Understanding procrastination: a deep dive into how you feel

Chances are you have procrastinated. You might only procrastinate from time to time, or you may be constantly struggling with procrastination. Whatever the case, you are not alone in dealing with this issue. In fact, humans have been battling procrastination for thousands of years, so much so that procrastination has been described as an archetypal human failing.¹ Procrastination is also on the rise^1,2 and tends to be pervasive amongst students and academics.² Although much remains to be uncovered about why we procrastinate, researchers have come a long way in understanding it, the factors associated with it, and the reasons behind why we do it.

Procrastination and associated factors

Procrastination is the “voluntary delay of an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay.”¹ So, procrastination is clearly irrational, yet you don’t procrastinate randomly. There is something about the task that you choose to delay that has triggered your procrastination. It may be that the task induces stress, anxiety, resentment, boredom, or frustration, or it may be that the task is overly challenging or difficult.¹

Wanting to boost your mood when you are triggered by your task is often why you procrastinate. In this sense, procrastination can be seen as a form of self-soothing. Procrastination is also associated with multiple factors including impulsiveness, fear of failure, distractibility, poor organization, low self-efficacy, low achievement motivation, boredom proneness, low self-control, and poor mental health.^1,3 There is also clear evidence of the links between procrastination, stress, anxiety, depression, shame, and guilt.^1,3 In short, procrastination is more than just a lack of willpower.

The procrastination loop

Procrastination and stress go hand-in-hand. Stress can trigger procrastination. Procrastination produces additional stress. Stress is also generated from any negative or judgmental thoughts that you have about yourself while procrastinating, which lead to feelings of guilt and shame. Moreover, each time you procrastinate, you will likely also remember past instances of procrastination, which can cause you to judge yourself all over again and compound any negative feelings you are already experiencing.³ Inevitably, this procrastination loop can make it difficult to overcome procrastination in the moment. In fact, the feelings of stress, guilt, or shame that come from procrastinating are incredibly destructive and can actually derail your future efforts to overcome procrastination if left unmanaged.³

Self-compassion and self-forgiveness

Self-compassion is about being genuinely kind to yourself, and it’s critical for your mental health. Self-compassion is the opposite of judging yourself when you fail. When you engage in self-compassion, you boost your ability to effectively regulate your emotions while reducing stress and negative reactions.^3,4 By practicing self-compassion, you are actively combating multiple factors associated with procrastination, namely poor self-regulation, stress, poor mental health, low self-efficacy, anxiety, depression, shame, and guilt. Self-compassion is powerful because it targets so many potential triggers at once.

So, how do you practice self-compassion when you procrastinate? It starts with showing self-kindness and acknowledging that you are procrastinating without engaging in self-judgment. You might find it helpful to write out a few sentences in a journal that identify why you have procrastinated. Then, write a few sentences that express empathy, kindness, and forgiveness towards yourself, which will help you let go of the negative feelings attached to the task at hand.^4,5,6 You may need to do this only once before you can turn to self-forgiveness and self-compassion each time you find yourself procrastinating. When this becomes routine, you will be well on your way to overcoming procrastination in the long-term.

Self-forgiveness and procrastination: two case studies

Whol et al.⁵ explored the relationship between self-forgiveness for procrastinating on a current task and procrastinating on the same task in the future. In this study, university students were evaluated on procrastination and self-forgiveness before their first and second midterm exams and on positive and negative affect (i.e., the way a person views themselves with regard to their emotional experiences, abilities, and qualities) related to the outcome of their first midterm.

Students who engaged in high self-forgiveness after procrastinating while studying for the first midterm were able to reduce their negative affect and were less likely to procrastinate when studying for the second midterm. By forgiving themselves, these students were able to study for the second midterm free of the negative feelings related to both the exam and themselves. The students who did not forgive themselves, however, were unable to reduce negative affect and were also unable to stop themselves from procrastinating.

In a follow-up study, Uzur Özer et al.⁶ evaluated the relationship between positive affect and procrastination in non-English speaking students in Turkey, which is culturally distinct from Canada, the country in which the study of Whol et al.⁵ took place. Prior to presenting their final exam, students were asked to evaluate themselves on procrastination, positive and negative affect, and self-forgiveness.

Self-forgiveness was found to clearly mediate the relationship between positive affect and procrastination, with students who forgave themselves for procrastinating feeling better about themselves and showing lower levels of task avoidance. In forgiving themselves, students inhibited the negative affect that arises from procrastinating and instead cultivated positive affect, which allowed them to start and stay on task.

Self-forgiveness in a nutshell

Self-forgiveness entails acknowledging that your behavior was wrong, fully accepting responsibility for it, and making amends.⁷ These three actions must be performed in a genuine manner, and for this, you require self-compassion. To the contrary, any self-forgiveness that arises may not be sufficiently profound to allow you to actually change your behavior in the future.⁷ You deserve better than that. When you acknowledge and process your emotions from a place of compassion, you will be able to truly forgive yourself.

Overcoming procrastination

You might not realize how often self-critical thoughts cross your mind nor how these thoughts affect your feelings and mood. From the research on procrastination, it’s clear that these negative thoughts and feelings are sabotaging your attempts to get things done and that self-compassion and self-forgiveness are needed to overcome procrastination. Some days, despite your best intentions, you will procrastinate. It is an inevitable reality over the course of your academic career. You can, however, forgive yourself each time and move on.

If you want 10 truly great and practical strategies to overcome procrastination when it strikes, check out Overcoming Procrastination: Part 1 and Overcoming Procrastination: Part 2.

References

¹ Steel P (2007) “The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure,” Psychological Bulletin 133(1): 65–94 DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.65

² de la Fuente J, Sander P, and Garzón-Umerenkova A et al. (2021) “Regulatory Teaching as Determinants of Academic Behavioral Confidence and Procrastination in Undergraduate Students.” Frontiers in Psychology 12: 602904 DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.602904

³ Sirois FM (2014) “Procrastination and Stress: Exploring the Role of Self-compassion,” Self and Identity 13(2): 128-145 DOI:10.1080/15298868.2013.763404

⁴ Martinčeková L (2020) “The effects of self-forgiveness and shame-proneness on procrastination: exploring the mediating role of affect,” Current Psychology 39(2):428–437 DOI:10.1007/s12144-018-9926-3

⁵ Whol MJA, Pychyl TA, and Bennet SH (2010) “I  forgive myself,  now  I can study:  How self-forgiveness for procrastinating can reduce future procrastination.” Personality and Individual Differences 48: 803-808.  

⁶ Uzur Özer B, Ferrari J, LeBlac S (2018) “Put Aside Procrastination: Positive Emotional Outcomes from Self-Forgiveness for Delays” North American Journal of Psychology 20(1):171-186

⁷ Hall JH & Fincham FD (2005). “Self-forgiveness: the stepchild of forgiveness research,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 24(5): 621-637 DOI: 10.1521/jscp.2005.24.5.621

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