Streamline Training & Documentation: Procrastination Quotient

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Procrastination Quotient

Prompted by an article at the Scientific American website, I had a look at a pair of tests developed by Piers Steel to gauge one's propensity to procrastinate. You might want to give them a try.

Steel, an industrial psychologist at the University of Calgary, defines procrastination as

To voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse-off for the delay

In a recent paper (pdf) detailing his research on the causes of procrastination, Steel suggests that

problems due to procrastination and lack of self-control appear to be increasing as jobs are expected to become unstructured or at least self-structured. This absence of imposed direction means that the competent worker must create the order — he or she must self-manage or self-regulate. As structure continues to decrease, the opportunity to procrastinate will concomitantly increase. Furthermore, the prevalence and availability of temptation, such as computer gaming or internet messaging, continues to augment the problem of procrastination. [bibliographic references omitted]

Given the trends Steel describes, knowing how to minimize procrastination is an increasing priority in the business world. Steel provides practical advice at his website. In brief, the three approaches he suggests are:

Learned industriousness — Set up a virtuous circle for yourself: Structure a new task so that your initial efforts lead to success. This will reinforce the satisfaction you derive from working at the task, and it will boost your confidence that you can succeed, both of which will help motivate you to carry on, even in the face of setbacks.

Energy regulation — Get enough sleep and exercise, and eat properly. Schedule the tasks you are most inclined to avoid, for times of the day when you are particularly alert and able to concentrate.

Goal setting — Break a larger goal into manageable chunks. Each smaller goal should be SMART — specific, measurable, achievable (but still challenging), results-oriented, and timebound (with the completion date in the near future). It also helps to develop routines, i.e., as far as possible, schedule any regular task for a set time and place so that you build some automaticity into completing the task.

Steel's entire section on treating procrastination is well worth reading. (It's about three pages long.)

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Labels: Motivation, Productivity

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