If not now, when?

I have one course left to fulfill my degree requirements. 20+ weeks ago, I signed up to take it online through Thompson River’s University.  The course consists of 5 modules, 4 projects, a final exam, and initiating postings on the forum.

Taking an online class in my final semester and during summer was a poor choice. I have to write the final exam somewhere between September 7 and 12 and I’ve barely made progress in the class. How did I manage to avoid doing any of the work over 20 weeks? A regular university semester is 13 weeks. I’ve had to complete 5 classes at once during the 13 week period, yet I struggle with this single course.

I have initiated a rather ironic situation as I continue to procrastinate doing any of the course work and I am blogging as a distraction. I began to wonder what the psychology is behind procrastination. Everyone procrastinates at some point – but why?

Researching the topic has yielded some obvious conclusions:

• Some of us enjoy the “rush” experienced by doing everything at the last minute.
• People avoid making decisions for fear of judgement
• Some people prefer impulsive behavior over deadlines and planning.
• The tasks are boring.
• Underestimating the amount of time and resources needed
• Some people fear failure and in contrast, success.
• Perfectionists often procrastinate; anything they work on is never “good enough” so it can never be complete.

Procrastination is discussed when considering ethics and morality. Apparently, Christianity refers to procrastination as a sin and one is only allowed to procrastinate only about what matters: salvation. Makes sense, if you are religious, looking at the bigger picture suggests that not much matters other than salvation.

Utilitarian philosophers judge the ethical merit of our actions by the utility – or value – they produce. For example, lets assume I am a mean person and repeatedly make fun of  a friend for being overweight. That doesn’t sound very ethical – however if my comments motivated that friend to lose 75 lbs and avoid having serious health concerns, my actions produced significant value and therefore were moral.  Sometimes when we procrastinate, the outcome can be good – so maybe procrastination is moral. Despite this possibility, utilitarianism concludes that procrastination is an exception to the utility measure. 

It is important to remember that procrastinators aren’t inherently lazy – rather procrastinators substitute low priority tasks and avoid doing high priority tasks. It is this logic that philosophy professor at Standford, John Perry, developed the notion of “structured procrastination”.  Perry argues that people are still efficient even if they are doing less important tasks, because at least they are accomplishing something. He does address the fact that the high priority tasks won’t be completed and suggests everything will be okay if the tasks (1) the tasks seem to have clear deadlines (but really don’t) and (2) the tasks seem really important (but actually aren’t). I can relate to this. Many occasions in university I left big assignments to the last minute, became anxious I wouldn’t complete them in time and get a poor grade in the course only to find out that the professor had either reduced the extent of the assignment or offered an extension. In reality, very few things are so important so although Perry expresses his ideas on structured procrastination with light humor, there is a lot of applicability behind it.

 

International “Procrastination Day” is on March 26. It was supposed to be the 25th, but it was put off a day.  

 

Links:

http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/index.php

http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/procrastination