watch a movie and relax.” Sometimes, just imagining how much better you will feel once you finish the assignment will give you the necessary push to get started.

It is not laziness or a lack of intelligence that causes us to procrastinate; it is simply a normal human reaction to stress. But, at the end of the day, Benjamin Franklin reminds us, “You may delay, but time will not.”