(I shouldn't admit this) but in the little time between classes I find myself always frantically trying to finish a homework assignment for the next class. I put stuff off until the last minute because I "thrive" under the pressure. I have done that with this weeks blog posts/comments and it gave me inspiration (for my post).
Procrastination - News Article
The link above is a news story that popped up after my google search of why I procrastinate.
It turns out I am just not a perfectionist and I don't have a lot of faith in completing tasks I need to complete. This is true [for me]...I will be honest that this internet blogging thing is so new to me and I always feel like I'm doing them wrong. So I put them off until Thursday when they are due...and I rush to get them done in a short amount of time.
Some facts that the news took out of the article state that perfectionists don't procrastinate, they just worry more about their final product. Are there any perfectionists out there? If so, is this true? Also, how do you do it?
Some questions:
To fellow procrastinators, do you think this article is true for you or is it bologna?
Do you think that procrastinators can not procrastinate if they work at it, or will they always delay getting work done?
I read some of the comments below the article and it seems that most people don't doubt their confidence level and self efficacy as being the problem. They just do so much better when under stress.
Here is a link to the actual sited article in the news story:
The Nature of Procrastination - Steel
Procrastination - News Article
The link above is a news story that popped up after my google search of why I procrastinate.
It turns out I am just not a perfectionist and I don't have a lot of faith in completing tasks I need to complete. This is true [for me]...I will be honest that this internet blogging thing is so new to me and I always feel like I'm doing them wrong. So I put them off until Thursday when they are due...and I rush to get them done in a short amount of time.
Some facts that the news took out of the article state that perfectionists don't procrastinate, they just worry more about their final product. Are there any perfectionists out there? If so, is this true? Also, how do you do it?
Some questions:
To fellow procrastinators, do you think this article is true for you or is it bologna?
Do you think that procrastinators can not procrastinate if they work at it, or will they always delay getting work done?
I read some of the comments below the article and it seems that most people don't doubt their confidence level and self efficacy as being the problem. They just do so much better when under stress.
Here is a link to the actual sited article in the news story:
The Nature of Procrastination - Steel
Kbotts - I enjoy your user name, it seems as though we had the same idea, probably comes with having the same first name.
I really enjoyed the article that you cited in your post. It seems as though all of us procrastinate some times, so everyone can relate.
While there are times when I procrastinate because I am not sure what I am doing, there are other times when I put off doing homework simply because I am lazy and would rather be doing something else. I always expect that I will complete all of my work, my procrastination is more heavily based on desire to complete the task than confidence in my ability to complete the task.
I think that the article places too much emphasis on one explanation, as opposed to focusing on the "formula' for procrastination. The "formula" takes into account desire to complete the task, expectation of completing the task, the tasks importance, and how soon the task needs to be done.
The funny thing is that I can be a bit of a perfectionist at times. However, I do agree that on tasks that I procrastinate finishing I let go of my perfectionism. It does seem as though it is an either/or - Either I procrastinate or I am a perfectionist. Neither are very helpful with my use of time.
This article brings up many good points, especially when it noted that, "In fact, perfectionists procrastinate less, but they worry about it more." in the context taken from Steel from Canada's University of Calgary. I connect with that because even though I tend to have things done before the due date, I stress more about doing it right or whatever, it is that I am currently dealing with at the moment. I consider myself to be somewhat of a perfectionist. I am well organized and put together, but I do procrastinate a lot, because of the worry.
Let’s take for instance my grad school applications, I have been ready and researching them since the fall of my junior year. I have enrolled in the GRE Prep courses here on campus and figured out which schools I wanted to go to. But in doing this all I worried about was everything else. The amount of people they take per semester, and could I be one of them. I worried about the writing style I have and if that is what will set me apart. I worried about everything but had majority of it all put aside and then finally worked on the applications. Everything was filled out expect my goal and personal statements. I put these off because I am not the best of a writer and usage of proper English sometimes slips my mind.
So it is not because I don’t value going to grad school, but I worry about what the panel will say when they run across my application. I know I am different and that I stand apart from most of the applicants, but the only problem I had in writing my personal statement was the writing style they wanted really. I kept redoing it, then finally about a week ago I sat down thought I had it all worked out, mind you the deadlines are Monday Feb. 1, and thought I would go over it one more time. Would you guess that I read the directions wrong and had to start all over? I misread the guidelines and now have procrastinated writing the real and final draft. But this time I have a whole new set of worries. Like what else have I overlooked and do I have time to go over them again.
I'll read and comment on this article later...
I'm also in a social psychology class, and we learned about this a while ago.
Procrastination is actually a type of self-handicapping. This is when you reject responsibility of failure because you wish to maintain a positive self image. In this case, you're pushing off the studying or homework so when you fail, you can attribute it to not having enough time - versus admitting that you failed because you just weren't good enough.
One way to try an combat procrastination is trying to change your locus of control. People who have a higher internal locus of control claim responsibility for events in their lives (ex, I did really well on that test because I studied really hard) rather than blame them on outside influences (ex, I didn't get the job because it just wasn't my time). People with a higher locus of control tend to have higher success rates, self confidence, and achieve more.
By having a higher locus of control, you should be less likely to procrastinate and need the excuse to maintain the positive self-image.
Below, I listed a link to take the test to see what type you have.
http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Self-handicapping
http://discoveryhealth.queendom.com/lc_short_access.html - locus test
Procrastination is a huge problem in my life. I suffer from procrastination in absolutely everything I do and every time I get so mad at myself because I wait til the last minute to do something. I am easily distracted and if an obstacle gets in my way, say not having a computer readily available to me this whole semester, I am less likely to get things and turned in on time. Every time I start a new project I vow to myself that I will not procrastinate and I set goals for myself to motivate my behavior to get things done and done on time even if there are obstacles and every single time I end up procrastinating. I think one reason this is because I am the type of person that works well in what I like to "Crunch" time. I work better under pressure when I know I have to do something. I cannot start a project and work on it a little bit everyday gradually because although I know it is important I don't feel the pressure until the last minute. I hate this though because although it kicks my butt into gear in also stresses me out and the problem with waiting until the last minute to do something is that it does not give you time to go around those obstacles that may show up and put a monkey wrench in your deadline and make the task even harder. Although I have a high self-efficacy and I know that I have the capability to do certain tasks (Reeve, 2009) I wish I had a higher locus of control and a more organized approach to things. If I were to ever for some reason give advice to students in general it would be to somehow find a way around procrastination. I think that it is something that is caught right away and the individual has a high locus of control they will be more likely to be able to avoid those types of "crunch" time situations.