Why we procrastinate , and what we can do about it
Lesson summary
Hi there, thanks for joining us for Plain English lesson number 253. I’m Jeff; JR is our trusty producer ; and all of today’s episode resources are available at PlainEnglish.com/253.
Procrastination. We all do it, to one extent or another . But for about a fifth of the population, procrastination is a real problem. In this lesson, we’re going to talk about what procrastination is and why it’s so harmful . In Monday’s lesson, we’ll talk about what you can do about it if you suffer from it . The expression we’ll review today is quite appropriate. It’s “buckle down.” We have a song of the week. And the video lesson is about how to use “to one extent” or “to an extent.”
What is procrastination?
Let’s start by asking, what is procrastination? In the popular imagination , procrastination is just delaying unpleasant tasks . But that’s not quite it. We all delay tasks, and not every delay is procrastination. Changing your schedule and delaying certain things can simply be a matter of prioritizing and managing your time .
No, procrastination is when you voluntarily delay something that you could very easily do today , even though that delay is going to hurt you in the long run. When you procrastinate, you do intend to do something. But the only thing that stops you from fulfilling your intention is your reluctance to do it. So often, we don’t even know we’re procrastinating. Or, worse, we do know it, but we don’t do anything about it.
Procrastination is worse than simply delaying an unpleasant task. It’s worse because it results in a lot of wasted time , and time is the most limited , precious resource we all have. When we procrastinate, we’re not off doing other, better, more productive and more satisfying things. Instead, we’re often inventing time-wasting things to do instead of our unpleasant task. This is not time well-spent . And that’s the tragedy . Putting off something unpleasant to do something better would be okay; putting it off to do something useless is a tragedy.
It also results in increased stress . For as long as we delay an unpleasant task, that task is always in the back of our minds . It’s a cloud that darkens our future . In fact, the longer we delay, the greater we anticipate the pain of doing the unpleasant chore , and the worse we feel. People who procrastinate often feel guilty for not having done what they know they need to do.
There are other costs. People who procrastinate often have less time to do a good job on that important task, when the time comes to do it. When we do finally do the necessary task, we don’t do it as well. We often feel rushed when we do finally do it. When we procrastinate, we sometimes break our promises . Or we fail to maintain good relationships with friends and family. Do you have any texts or unreturned calls in your phone? People who you know you should reach out to ? But it’s just been so long that you feel bad replying now? I have those. I have several—and it’s not like I don’t have the time to reply. I’m procrastinating—and I’ll regret it later.
So why do we do it? The simple answer is: to avoid negative emotions . It is what psychologists call a problem with self-regulation . When faced with necessary but unpleasant tasks, the procrastinator chooses to delay as a way of avoiding the pain in the short run . Now, the procrastinator might feel even worse pain in the long run . But to avoid the negative emotions, he invents other time-wasting things to do in the short run.
Let’s take an example. There are two people, one is named Jeff. The other is named JR. They both have two goals : to excel at work and to stay in good shape . They both have to do a report for work that they don’t like. It’s due tomorrow.
They both decide to delay it. JR decides he’ll take advantage of the time and go to the gym, and do the report later. He knows he has to do it, but he’s just going to get the workout in first. When he gets home, he opens the file and starts writing. He knows it’s unpleasant, but he also knows he has to do it. He went to the gym earlier, so now it’s time to do the work. He buckles down, dedicates four hours to the task, and finishes the report on time. He does a good job.
Jeff, by contrast , starts by opening the report draft. He sees the cursor blinking on the page and that’s when the negative feelings hit. He opens a browser and checks the news. Then he does a few things around the house—nothing important. He gets back to his desk, but can’t face the misery of doing the report, so he decides to clean out his inbox. Inbox-zero is a great productivity hack , right? That’s productive! By nine at night, he still hasn’t started. Unlike JR, he didn’t get his workout in. He’s been feeling the stress of the report all day and has been eating junk food to alleviate that stress. Finally, at ten o’clock, he starts the report: he has no choice. Unfortunately, now he has to rush through it because it’s so late. He goes to bed well past his bedtime, doesn’t sleep well, which will affect his productivity tomorrow. Unlike JR, he didn’t do a good job on the report and he didn’t get a workout in. He did useless things all day and ate junk food.
Both Jeff and JR delayed the unpleasant report. But only Jeff is the procrastinator. Only Jeff failed in both his goals.
These are the true costs of procrastination. It’s this situation repeated over and over, year after year, with unpleasant tasks large and small. They’re missed opportunities , they’re unmet goals , unrealized potential . And this pattern of behavior intensely affects about a fifth of the population. On Monday’s lesson, we’ll talk about strategies to deal with procrastination.
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