Procrastination: Avoidance and Arousal - washingtonpost.com
The Washington Post
The Deadline Disorder
It's a Taxing Time of the Year for Chronic Procrastinators
Amid her boxes and piles, Tricia Sawyer looks over some negatives and photos that she has been meaning to organize for years. (By Michael Williamson -- The Washington Post)Buy Photo
By Erica Davis BakS, pecial to The Washington Post Tuesday, March 31, 2009; Page HE01
Excerpts:
According to Joseph R. Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago, some 20 percent of us are chronic procrastinators. "That's very high," Ferrari said, adding that research reveals there are more chronic procrastinators in the United States than there are people with clinical depression.
Although the perplexing question remains why so many of us engage in such evident self-sabotage, a recent study suggests that consciously changing the way we think about things we have to do -- approaching them as concrete steps rather than abstract ideas -- may help even chronic procrastinators.
Ferrari divides chronic procrastinators into two groups.
Avoidance procrastinators such as Sawyer delay out of fear, he said. They are afraid of failure, judgment, even success. They feel that they can't live up to expectations.
Arousal procrastinators wait until the last minute for the sheer thrill of it. "They will say, 'I work best under pressure.' They need that eleventh hour to get something done," Ferrari said. But "the data shows they actually don't do well under pressure."
Like gambling and overeating, procrastination is a self-defeating disorder: "You have to think, 'I should be acting now, but instead I'm alphabetizing the playlist on my iPod,' " said Timothy A. Pychyl, an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa who specializes in the study of procrastination. " 'And I'm bothered; I'm feeling guilt.' "
The issue, he said, is giving in to feeling good in the moment. "We're always looking after how we feel. Facing a task doesn't make us feel good."
Changing the way we think about unappealing tasks seems to make them more manageable. A study published in Psychological Science suggests that people are more likely to procrastinate if they view tasks abstractly rather than concretely.
Read Full Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033002124.html
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This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.
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