ScienceDaily: We‘re Sorry This Is Late ... We Really Meant To Post It Sooner: Research Into Procrast

We‘re Sorry This Is Late ... We Really Meant To Post It Sooner: Research Into Procrastination Shows Surprising Findings
Science Daily —A University of Calgary professor in the Haskayne School of Businesshas recently published his magnum opus on the subject ofprocrastination -- and it‘s only taken him 10 years.
Joking aside, Dr. Piers Steel is probably theworld‘s foremost expert on the subject of putting off until tomorrowwhat should be done today. His comprehensive analysis ofprocrastination research, published in the recent edition of theAmerican Psychological Association‘s Psychological Bulletin, presentssome surprising conclusions on the subject, such as:
Most people‘s New Year‘s resolutions are doomed to failure
Most self-help books have it completely wrong when they say perfectionism is at the root of procrastination, and
Procrastination can be explained by a single mathematical equation
"Essentially,procrastinators have less confidence in themselves, less expectancythat they can actually complete a task," Steel says. "Perfectionism isnot the culprit. In fact, perfectionists actually procrastinate less,but they worry about it more."
Other predictors ofprocrastination include: task aversiveness, impulsiveness,distractibility, and how much a person is motivated to achieve. Not alldelays can be considered procrastination; the key is that a person mustbelieve it would be better to start working on given tasks immediately,but still not start.
It‘s estimated that about 15-20 per centof the general population are procrastinators. And the costs ofprocrastinating can add up well beyond poor work performance,especially for those who delay filing their taxes or planning theirretirement.
Steel says motivational failures such as difficultyin sticking to diets and exercise regimes -- frequently the focus ofNew Year‘s resolutions -- are related to procrastination becauseimpulsiveness is often at the root of the failure. "Temptations thatare close at hand are difficult to resist. Addicts often relapse afterreturning from treatment facilities because drugs and alcohol becomeeasily available and daily habits reassert themselves. Or we load up onbread in the restaurant before the meal is served. Or we check ouremail 10 times an hour instead of completing a project."
Thegood news is that willpower has an unusual capacity. "The old saying istrue: ‘Whether you believe you can or believe you can‘t, you‘reprobably right‘," Steel says. "And as you get better at self control,your expectancy about whether you can resist goes up and thus improvesyour ability to resist."
Steel has also come up with the E=mc2of procrastination, a formula he‘s dubbed Temporal Motivational Theory,which takes into account factors such as the expectancy a person has ofsucceeding with a given task (E), the value of completing the task (V),the desirability of the task (Utility), its immediacy or availability(Γ) and the person‘s sensitivity to delay (D).
It looks like this and uses the Greek letter Γ (capital gamma): Utility = E x V / ΓD
It‘sstill unclear why some people may be more prone to developingprocrastination behaviour, but some evidence suggests it may begenetic. Steel concludes: "Continued research into procrastinationshould not be delayed, especially because its prevalence seems to begrowing."
The title of the paper is "The Nature ofProcrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review ofQuintessential Self-Regulatory Failure." The American PsychologicalAssociation‘s Psychological Bulletin is arguably the top academicjournal for the social sciences. Steel‘s research on the subject isreferred to as a meta-analysis, in which he distills and synthesizesthe evidence on procrastination from 691 other research sources.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Calgary.