I don't know about you, but I put stuff off - procrastinate - especially when something feels too tough, too dull, or too unimportant. Which is why I neglect chores inside and outside my house until I can't stand it any longer. I'd rather do almost anything else than clean or weed when I could be reading, writing or having fun.
Happily enough I'm not alone out there - about 90% of us regularly procrastinate especially at work (Harriott and Ferrari, 1996). Here are some brief facts: professional workers are more likely to put things off than unskilled employees (Hammer & Ferrari, 2002); the more education you have the worse it gets (D'Abate & Eddy, 2007); and the average employee spends over an hour a day prevaricating instead of getting down and dirty with difficult tasks (Vacha & McBride, 1993).
The problem of course is that by putting difficult things off you reinforce the habit. Not to mention the fact that you waste time delaying the inevitable and piling stuff up is a sure-fire way to make working life seem unmanageable. But hold your horses; is that such a bad thing? Here's the good news.
Not all procrastination is bad for everyone.
Some people need to build it into their day in order to give themselves the oomph to get stuff done. They find that far from causing overload, it actually puts fire in their bellies, galvanizing them to tackle tasks that are meaningless until they are about to disappear over the horizon. These are the people who are ‘actively procrastinate': it's a deliberate strategy deployed to actually help them deliver to their deadlines.
Here's how it works in practice. When a delivery date is a long way off it can be hard to get excited about it: once you start to hear the whoosh of it getting closer, you get a surge of energy. The self-challenge, the thrill of meeting tight timings, is what creates a buzz of energy. Active procrastinators believe that working like this results in better incubation of ideas, more efficiency, better use of time (Schraw et al, 2007) and more intense and fulfilling work as a result.
In short, some people find working under pressure much more enjoyable. In fact they can't manage their working life any other way, finding that if they approach tasks in a more orthodox manner the adrenalin thrill disappears.
What might that mean for me? Well I guess if I need a house and garden makeover, perhaps I should put my property on the market...
References:
Harriott, J., & Ferrari, J.R., 1996. Prevalence of procrastination among samples of adults. Psychological Reports, 78(2), 611-616.
Hammer, C.A., & Ferrari J.R., 2002. Differential incidence of procrastination between blue- and white-collar workers. Current Psychology, 21(4), 333-338.
D'Abate, C.P., & Eddy, E.R., 2007. Engaging in personal business on the job: Extending the presenteeism construct. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 18(3), 361-383
Vacha, E.F., & McBride, M.J., 1993. Cramming: A barrier to student success, a way to beat the system or an effective learning strategy? College Student Journal, 27(1), 2-11.
Schraw, G., Wadkins, T., & Olafson, L., 2007. Doing the things we do: A grounded theory of academic procrastination. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(1), 12-25.
