Procrastination as an Art Form

Is your philosophy in life ‘Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow, or next week, or next month’?

Do you find a number of ‘reasonable’ justifications for not starting a task? When you finally sit down to begin a task, do you suddenly find something more important to do, such as checking your emails, tidying your desk, or talking to Jane in accounts over a trivial matter? If you are working from home, do those breakfast dishes beckon you, or does your cat look like it needs a pat?

The idea for this article came to me when I was writing ‘Liquid Harvest’. I felt a little overwhelmed by the copious amount of information available that needed reducing to 1500 words, even though I knew the task was well within my capabilities. After spending five or ten minutes on the task, I would begin doing something else. Suddenly, I realised I was procrastinating, so I kept this list of my antics.

• Sort through books and articles into useful, maybe, and probably not piles
• Read interesting information not relevant to article
• Make a coffee
• Check herbs and vegetables in back garden
• Drink coffee and begin to scan first book
• Find pen and paper ( I should have been already organised)
• Sit back at table, write book title and page number on note paper
• Find red pen to use for direct quotes
• Sit down again and begin summarising
• Rinse coffee cup, stack dishes, and wipe kitchen benches
• As about to sit down, see cat sleeping on lounge and decide it needs a pat
• Straighten cushions on lounge
• Sit back down take more notes, thinking about all the other things I need to do
• Make a ‘to do’ list to help clear my mind
• More note taking
• Put clean sheets out so I can make beds later
• See other cat and decides she also needs a pat
• Take more notes.
• Check for mail, even though I know the postie hasn’t been yet
• Realise I’m procrastinating and think what a great article idea, so add it to my list
• Search the internet for information on procrastination
• Return to researching for ‘Liquid Harvest’
• Decide to make a list of all my procrastination techniques
• Phew, what a day! All that procrastinating has made me exhausted, so now I need a wine.

What procrastination techniques do you use? It could be that you are so good at procrastinating that you have turned it into an art form, without being aware that you’re doing it.

Procrastination is often thought to stem from laziness, but research shows that there are many reasons for procrastination. Some of these reasons are perfectionism, fear of success or failure, a need for the approval from others, feeling overwhelmed by a particular task, lack of defined goals or prioritisation, waiting for ideal circumstances, forgetfulness, boredom, dread, or even the leftover childhood trait of rebellion (think of all the bedtime avoidance tactics children use).

Almost everybody procrastinates, at least sometimes, in some area of his or her life. Occasional procrastination may have minimal impact on you and those around you, but chronic procrastination is a condition that may seriously affect some or even all areas of your life.

If you procrastinate over assignments and studying, you may fail your subject or course. At work, procrastination may result in lack of promotion or job loss. In the article Procrastination, Madam Splash claims procrastination can destroy your ‘reputation of trust and reliability’ with others.

Not getting financial matters under control may lead to spiralling debt, debt collection agencies, or bankruptcy. Less drastically, your telephone or electricity could be disconnected. Putting off looking after your health may lead to future chronic problems, or possibly early death.

Your feelings about procrastination are often linked to your values and beliefs about good and bad, according to Marc de Bruin in "I am doing what"? Or the art of Procrastination. For some people procrastinating isn’t a problem, they simply laugh it off, but others may have significant feelings of guilt over uncompleted tasks. If procrastination is ongoing, you may feel constantly stressed and develop a belief that you are a failure. Consequently, this may cause further procrastination, continuing the guilt, stress, failure, procrastination cycle, finally ending in a state of paralysis.

However, it is possible to overcome procrastination. While experts offer a number of approaches, there are some common techniques available.

First, you have to admit you have a problem, and commit to dealing with it. Then you need to examine what issues are behind your procrastination; many people will have more than one issue.

If procrastination is affecting many areas of your life, attempting to fix all areas at once is likely to produce failure. Instead, focus one or two areas that will give quick results, thus a sense of achievement, then tackle other areas that may require longer-term effort.

For change to be successful, the benefits must outweigh the negatives. In Overcoming Procrastination, Dr Windy Dryden recommends that you need to identify if and in what ways the task is in your best interest. For example, waking up half an hour earlier each morning to exercise means losing sleep, but the health benefits of regular exercise would outweigh this inconvenience.

Keeping a journal on how you intend to overcome procrastination is important in achieving long-term success, as is defining why you want to improve or grow in a particular area. Then a step-by step plan is required, including a system for monitoring progress. Recording your feelings about achieving success is a useful motivator.

Failure to achieve change or transformation often occurs if your goals are not in writing, you don’t clearly define why change is important, or your goals are unspecific, lacking a systematic plan on how to achieve them, as well as not keeping track of your progress.

Even when you have carefully followed your plan, you may not always be successful. View this as a setback, not failure, otherwise you may return to the procrastination cycle.

Identify what went wrong and why, accept responsibility without harsh self-criticism, and then review your plan. What do you need to change? Perhaps your steps weren’t clear enough, or you underestimated the time required to complete a task or reach a goal.

If the circumstances were outside your control, identify ways to avoid the same problems in the future. For instance, if you were late with a budget report because you were waiting for input from others, then you would need to address this.

When you have been successful, reward yourself. It doesn’t have to be expensive, self-praise should be enough, or perhaps just relaxing without the guilt that uncompleted tasks often bring.

Overcoming procrastination provides a feeling of satisfaction, as well as removing the stress that procrastination causes. In the longer term, procrastination builds self-confidence, enabling you to achieve what you previously thought beyond your capabilities.

If you are serious about overcoming procrastination, invest in a self-help book that you feel comfortable with and follow the advice properly. A mentor, such as a supportive friend, family member, or work colleague may help to motivate you and keep you on track.

While ‘tomorrow never comes’ the consequences of procrastination will eventually catch up with you. Procrastination is unproductive, draining your energy, while secretly undermining your self-worth. On the other hand, overcoming procrastination can be empowering, increasing your confidence, energy levels, and self-satisfaction, while decreasing stress.

References available