Just What You’ve Been Waiting for: Procrastination!
Have you ever been laying in your bed feeling like you’ve lost all motivation, telling yourself “I’ll do it in 30 minutes” then “I’ll do it in an hour” and before you knew it, your entire day had passed you by? I’m sure it’s quite a relatable situation for many of us, at one point in our lives. But afterward, have you ever wondered to yourself, “why did I do that to myself?” or “How can I prevent myself from doing that?” and found no good answers from your search engine of choice? If all of this applies to you, you’ve got yourself a bad case of procrastination, but you’ve still found the will to get over it.
If you want to get over your slump, this is the blog for you! This post is divided into two sections, Defining Procrastination and Finding Motivation. The first section is designed to show you what you’re up against; procrastination is an insidious and not well-defined habit, so knowledge is power. The second section is designed to show you some ways you can limit the temptation of procrastination and motivate yourself to do the work that you need to get done- or at least just the stuff that you don’t want to do.
What is procrastination?
Before we can discuss how you can work toward regaining your motivation, first, we should figure out what procrastination really is and learn more about it. Many people have different ideas of what procrastination might be but Piers Steel, as he writes in his 2007 meta-analysis, The Nature of Procrastination […], has a pretty good idea. More than anything, Steel views procrastination as a “prevalent and pernicious form of self-regulatory failure” (Steel, 2007). in layman’s terms, Steel sees procrastination as the results of a deeply rooted tendency to fail at motivating yourself to do what you need to do. Notably, Steel also views procrastination as a personality trait, one that is not only significantly consistent for over a decade, but also one that factors into being one of the key factors that go into one’s conscientiousness (Steel, 2007); one of the five core factors that make up one’s personality, according to the five-factor model. Reading that this habit is consistent enough to be a personality trait may not be the most uplifting piece of information. This is because, due to the failure of an individual to manage their time and perform their tasks efficiently, Steel has found people with this trait lead lives of generally lower quality than those who do not procrastinate as often. (Steel, 2007)
Why do people keep procrastinating?
But, why do people keep procrastinating, you might be wondering, if procrastinating leads to less fulfilling lives? Well, a recent study was performed to answer just this question. In their study, Self-Regulation and Learning Failures, […], Johanna Przetacka and her associates found a possible answer in the form of procrastinators’ “learning failures” (Przetacka, et al. 2021).
During this study, Przetacka and her associates discovered quite a few correlations with people who were identified as having a high tendency to procrastinate with an “oversensitivity” to negative outcomes (Przetacka, et al. 2021). This means that people who procrastinate more were more likely to actively avoid tasks that have the mere possibility of failure. However, the study doesn’t elaborate on whether the task aversion is learned from one’s procrastination, or whether the procrastination is the result from the more deeply rooted fear of failure. As a result, it’s possible that people who tend to procrastinate push back the tasks that they need to do in fear of failing at it sooner. Then, when the task results in failure or a dissatisfying outcome for the procrastinator, rather than learning that they should spend more time and effort on the task to make the outcome better- the outcome functions as a self-fulfilling prophecy; further cementing the procrastinator’s fear of the task.
Procrastination emerges at an early age.
Now that we’ve established an understanding of what procrastination is, we should explore when this behavior emerges and how it develops. In an aim to reveal more about this, Fuke et al. (2022) conducted a study in which they found that children as young as 3-years-old show the tendency to procrastinate. The results of their study also suggest this tendency to procrastinate increases with age and the domains in which people procrastinate vary depending on age (Fuke et al., 2022). For example, in this study, the younger children procrastinated cleaning up after themselves and completing routine tasks whereas the older children procrastinated completing chores and homework (Fuke et al., 2022).
We must also consider the possibly that the results of this study reflect task avoidance rather than procrastination. Task avoidance is the act of intentionally leaving a task incomplete whereas procrastination involves having the intention to complete a task but postponing its initiation or completion. In other words, it is possible the younger children in this study had no intention of ever completing the tasks mentioned, and therefore did not procrastinate the initiation or completion of them. If this is the case, the study does not show evidence of procrastination at 3- to 6-years-old so perhaps it emerges later.
We are motivated by multiple incentives.
We are all motivated to complete tasks throughout the day, but the sources of this motivation may be different for all of us and can even vary from task to task. There are many theories centered around what motivation stems from. Two competing theories are Vroom’s expectancy theory which proposes people are extrinsically motivated to complete tasks and Atkinson’s theory of achievement motivation which proposes people are intrinsically motivated to complete tasks.
Shapira conducted a study in 1976 in which participants were divided into pay and no-pay conditions and given the option to choose the difficulty level of the tasks they were to complete. He aimed to test whether these participants were intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. In consideration of Vroom’s theory, Shapira (1976) hypothesized that if given options, people would choose to attempt easy tasks to ensure they would earn the monetary reward. He also hypothesized, in consideration of Atkinson’s theory, that if given options, people would choose to attempt moderately difficult tasks because feelings of achievement and pride are more fulfilling to them than external rewards and the more difficult the task, the stronger these feelings would be. The results of this study supported both Vroom’s theory and Atkinson’s theory as those in the pay condition chose easy tasks to ensure they received the monetary reward and those in the no-pay condition chose more difficult tasks. So, depending on the situations we are in, we may be motivated by external rewards (extrinsic motivation) as implied by expectancy theory or by internal desires (intrinsic motivation) as implied by achievement motivation. This theory of achievement motivation is the basis of goal setting theory.
Why do we set goals?
So, let’s talk about goals. We all set a variety of goals throughout our lives, whether they be as achievable as getting out of bed in the morning, as difficult as buying a house, or even the annual New Year’s resolutions. Typically, the more easily achievable goals we set are taken more seriously by others while those New Year’s resolutions are laughed at or responded with a statement like “Yeah, let’s see if that goal lasts through March” and while the goals which are more difficult to achieve may be met with encouragement, they may also be met with a comment like “Good luck; you’re gonna need it.” So why do we set these goals anyway? Having a goal essentially means we are motivated to get something done. They provide us with direction and a sense of purpose. Locke and Latham in 2019 claimed that given the nature of life and our biology, human motivation is centered around goal-directed choices and actions. If we set goals, we are motivated to achieve them and once we do, we tend to set higher goals and the cycle continues. This connects us back to achievement motivation: when we reach a goal, we feel a sense of accomplishment and we continue to chase this feeling. So, if you find yourself in a lull where you “don’t feel motivated” perhaps try setting a small and easily achievable goal; it just might get you in that loop.
The Power of Teamwork
As cheesy as it may sound, the power of teamwork cannot be understated... in the right circumstances. Although many know that working as a team can help get the amount of work done quicker than when someone is alone, working as a likeminded group can help foster motivation and keep a routine longer.
This Idea comes from Hoon-Seok Choi’s article, Happy Together and Sad Together […]. In this article, Choi shows how, so long as a group performed an action together, regardless of whether the individuals in the group enjoyed performing their task or whether they disliked it, the individuals were found to be more motivated to perform the task than groups of differing opinions or those that were neutral (Choi, 2023).
The takeaways from this are two-fold. First, if you’re having trouble finding the motivation to do something you don’t want to do, try to find a group to do it with, but make sure you all agree with your opinions on it. Especially if you’re feeling more negative about a task or action, make sure that you are in a like-minded group so you can feel the motivation more intensely, and for a longer period of time. Second, make sure to avoid trying to fit in with groups performing the task in a way that doesn’t align with yours. If you’re only doing yoga begrudgingly, for example, it might be hard to motivate yourself into taking a weekly yoga class full of people doing it for fun.
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