From dawdling to doing: the science of procrastination

Procrastination, the intentional but harmful delaying of tasks, takes many forms. Sahiti Chebolu from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics has used a precise mathematical framework to understand the different patterns and their underlying reasons. Her study can help tailor individual strategies to tackle the problem. The research can be found in Proceedings of the annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

“Why didn’t I do this while I still had time?” Whether it’s filing taxes, meeting a deadline at work, or cleaning the apartment before a family visit, most of us have wondered why we tend to put off certain tasks even when there are unpleasant consequences are associated with it. Why do we make decisions that are harmful to us – against our better judgment? This is precisely the riddle of procrastination.

Procrastination, the intentional but ultimately harmful delaying of tasks, not only hinders productivity but has also been linked to a host of mental health problems. So it is definitely worth asking yourself why this much-discussed phenomenon has such a grip on us – and what it actually is.

“Procrastination is an umbrella term for different types of behavior,” says computational neuroscientist Sahiti Chebolu of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. “If we want to understand it, we have to distinguish between the different types.”

A common pattern is that we deviate from our own decisions: for example, we set aside an evening for tax returns, but when the time comes we watch a movie instead. There is something else going on if we don’t commit to a specific time in the first place: we may be waiting for the right circumstances.

The possible patterns of procrastination are numerous: from starting too late to abandoning a task halfway, Chebolu classified them all and identified possible explanations for each: misjudging the time required or protecting the ego from future failures are just two of.

The short-sighted brain

Can such a classification really help you get things done? Chebolu is convinced that a mathematically accurate understanding of the mechanism involved is the first step in tackling this. She understands procrastination as a series of temporary decisions. For example, what exactly happens if we schedule our tax return on Friday evening, but then succumb to the temptations of a streaming service?

One way to think about decision-making is that our brains add up all the rewards and punishments we expect to get from the alternative behavior: watching a movie or doing the tedious paperwork. It goes without saying that it then chooses the course of action that promises to be the most pleasant overall.

But does the pleasure of a movie night outweigh the dismay of the high fine for not filing? There is one important detail: consequences in the distant future are given less weight by the brain when adding up positive and negative outcomes.

To some extent this is normal and even useful; after all, the more distant future is necessarily full of uncertainties. “Only if we place excessive value on experiences in the present and not enough on experiences further in the future,” Chebolu explains, “such decision-making policies quickly become maladaptive.”

So much for the theory. To study procrastination in practice, Chebolu delved into large data sets from New York University. The data showed a log of students required to participate in a certain number of hours of experiments over the course of a semester.

Some immediately dismiss the task; Others spread it evenly over several weeks – and indeed, still others shunned it until it was almost too late. Chebolu ran simulations to reproduce their behavior. What explanations, she asked, could best explain the different patterns of procrastination?

It can be tempting to blame our brain’s preference for immediately rewarding activities. But there’s certainly more at play: For each pattern of how the New York students procrastinated on task, Chebolu found several possible explanations.

“Uncertainty is another major factor in procrastination,” she points out. This could be the inability to predict how much time we will need to find all the receipts for deductible expenses. But uncertainty can also mean that we lack confidence in our own abilities or that we doubt whether the task will help us achieve our goals.

Chebolu is convinced that understanding procrastination as a series of temporary decisions and detecting where and why we habitually take a wrong turn can inform interventions: for example, if you discover that your brain is a little too focused on immediate gratification, causing you to selling yourself short – term rewards can help.

Those who tend to underestimate the time required for their heavy lifting can try setting themselves time-bound goals. And if you find yourself quickly giving up on your chores, you may want to avoid distracting environments.

No matter which category of procrastination you fall into (and sometimes you almost certainly fall into some of them), you’re not just lazy. Recognizing this and forgiving yourself for past procrastination is a good first step to greater productivity.