What kind of procrastinator are you?

**Note: this is an abridged version. For the full article, check us out at Wellness Daily.**

How much more could you get done with an extra 218 minutes of free time every day?

Or an additional 55 days each year?

That’s the time an average person wastes procrastinating, with the top time wasters being too much TV time, aimless internet surfing and meandering social media usage – or ‘Facebrocrastination’.

20% of us identify ourselves as chronic procrastinators, 73% of us want to stop all procrastinating, and 50% of us see our procrastination as dysfunctional. 

Procrastination can be a real problem.

This week my article is dedicated to all my coaching clients over the years who have struggled with procrastination – sorry it’s taken me so long ??

The three types of procrastinators 

You’re an ‘arousal procrastinator’ i.e. a thrill-seeker if you regularly:

• Tend to put things off to the last possible minute, or
• Enjoy the adrenalin rush of an almost impossible deadline.

You’re an ‘avoidant procrastinator’ i.e. someone who distracts yourself, at a conscious or sub-conscious level, to find relief and momentary escape from any unpleasant emotion such as fear, worry, anxiety or panic if you regularly:

• Put off what you know you should be doing in favour of something else that is of less immediate importance but holds no pain,
• Tend to frequently delay or avoid actioning something you perceive as unpleasant or stressful until you are in the ‘right mood’,
• Wait until it’s too late and the deadline passes or someone else resolves the issue,
• Would rather have others think you’re lazy than lack ability, or
• Are tempted by immediate gratification.

You’re a ‘decisional procrastinator’ i.e. if you find making decisions difficult and painful, feeling tormented before the door of big decisions and you regularly:

• Can’t or won’t make decisions,
• Simply feel you don’t know what to do,
• Want to be absolved of responsibility for the outcome, or
• Feel lacking in courage.

Or like someone close to me I know (ahem), maybe you are all three!

So, is procrastination bad for us?

‘Fraid so, yes.

Most of the current evidence on procrastination describes it as a ‘maladaptive’, ‘detrimental’ and ‘self-undermining’ behaviour.

Studies have shown that procrastinators are more likely to make mistakes - and in general, people who continually put things off are unhappier, as well as being less wealthy and less healthy in comparison with those who get things done promptly.

Procrastination also causes anxiety, tension, loss of valuable opportunities, as well as the breakdown of relationships with other people and even chronic disease (putting off that check-up, exercise regime etc).

And (as we’ve written about before), bedtime procrastination may also be the key factor in contribution to the pandemic of sleep insufficiency that is currently and deservedly the subject of great attention.

So, if you’re a procrastinator (as opposed to someone who occasionally procrastinates), there’s no doubt – it’s bad for you!

How to help chronic procrastinators

Before we jump into specific strategies, there are a few guidance points to consider to make sure we’re approaching the topic with the appropriate level of compassionate non-judgment and self-reflection:

1. Procrastinators may act as if they have all the time in the world. But deep down, they know they’re wasting parts of their life and they feel bad on the inside because of it. The trouble is, most of them don’t know how to free themselves.
2. Telling someone who procrastinates to manage their time better is like telling someone with severe depression to just “cheer up!”.
3. The process of overcoming procrastination can begin once someone is able to admit that when they are delaying action, they’re really avoiding pain.
4. Whenever they feel procrastination creeping upon them, the key thing is to encourage a habit of ‘moving towards’ the pain instead of away from it and become more willing to take creative and emotional risks because they feel better equipped to cope with failure.

Ok, so now we’ve set the ground rules, here are nine strategies for dealing with procrastination:

1. Notice when you are on the verge of procrastinating. Explore it. Get curious. ‘Why am I resisting this?’ Try a 5-minute mindfulness practice.
2. Actively shift to a positive and growth mindset, dropping the fixed or negative one. What are the positive and motivating reasons to do this now rather than the challenges? How can you see this as a learning process rather than as a measure of your ability? 
3. Visualise the ideal future. Ask yourself ‘What’s the one step I could take right now to move me towards that?’ Then do it.
4. Tackle the worst first, not the easiest. Do the difficult and most important first. In the sentiment of Mark Twain, if your job requires you to eat a frog, eat it in the morning. If you need to swallow two frogs, eat them both before anything else.
5. Remember that an imperfect step taken today is better than a perfect step never taken.
6. Remove distractions and interruptions whilst allowing yourself a break every 15 minutes if you need it (as a positive reward). Chances are once you get started in a suitably quiet place, you won’t want to take a break – but at 90 minutes, down tools and enforce a breather.
7. Be wary of ‘purposefully delaying’. Yes, this may be sensible re-prioritising, but in all probability it’s more likely to be an amygdala hi-jack driven by our strong feelings to avoid pain.
8. Write a ‘To Do’ list of tasks and goals, prioritising and numbering them from most important to least important. For each task, ask yourself whether you should do it, delegate it or dump it. Then act accordingly. Break the tasks you are keeping into the smaller steps involved, estimating realistically how much time will take, allocate these (and reminders) into your schedule, and print this out keeping it in a place where you can see it regularly. I know I said time-management wasn’t the issue, but being functionally competent in these aspects is always going to be a help.
9. Don’t beat yourself up if you do procrastinate. Procrastination has been an issue since the beginning of time. It has negative connotations of self-blame and shame, so it’s important to keep these feelings in check, channelling self-compassion and forgiveness.

Want to know more?

The full version of this article can be found on Wellness Daily (thanks to the kind folks there for publishing it). Don’t put it off – read it now!

And if you still want to learn more about procrastination, there are a heap of useful resources:

• https://www.procrastination.ca/
• And this looks to be a great book (I’ve just ordered): Procrastination, Health, and Well-Being by Fuschia Sirois Timothy Pychyl (2-16)
• And a here’s an interesting podcast from the British Psychological Society:

 Thanks, and be well!

Audrey

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Sources:

Abramowski (2018) A Is procrastination all that "bad"? A qualitative study of academic procrastination and self-worth in postgraduate university students. J Prev Interv Community. 2018 Apr-Jun.

Abdullah M Q (2017) Procrastination and its Relationship with Mental Health among Children and Adolescents in International Journal of Psychology and Behavioural Science Volume 4 Issue 5 - July 2017

Ismail Z (2016) Psychological Well-Being and Its Relationship with Active and Passive Procrastination in Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Vol 5 No 3 November 2016

Kamphorst B, et al (2018) Too Depleted to Turn In: The Relevance of End-of-the-Day Resource Depletion for Reducing Bedtime Procrastination in Frontiers in Psychology, 14 March 2018

Jaffe E, (2013) Why Wait? The Science Behind Procrastination from the Association for Psychological Science Observer Volume 26, Issue 4 April 2013

Decisional Procrastination: The Role of.... Available from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310742273_Decisional_Procrastination_The_Role_of_Courage_Media_Multitasking_and_Planning_Fallacy [accessed Aug 06 2018].

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Audrey McGibbon is a Psychologist, Executive Coach and Wellbeing Expert. She has worked holistically with psychologists, coaches, consultants and organisations for over 25 years to support professionals and leaders to do and be their best every day.

She is co-author of the GLWS (Global Leadership Wellbeing Survey) – a world-leading, uniquely holistic tool that delivers evidence-based and robust data for understanding wellbeing. Learn more about GLWS accreditation here.