The
Procrastination Equation[1]
Procrastination has a reputation for being a bad character trait. If something needs to be done, then by definition, putting off that task potentially leads to problems and delayed goal achievement. “Procrastination leads to delay in the serious start of important tasks and delaying these tasks makes bad things happen.” Procrastination can be a symptom of underlying psychological problems. For example, learned helplessness explains why a lack of motivation for productive daily activities is one symptom of depression. The underlying cause of depression is reduced self-confidence, which makes it difficult to invest in any demanding work. For a normal person, procrastination may just be a sign that a goal is inappropriate relative for that person’s value system associated the inherent rewards and costs. Sometimes the best solution to procrastination is simply to choose another goal with a better fit for that person.
Procrastination, for the wrong reasons, extracts a high price in opportunities lost and penalties incurred. Fortunately, the risk of putting off action on important goals and tackling problems diminishes when the tasks are relevant and instrumentally connected to personally relevant goals. The solution to procrastination is always to find the right motivation to spur action. Actions that don't fit self-determined and self-defined goals lack motivation appeal. To keep yourself motivated and procrastination under control, you need a string of future goals that are intrinsically appealing to your personal needs to which you can hook otherwise unappealing responsibilities (the things you don’t like to do in and of themselves).
The cause of procrastination is most
often the selection of a goal with marginal value, where the input or
work is unappealing and the value of the reward is marginal.
For goals of marginal value, putting off its start is the
rational thing to do. In
other words, procrastination makes good sense.
Perhaps the irrational people are the ones’ who jump
immediately on every task that they “see” as needing done without
thinking first of it importance or inherent rewards.
These people who have endless “to do” lists would be
conflicted as to which one to start first.
“The obsessive person who completes every task at the first
opportunity can be just as dysfunctional as the procrastinator who
leaves everything to the last moment.
People who chronically exhibit either too little or too much
procrastination can suffer adverse consequences.
Thus, procrastination is not always a bad thing and it
relevance depends on the extent to which it is used to deal with the
complexities of life.
Procrastination has many definitions including one from Wikipedia, which defines procastination as an act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of low-priority, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite procrastinating behavior as a mechanism for coping with a mental state of anxiety/fear, impulsiveness, laziness, etc associated with starting or completing any task or decision. There are three criteria that must be present for a behavior to be classified as procrastination: 1) it must be counterproductive, 2) needless (preventable or within the control of the individual), and delaying. A simpler definition of procrastination is a conscious or subconscious decision of putting off unpleasant tasks until tomorrow that need to be done today because there are other more pleasant distractions that could be selected instead. “Procrastination has a downside in that it may result in stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, severe loss of personal productivity, as well as social disapproval for not meeting responsibilities or commitments. These low self-esteem feelings may promote further procrastination. While it is regarded as normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological disorder.”[2]
In
essence, procrastination is primarily a motivation problem. Low motivation goals or unpleasant tasks are ripe
for procrastination, which is the subconscious self’s way of dealing
with a false priority commanded by the conscious self.
To solve procrastination problems or to prevent them, deal with
the low motivation problem first.
People set goals for their own selfish reasons,
because the achievement of a goal unleashes rewards they value.
Goals are the end states or arrival points at a highly desired
future destination or end-state. If the rewards associated with the goal are meager
and the journey (work or means) is too difficult, then the motivation
for starting the travail is weak.
Procrastination then becomes the mechanism we use to save
ourselves from an unnecessary and unfruitful endeavor.
The linkage between goals, motivation, and procrastination are
strong and direct. If
there is weak motivation towards a goal, then there is strong tendency
to procrastinate, until such time as conditions prove to be more
compelling.
“People who constantly frame long-term goals abstractly, without a strong sense of the rewards they expect to receive, are more likely to postpone them until they become short-term goals and the vision of the rewards clarify. It is because we view the present in concrete terms and the future abstractly that we procrastinate. Once can visualize a goal as inputs of work completed, outputs of rewards achieved, or a ratio of benefits gained relative to the amount of work expended. Concrete and clear goal setting is the smartest thing you can do to battle procrastination. The rewards inherent in any goal must be concrete and desirable, something worth getting excited about.”
Motivation to act to secure a distant goal depends on a number of factors, the most important of which is the compelling reason for taking the action. A compelling reason is the expect payoff of the action relative to the cost of the effort. Payoff refers to the rewards or satisfaction of personal needs. One can improve motivation by making goals more meaningful by linking them to personally relevant, high-value aspirations.
Costs refer to the resources expended to
achieve a goal, including energy, time, and money.
Costs also include opportunity cost, meaning what opportunities
one must give up to pursue the goal is question.
The payoff must take into account any uncertainties associated
with the payoff including 1) whether or not the work effort will
result in the goal, 2) whether the goal if achieved will produce the
rewards envisioned, and 3) whether the rewards is as pleasurable or
need reducing as envisioned.
In summary, motivation is linked to expected and desirable
payoff minus the cost of the undesirable work that must be done to
attain it.
Motivation is degraded
by the amount of time one must wait to receive the reward. Delay
includes both the length of time from start to finish of the goal and
from the completion of the goal to the receipt of the payoff or
rewards. The longer
the delay, the lower the motivation.
In addition the motivation to work on any particular goal is
offset by the allure of other competing goals, distractions, or
pleasures, especially those that are short-term and certain.
A person who is prone to distraction of immediate pleasure is
considered impulsive. Finally,
motivation is curtailed when there is any uncertainty involved in its
receipt. “Expected
utility theory proposes that people make their decisions based by
multiplying their expectancy (probability of gain) and value together
(expectancy x value).” Uncertainty
can take more than one form. For
example, there may be uncertainty in completing all the necessary
conditions for achieving a goal.
Plus, there may be uncertainty of getting the rewards one seeks
even after the goal is achieved. In other words, the reward might be
conditional upon other factor not under the control of the person
seeking the goal. An
example would be getting job training and then getting a job based on
the new skills. There is
uncertainty that one will be able to learn the skill, and there is
also uncertainty that they will be able to secure a job employing
those skills. Thus, the motivation equation is as follows:
Motivation =
(Expected Probability of Realizing a Goal)*
(Expected Probability of Gaining the Rewards upon Realizing the Goal)*
(Expected Probability that the Rewards are as Desirable as Envisioned)*
(Perceived Pleasure of the Rewards minus Perceived Displease of the Input Cost)/
(Impulsiveness*Delay
+ 1)
Motivation
= P1*P2*P3*(Rewards-Costs)/(I*D+1)
To boost motivation, consider any of these logical strategies:
1) Increase the probabilities of positive expectancy (P1, P2, and P3), including self-confidence, a detailed work project plan, and securing information on the exact nature of the rewards),
2) Increase the net value of the payoffs (Rewards minus Costs) by activating your passions in life and linking them to the rewards inherent in the goal,
3) Decrease distractions, temptations, and impulsiveness by identifying a long-term interest that is more powerful than any possible short term impulse, and
4) Decrease the delay of receiving the rewards (find ways to move some of the payoffs forward in time to be enjoyed as part of the journey).
Natural
motivation occurs when what we desire to do and what we do are the
same. Motivation depends
on a balance between 1) the challenge in getting to the goal and 2)
one's ability to do the work.
To relieve the tedium of work (boredom), try to make the task
more difficult for yourself. “To prevent the descent into dullness,
game playing becomes common strategy.
Create feedback and try to beat your old performance scores.
As a work due date approaches and the reward of relief from
stress and worry looms near, motivation peaks.
You need a concrete and exact notion of what needs to be done,
because vague and abstract goals rarely lead to anything excellent.”
A key element of motivation is the perceived or
expected value of the end state or goal. The value associated with any
task must be both perceived and believed.
If one is not aware or conscious of the value associated with
an end state, the motivation for doing the work is not there.
Likewise, even if the value is perceived to be resident as part
of the end state of work, if there is any uncertainty as to the value
being earned or its form/condition, the value is appropriately
reduced. Furthermore, if
the work, as the means of earning the reward, is considered to be
unpleasant, hard, boring, etc., then these conditions tarnish the
value of the rewards. In summary, the power of motivation (and inversely
procrastination) is directly related to the expected value of the end
state or goal, adjusted for expectancy and the cost of doing the work.
High motivation implies low procrastination.
So, every goal you set for yourself depends on a decision on
whether conditions are ripe for its conquest..
The more unpleasant, boring, and laborious a
task, the higher the cost to the individual doing the work and the
greater the reward must be to motivate him or her to do the work.
Distracting pleasures that are reliable, immediate, and intense
offer distractions from more important but less pleasant tasks.
However, people can learn to love their work if they make an
effort to build in incentives. Ideally, activities leading to the goal (the
journey) have the potential to take on the attributes of their goals
(the destination) and both input and output can become rewarding in
and of themselves. Anticipating
rewards from winning helps make the work more enjoyable and that
enjoyment helps them win. The
most motivating tasks are those wherein both the work is enjoyable and
the goal is rewarding. The more pleasurable goals that a person can
find to include in their life, the happier their life.
People value
rewards that can be realized quickly far more than rewards that
require time and patience to mature. The longer the duration of the
work and the longer the delay of the reward after the work is done,
the less motivating the task and the greater the incentive to
procrastinate. Fortunately,
any inherent delays in end-state rewards can be re-engineered by
rearranging the rewards schedule by finding ways to move portions of
the rewards forward in time.
“Our love affair with the present moment is the root of
procrastination. In
strategy, it is important to see distant things as if they were close
and to take a distanced view of close things. People work harder as
the deadline approaches (to both complete a task and the receipt of
the reward), so set as many deadlines as practical.”
There is a strong link between impulsiveness and procrastination. “High impulsiveness, low conscientiousness, low self-control, and high distractibility are the core of procrastination. Many procrastinators are reacting to impulsiveness, hating the work, proximity to temptation, and failing to plan their work (divide into incremental and actionable steps). Impulsiveness is all about living in the moment. Long-term desires and tomorrows deadlines are ignored until they become imminent or until the future arrives now. Impulsiveness forms the core of procrastination, and it is connected to dysfunctional relationships, lousy leadership, suicide, substance abuse, and violence. While low self-confidence (expectancy of success) and propensity for boredom (value of the work) have definite roles in creating procrastination, they are not in the same league as impulsiveness. Impulsiveness multiples the effect of a lengthy delay in the completion of the work and the receipt of the reward. Unfortunately, if you are impulsive, you will always be somewhat susceptible to putting life off. Impulsiveness is not something you have, but something you are. Self-control improves when we receive timely and accurate feedback about our behavior (work progression to our goal), which we can then use as reminders to keep us focused on our long-term goals. Find a way to connect the work at hand to longer-range goals and view progress as stepping-stones progressively moving you towards these goals. .
Distractions, temptation, and impulsiveness for
doing something other than the job at hand are always present.
If we give into them, we are procrastinating.
Some people are more impulsive than others, largely due to the
relative sizes of a person’s limbic-to-prefrontal portions of their
brain. “Procrastination
arises from the interplay between our brain’s limbic system and
prefrontal cortex. “The limbic system or child-like portion of the
brain develops first and makes decisions effortlessly, spurring action
through instinct. Its
purview is the ‘here and now’, the immediate and the concrete. The
prefrontal cortex, the more recently evolved portion of the brain in
mankind’s evolution, is more flexible in its decision-making, which
means it is slower and takes more time and effort to make choices.
The prefrontal cortex is best at big-picture thinking, abstract
concepts, and distant goals. Children
are easily distracted, because their limbic system matures first and
the prefrontal lobe grows and develops at a slower pace.
Eventually, the growth of the prefrontal lobe allows children
to put events into perspective, and they are better able to put off
their impulsive instincts. As we mature, we are increasingly able to connect
the dotes between what we choose do to and future desired states.”
Not everyone’s prefrontal cortex develops to the same pace or to the same level, leaving their limbic system more in control. Some people’s limbic system is stronger than others, hence their actions seem more impulsive that those whose prefrontal cortex are stronger. People who are more impulsive are prone to higher levels of procrastination.
“As you get
closer to sources of temptation, your desire for it peaks, allowing
the temptation to trump longer-term but better options.
If you can anticipate these powerful temptations, you can act
in advance to ward them off. You
can use the concept of pre-commitment.
You can attempt to delay the onset of temptation with mind
games and distractions. As
the delay time and distance lengthens between you and the source of
gratification, the allure of the temptation is reduced.”
To avoid over-indulgence, try to meet normal needs in a safe
and managed manner before they intensify and take control.
Add inhibitors to any gateway leading to sources of temptation.
Set up rituals that you must perform before you permit yourself
access to your temptations, thus giving time and distance to grow
between the need and the source of satisfaction. Place your
temptations out of reach. Add
disincentives to your temptations to make them sufficiently
unattractive.
Procrastination is often an undesirable character trait but not always. Often, the source of procrastination is unfavorable conditions leading to a future goal or a goal without adequate merit. If you have to force yourself to work on a goal, then you should wonder it the goal is really worth beating yourself forward. Do you think about not procrastinating (an avoidance goal) or about starting earlier (an approach goal)? The difference between the two conditions is motivation or goal appeal. The lesson is to stop setting low-value goals that you don’t really want relative to other future states that might be more appealing. “People are willing to pursue any vile task as long as it allows them to avoid something worse.”
For some people, the only motive to do work is to receive a paycheck. Some work seems to have no intrinsic value, especially if it is hard, tedious, boring work. The only solution to procrastination is to either modify or abandon the goal as currently defined. Unless you can find ways to boost motivation up to the threshold of an innate intention to go for it, you will be held back from ever starting by the power of procrastination. Motivation is boosted by making the work more pleasant and the rewards more appealing, shortening the delay time to receipt of value, improving the chances of success, and carving out dedicated time without temptations to keep yourself focused on the work at hand. So, if procrastination is present, rather than finding ways to force yourself to get started, begin instead modifying the goal that is weak on motivation.
“Standardized,
repetitive, boring, and monotonous work may be good for productivity
but a bane for motivation.” The
trick is to try new ways of getting work done that don’t impede
efficient by introducing variety, stimulation, and renewed interest.
Any job or task can be redesigned or rearranged or reframed to make it
less difficult, more challenging, and appealing/interesting.
Competitive games with yourself or others come in handy for
boring jobs, with the rules limited only by your imagination.
Connect uninspiring tasks to your long-term, high-value goals
that you find intrinsically motivating.
For example, the uninspiring job of housecleaning can be
reframed mentally as providing an inviting, comfortable, functioning
home for family and friends. “Frame
your goals in terms of what you want to achieve rather than the hard
work you are trying to avoid. The tasks we hate are the very ones we
strive to avoid and procrastinate.”
Sometimes, the only thing stopping a person from beginning a task is the inertia of getting started. To achieve success, one must overcome inertia to get started towards important goals and maintain that momentum once started. Persistence is needed to complete all the tasks required to achieve a goal. When all the conditions necessary are present for a desired state to exist, the goal is achieved. Failure to begin or continue to do necessary work is inconsistent with goal completion and hence success. What gets in the way of success is procrastination, which often implies that the goal and the associated rewards are insufficient relative to the resources (time, energy, cost) or price demanded by that goal. If there is a sufficient compelling reason to do something, it will get done. Any goal you have that you have not started, due to procrastination, lacks sufficient value to you relative to your value system. If you spend time thinking about not procrastinating or avoiding a task/goal, then you are in procrastination mode and wrestling with the relative value of what you believe you should be doing. If you spend time thinking about getting an early start on a task/goal, then the opposite is likely true…the goal is compelling and the goal represents rewards with a higher personal value.
The first step towards any goal is getting started. The hardest step on a long journey is the first one. There is a tight ‘surface tension’ between thinking and doing that must be broken before the journey begins. All that is required to break the ‘surface tension’ between contemplation and action is sufficient motivation to immerse one’s self in a project. Once the surface tension is broken and some forward moment is gained, the likelihood of continuing to the finish line is immeasurably improved.
“The secret of getting done is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable units of labor and then starting on the first one.” So, the first thing that needs to be done in the pursuit of a goal is to define the journey or action plan that, if followed, will get you from the starting line (or status quo) to the finish line (the goal). Make the very first step the easiest one to take. For many people, the first step towards any goal and the easiest to act on is simply to make a plan or make a list. Then, start working on the first item on the list. Make sure each item on the list is actionable and not too challenging. If any single task seems overwhelming or far of a stretch, it becomes a potential source of procrastination, which could grind the entire effort to a stop. To avoid leaps between process steps, make sure the action plan is divided into enough smaller steps so that they don’t appear to be overwhelming. “Break down long-term goals into a series of short-term objectives. Begin with mini-goals to break the motivational tension. Organize your goals into routines that occur regularly at the same time and place.”
Some goals
don’t have a clear path leading to them.
These obscure goals are ripe candidates for procrastination
simply because one doesn’t know what to do to attain them.
This is where the value of oblique or tangential tasks comes
into play. To find out
what is not known, one starts out in what seems a fruitful direction
just to find direction. For
example, find people who have already done what you have done and
inquire how they did it. Accept
the possibility of a false start towards your goal by tackling a
tangential task. Once the
seemingly fruitful, tangential tasks are investigated, you will be in
a better position to start on the core tasks, once you have gained
fresh insights and your thinking skills are warmed up.
As discussed previously, there are numerous ways to boost motivation to overcome or avoid the temptation of procrastination. Using the motivation equation, defined above, with the appeal of high value rewards, one can strength motivation by either reducing the negative barriers or increasing the incentives.
Anything that improves the probability of goal success and the probability of getting the rewards after securing the goal strengthens motivation. Likewise, motivation is strengthened by anything that reduces the delay of receiving the reward and blocks impulsiveness to temptation.
Some tactics for improving motivation, and hence reducing the temptation to procrastinate, are discussed in the sections below.
The bottomline to motivation and avoiding procrastination is conscious intention. If you have an intention to do something, you will do it. Without intention, nothing happens. Intention comes from higher-cognitive thinking based on a rational decision of selecting a goal. An intention differs from scripted behaviors, based on instinct, routines, habits, impulses, and subconscious actions, by the amount of conscious thinking involved. An intention is a source of personal resolve to take action as the result of a deliberate decision that takes into account all the factors of motivation, including benefits relative to costs, delay, probability of success, and potential distractions competing for attention. If you reach this stage of resolve and intention, procrastination no longer becomes a problem. When you are energized sufficiently to take action, you have acquired a state of intention and are sufficiently self-motivated by the compelling reasons of the goal. At this point, you are predisposed to do whatever it takes to succeed. No further motivation is required. On the other hand, when you are without sufficient motivation, procrastination kicks in to hold you back, in essence protecting you from potentially wasted effort towards a goal that doesn’t matter that much to your happiness. Thus, the solution to procrastination is to make a definitive decision on the value of the reward or end state relative to the cost of the work to attain the goal. You either have intention or you don’t. If you don’t have a compelling reason to start on a goal, you are without intention of realizing the goal, and it is best not to start. Procrastination is an inhibitor to potentially self-destructive actions before the time is ripe.
“Identify whatever you have been putting off and specify where and how you intend to implement it. The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is the intention-action gap. Procrastinators make the same plans to get to work as their more diligent counterparts, but differ in the intention of acting on their plans. When you make an explicit intention to act, the desired behavior just happens. Forming intentions almost doubles the chances that you will follow through with almost any activity. When we procrastinate, we know we are irrationally acting against our own best interests.”
In every life, there are boring but routine tasks that need to get done to keep life flowing smoothly. One of the best ways to get these essential chores done without procrastination from settling in is to set up routines to get them done. Each routine should be as efficient and effective as possible and scheduled and organized in such a way as avoid resistance to doing them. In other words, arrange the work you least like to do in such as way as to minimize your resistance to doing them. By including something fun and enjoyable in the routine and making a game out of getting the work done in the least amount of time reduces the agony of the work. “Committing to a regular schedule decreases procrastination. By intentionally adopting a routine, you can purse long-term goals when your willpower is weary and temptations abound. Procrastinators perform as well as anyone else when the work is routine. If you protect your routines, your routines will protect you.”
Similar to routines are work places without distractions and where work habits of focused concentration are enforced. “Make sanctuaries of performance, taking advantage of the out-of-sight-out-of-mind adage to purge our workspace of irrelevant clues. Identify your distractions and cleanse them from your work areas. Fill the voids with reminders of our end goals and the rewards we anticipate from when the job is complete. A photo of loved ones can be an effective reminder.”
How you view your world is your world.
How you frame or envision your goal will ultimately determine
your motivation. Your
motivation for a goal depends on whether you focus the bulk of your
attention on the perceived benefits of the goal or the burdensome
costs and work it entails.
Another way to reframe the notion of getting started on a goal
you are putting off is to view the situation as a test of your
willpower. “Frame your
long-term goals in terms of the success you want to achieve, an
approach goal, rather than the failure you want to prevent, an
avoidance goal. Almost
any goal can be flipped from avoidance to approach, from what you
don't want to happen to what you desire. There is nothing good or bad
in this world but thinking makes it so.
Frame your tasks appropriately; the way you view them
significantly determines their value.”
Procrastination and prioritization are close allies. If one selects their goals wisely, then only those goals with compelling features would be selected. There would never be a need to procrastinate as one never wants to delay the satisfaction of high-valued personal needs. If only high-priority goals are selected, then all low-value goals are placed at the bottom of the list and not selected. When a new opportunity presents itself, this goal gets integrated into the priority list. If the goal is placed near the top, then it’s turn will come sooner, and if placed near the bottom, it is unlikely every to get selected. Procrastination is never an issue as high-value goals have their own compelling allure that gets a person yearning for their completing and can’t wait to get started working on them.
“Being too tired is the number one reason people give for procrastinating.” There are some times during the day and night wherein you are less susceptible to procrastination. “During these prime times, your mind operates at maximum energy and efficiency wherein you are less susceptible to procrastination. The time period begins a few hours after you wake up and lasts for four hours. Use this peak acuity time to bolster weak motivation to a level that gets you started on a less desirable task. All that is needed is just a little more resolve to get started. Once the “surface tension” of inertia is broken, the routine motions and natural work flow sets in and you are carried forward by momentum. Later in the day, when there is a slump in motivation and energy levels, shift to more routine work or intrinsically more rewarding work, perhaps related to another goal with a more compelling allure. “The best work happens when you engage deeply in a single task for as long as the motivation holds out. Every time you stop your flow, you have to once again decide to go back to work, and then, it takes time to become fully re-engaged again. If you can capture the optimum four hours each day, you can make enormous progress towards any single goal.
[1] Piers Steel, The Procrastination Equation, Any non-attributed quotes in this section are from this source
[2] Wikipedia - Procrastination
You are visitor number
to this web site
Website last updated on 5/30/2011
Copyright ©2005 Charles W. Sooter. All rights reserved.
