Procrastination Science: Pigeons, a Twin Study and Structured Delay

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The word procrastination comes from the Latin pro, forward, and crastinus, of tomorrow, but psychologists treat it as an avoidance coping behavior rather than a time management problem, tracing it to Freud's pleasure principle. People put off tasks to escape the stress, boredom or fear of failure attached to them, then ease the resulting cognitive dissonance with defenses such as descending counterfactuals, valorization of unrelated chores and mocking the task. The biological suspect is lower activation in the prefrontal cortex, similar to patterns seen in ADHD. A 2014 study of identical and fraternal twins found that procrastination and impulsivity share a complete genetic overlap, and pigeons given a choice will take a harder task later over an easier one now.

Culture shapes the motive. Western students tend to delay out of fear of personal failure, while studies of Chinese, Japanese and Sri Lankan students link it to fear of looking incompetent before peers, and Hungary even has a folk mascot of delay in the judge Pató Pál, whose line was that there is time for that. Adaptive perfectionists procrastinate less than average, while maladaptive perfectionists driven by fear of evaluation stall. A 2005 study separated passive procrastinators from active ones who work well under pressure. Procrastinators report less stress early in a term and much more by its end, and chronic procrastinators are 1.5 to 3 times more likely to have severe insomnia. Remedies covered include cognitive behavioral therapy, Robert Pozen's only handle it once rule, John Perry's structured procrastination and Piers Steel's advice to match hard tasks to peak hours.

• Valorization looks like alphabetizing the spice cabinet instead of doing your taxes.
• Active procrastinators earn grades similar to non-procrastinators, though researchers note they rely on adrenaline.
• Student syndrome describes waiting until the last minute, which wipes out any schedule buffer.
• A large German panel study tied rising academic procrastination to more plagiarism, fabricated data and false excuses.
• In structured procrastination, the most dreaded task sits at the top of the list while you finish everything beneath it.