I used to think that my biggest fault was my tendency to procrastinate. All my university papers were finished at the last possible moment. They were started not much earlier. Every single time, I swore to myself I would do better next time. Eventually I simply gave in and stopped deluding myself.
I always laugh when we, whether we are students or managers, are given an assignment and complain about how little time we are given (usually a month or two). Let’s face it, no one in the room, except for the occasional freak, will begin until crunch time. I would matter very little if we were only given a week.
For about twelve years I taught a university course at McGill called Advanced Study in Behavioural Disorders. The students had three written assignments to do for the class and there were 36 students enrolled each year. Do the math, that means that my students had to hand in a total of 1296 assignments over the years. One day, one of those 432 students handed in her paper one week BEFORE the deadline. I looked at her and said it was early, certain she had made a mistake and that she would scream in agony at her error. But no, she simply said she had too much work the next week and decided to do it early.
“I was…wait a sec…what the…I…I…but…but it isn’t due until next week.” I looked at her like she had a metal plate on her head. I don’t know whatever became of that young woman but I would be surprised if she doesn’t take over the world one day. The rest of us mere mortals don’t stand a chance against such overwhelming mental discipline. We have too much TV to watch first.
Despite that one truly freakish aberration, most of us procrastinate. It was when I started working with real clients (who tend to be honest about their problems when talking to a shrink), and seeing colleagues perform around me over the years, that I realized how completely average I was. Yes, while there may be many people who prepare ahead of time and are much less affected by procrastination than me, there are also many many more who are far worse. I discovered that, no matter how bad I thought I was – and indeed am – I am actually pretty normal. Go figure.
This got me thinking about why human beings procrastinate and I wrote my November 24th column on the subject. I actually give regular talks on how to change bad habits. I guess over the years I learned a thing or two about the problem but every once in a while I laugh at myself. Here is a true story: When I was writing the following column, I got up from my writing sanctuary (my kitchen table) and wandered onto my back deck. When I saw a pile of dead leaves at the bottom of the pool, I decided to clean them out. It was something I had planned to do two weeks earlier but kept putting off. I suppose in the procrastination face-off between cleaning the pool and writing the column, the leaves won!
The writer always has clean windows
(Source: Quand la procrastination se met de la partie. Journal Métro, November 24, 2009)
I’ll never forget how clean my windows were when I was a graduate student trying to write my PhD thesis. To help me work efficiently, my wife would go out for the day and leave me in peace so that I could work without distractions. It may have sounded like a good idea, but who can get any work done when the windows are dirty. I’ll get to the thesis as soon as I give these babies a quick wipe!
Why put off until tomorrow what you could put off until the day after tomorrow?
I think we all have stories of procrastination to tell since it is estimated that 95% of us complain of the problem. One of the reasons for this is that our world has evolved and the connection between behaviour and reward has become quite remote. Few of us procrastinate when we are hungry or thirsty. But writing a paper – which will produce a good grade in a few weeks, which will contribute to a degree, which will hopefully get you a good job, which will then produce the salary which will allow you to purchase the groceries that will satisfy that hunger – does seem like a pretty remote connection.
A self-perpetuating problem
Another reason procrastination can get out of hand is because it feeds itself. When we put something off, we end up doing it in a last minute – and extremely aversive – frenzy of activity. Doing things in such a state of panic only increases our desire to avoid it in the future.
The habit of doing things all at once also trains us to wait for a large block of time – and a large reserve of energy – to accomplish the next large job. It is for this reason that we must break projects down into small and reasonable steps. The most important part is to stop working after each step is complete. It is easy to put an hour or two of work into a project every day for two weeks. It is not so easy to work for twenty straight hours in one day. If we fall into the trap of completing large projects once we are “on a roll,” we will reinforce the belief that we must find the energy to complete future projects in one large chunk. Ugh! That’s something you will put off.
A tough nut to crack
While procrastination may be a tough nut to crack, it can improve over time if you work on your habits. But don’t feel bad, very few of us are immune to it. I even struggle with procrastination myself from time to time when writing this column. Mind you, my windows are spotless!
Tagged as procrastination.
Posted in Human nature, Life, Random thoughts.
Posted on 13 Dec 2009
