Is Procrastination a Coping Mechanism or Symptom?

I’ve noticed of late a trend in online conversations revolving around the concept of procrastination. Of course, this could just be ‘the algorithm’ feeding me such discourse given my relationship with psychology; but, regardless of ‘reach’, such discussion hasn’t been entirely accurate and may be potentially damaging to people who are genuinely working through things. The picture painted in such discourse is that procrastination isn’t laziness, rather a coping mechanism.

To begin, procrastination refers to the putting off of some task (i.e. usually something important and/or something that the individual doesn’t want to do) and, typically, replacing said task with other less urgent tasks that are easier or more enjoyable to the person conducting them. Consider, the adage: ‘what you want to do tomorrow, do today and what you want to do later, do now’. Being proactive is celebrated, procrastination is not: the population usually looks upon procrastination as less than socially desirable – a character flaw, in ways. In addition to laziness, it’s often coupled with stereotypes associated with lack of motivation, lack of self-regulation and perhaps even a lack of capability. In many cases, procrastination is a result of one of these (if not multiple). However, it is also important to recognise that procrastination can be a coping mechanism.

Sure, procrastination and laziness are two different things. However, it is very easy to be lazy and then rationalise this by telling people that you’re a procrastinator. Procrastination has become an excuse and a scapegoat in this context. As a result, when people say that they are a procrastinator, I often imagine that they’re either lazy (and trying to mask it as procrastination) or that they’re genuinely using it to cope with some form and level of anxiety (whether they are aware of it or not). Indeed, I’m familiar with symptoms of anxiety and its manifestation in different forms. I know some anxious people who immediately engage in a task so as to avoid another thing looming over their heads. They want to get it off their desks as quick as possible – the antithesis of procrastination. I also know people who are the exact opposite – a post-grad student with anxiety once showed me their email account after going AWOL for a few weeks and there were over 3,000 unopened emails. That’s real procrastination.

With that, most people I know would refer to themselves as procrastinators, to some extent. Of course, I work with a lot of students, so this should come as no surprise. Students typically have a penchant for leaving things they don’t want to do until the last minute (e.g. assignments and studying), because they’re often either off having fun or are genuinely stressed out by the college workload (i.e. perhaps not being used to as much work from their younger school days). That’s youth for you – particularly in the sense that their ability to self-regulate isn’t yet fully developed. As we addressed with respect to ‘laziness’ above, procrastination is also a common excuse/rationale for low self-regulation.

However, though it is the case that procrastination can be a coping mechanism (perhaps the term symptom might be warranted in some cases), that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. You might say, well, it’s part of the process, or some derivation of this. If it’s an acute form of procrastination (i.e. short-term), then that’s reasonable (e.g. in light of a recent bereavement). But, if the individual has a long history of procrastination, I’d wonder what they’re actually doing about it to better themselves (e.g. if they’re receiving treatment for their anxiety or whatever is the foundation for this coping mechanism). Blaming a coping mechanism for why you’re unable to take care of your business in a timely manner or do what you said you would isn’t a valid excuse if you’re not actively working on it – it just tells me you need a new coping mechanism.

Importantly, not all coping mechanisms are good – or adaptive. Many are maladaptive. For example, the development of a drinking problem is a classic example of a maladaptive coping mechanism. I would similarly categorise procrastination in this way – as a maladaptive coping mechanism. For example, if my boss landed me with a report on Monday that’s due Friday, I’m going to drop everything else that isn’t a priority and focus my attention on that report. Leaving it until Thursday night is a bad idea. Sure, you might get it done in time, but I’d question how much you were able to review, edit and amend said report upon its completion. If quality of the content is lacking or the report is late – and this is a regular occurrence – your boss is going to start looking for a replacement, regardless of your reason why. Sure, some people claim to work better under pressure (another rationalisation), but is that really true? Again, I’d question the sufficiency of time and effort to review, edit and amend, especially with the added pressure, stress and fatigue associated with leaving it until the last minute.

Playing devil’s advocate, it’s not entirely healthy to be so proactive that everything must be done immediately either (i.e. the aforementioned approach of getting it off your desk ASAP, so it doesn’t loom over your head). Depending on the context, such an approach is just as stressful as procrastination. There’s a happy medium between the two responses – aim to find the most appropriate time to complete the task in question, be it today, tomorrow, next week or in two months and organise it into your schedule. Making the plan to do it and sticking to said plan is both proactive and a sign of good organisation (an important disposition towards critical thinking).

The point is that procrastination can indeed be a coping mechanism, but that doesn’t mean we should embrace it. Regardless of what you call it, procrastination remains largely maladaptive and can result in many adverse outcomes. Instead of resigning oneself to being a procrastinator – for whatever the rationale might be – it is important to make genuine efforts to cognitively reframe one’s approaches to undesirable tasks and be proactive. It will benefit the person and their mental well-being in the long run.