Procrastination

Procrastination

Lisa Chen, PharmD
PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Resident
Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center

Procrastination is something everyone has done at some point or another. It can have direct consequences on productivity at work, at school, or at home.1-3 Some people may be affected by it more or less than others. It can happen with anything from delaying everyday life tasks such as cleaning the house or washing the dishes to putting off writing a paper or studying for an exam. Sometimes procrastinating studying for the exam leads one to actually clean the house or vice versa. But what is procrastination? Merriam-Webster defines “procrastinate” as “to put off intentionally and habitually” something that “should be done.”4 Everyone procrastinates at some point, but not everyone is a chronic procrastinator.

There are many theories and scientific explanations for why procrastination occurs and why people have varying degrees of procrastination. A 2016 TED talk by blogger Tim Urban breaks it down into an extremely simple and (sadly) comedic model.5 In his talk, Urban compares a non-procrastinator’s brain to that of a procrastinator. A non-procrastinator’s brain has a “rational decision-maker” (RDM) at the helm of the ship making sensible decisions from day to day to get work done. A procrastinator’s brain, on the other hand, has an “instant gratification monkey” (IGM) who only cares about maximizing pleasure and fun in the present moment. In a procrastinator’s brain, the instant gratification monkey and rational decision-maker are constantly struggling for control of what you should be doing, resulting in a sort of purgatory that Urban denotes as the “Dark Playground”. The IGM is telling you to have fun and look at this video here or check out that social media post there, while the RDM is trying to pull you back to the task at hand to be completed. In the meantime, feelings of pleasure, guilt, self-hatred, and more are all mixed together into a complex smorgasbord of emotions because you’re “wasting time” enjoying leisurely activities that you haven’t “earned”. Finally, when there is imminent danger of a due date, for example, a final character that Urban calls the “Panic Monster” awakens. The only thing the IGM is afraid of is the Panic Monster, so, when it awakens, the RDM is able to regain control and allow the task at hand to be completed. However, when this series of events occurs, the completed product is often subpar or below the quality that the procrastinator had the potential to produce had they not allowed the IGM to take over.

There are a number of questions to be asked. Why are there some people who have this instant gratification monkey in their head? How can procrastinators allow the rational decision-maker to be in control more often than not? In what ways might procrastination be a positive asset? Does making a habit of procrastinating at school or work lead to procrastination in daily life or vice versa? What skills can educators use in the classroom to help students avoid procrastination? We could come up with a very, very long list of questions related to this topic; however, I would like to address just a few that would be more important for instructors and the classroom, as these are more relevant to the contents of this course.

First, why do some students fall into the vicious cycle of procrastination? The American Psychological Association provides a list of 15 procrastination rationalizations, at the top of which are ignorance, skill deficiency, apathy/interest, and fixed habits.6 Procrastination has also been classified into different types as well, such as dysfunctional/passive form and positive/strategic/”active” form.1,7,8 The dysfunctional/passive form is your “traditional” sense of procrastination that we are all familiar with: tasks are not completed due to indecision and unintentional delay. Reasons for these types of delay include feeling of inadequacy, lack of self-control for instant gratification and impulsivity, and even fear that success will raise others’ expectations of the procrastinator.9,10 On the other hand, “active procrastination” has been used to describe those who choose to delay tasks intentionally.8 These individuals seem to prefer to work under pressure because they believe that they achieve better results under a certain level of stress. One study showed that these active procrastinators delayed tasks to the same degree as passive procrastinators, but were more similar to non-procrastinators than passive procrastinators in terms of use and control of time, coping mechanisms, perspective of self-efficacy, and outcomes such as academic performance.8 Procrastinators may fall anywhere in between these two types of procrastination, but it is the true passive, habitual procrastinators who need the most help and motivation from themselves, instructors, or other people in their lives.

Second, what effects does procrastination have on academic performance, lifestyle, and personal satisfaction and achievement? The meta-analysis by Steel suggested procrastination may lead to negative academic performance such as lower grade point average, exam scores, and assignment grades.1,2 It can also negatively affect physical, mental, and social health, with procrastinators reporting higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression, illness, delayed treatment, loneliness, and more.2,3 Professionally, procrastination has also been found to negatively affect employment status, duration of employment, and income level.2 Clearly, the disadvantages outweigh potential short-term, pleasurable benefits of procrastination.

As such, what can we do, then, as educators to help students minimize procrastination and maximize time and task efficacy? As mentioned above, one major rationale for procrastination is feeling of inadequacy. As educators, we can use different styles of teaching to better understand each student and learn where they stand on the learning curve. Rather than pure lecture style, perhaps using more of a facilitator or delegator teaching style will allow educators to move around to different groups and different students more readily, providing a better environment for assessing each student. Granted, this may be more difficult for large university classrooms with hundreds of students, but for pharmacy classes of 80-150 students, this is usually manageable. Next, as Urban points out in his TED talk and as a study by Ariely and Wertenbroch showed, externally imposed deadlines allow procrastinators to complete tasks more readily than if students are free to establish self-imposed deadlines.5,11 While adding deadlines may seem more overwhelming for students and teachers alike (more assignments, more grading, etc.), actually setting and reinforcing hard deadlines for long-term projects can help students stay on track in the long run and complete projects throughout the course—much like with our Self-Directed Learning Project. Another method to engage students and keep their interest in various topics and assignments is to design non-traditional classrooms and activities, such as team-based learning or use gaming as a learning tool. One method that could be especially beneficial is using simulation software to lead them through various clinical scenarios as they might occur in real life inpatient, outpatient, retail, or other non-traditional environments. This was used in my therapeutics classes during pharmacy school.

Procrastination is a very real problem that affects everyone at some point in life. For the chronic procrastinators, the detrimental effects can take a toll on academic performance, employment, and personal well-being. As educators, we have the opportunity to engage students in a lively classroom and motivate them to complete tasks and assignments. The design of a course and each class session are crucial to maintaining interest, boosting confidence in abilities, and keeping students on track for success. Why wait?


References

1. Steel P. The nature of procrastination: a meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychol Bull. 2007;133(1):65-94.
2. Beutel ME, Klein EM, Aufenanger S, et al. Procrastination, Distress and Life Satisfaction across the Age Range - A German Representative Community Study. PLoS One. 2016 Feb 12;11(2):e0148054.
3. Tice DM, Baumeister RF. Longitudinal Study of Procrastination, Performance, Stress, and Health: The Costs and Benefits of Dawdling. Psychol Sci. 1997;8(6):454-458.
4. procrastinate. 2017. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved October 25, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/procrastinate
5. Urban, T. (2016, February). Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator
6. The top 15 procrastination rationalizations. gradPSYCH. 2010;8(1):17.
7. De Palo V, Monacis L, Miceli S, et al. Decisional Procrastination in Academic Settings: The Role of Metacognitions and Learning Strategies. Front Psychol. 2017;8:973.
8. Chu AH, Choi JN. Rethinking procrastination: positive effects of "active" procrastination behavior on attitudes and performance. J Soc Psychol. 2005 Jun;145(3):245-64.
9. Kim J, Hong H, Lee J, Hyun MH. Effects of time perspective and self-control on procrastination and Internet addiction. J Behav Addict. 2017;6(2):229-236.
10. Novotney A. Procrastination or 'intentional delay'? gradPSYCH. 2010;8(1):14.
11. Ariely D, Wertenbroch K. Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance: Self-Control by Precommitment. Psychol Sci. 2002;13(3):219-224.