Self-management Procrastination

“When you procrastinate, you waste time that you could be investing in something meaningful. We now know that the world today is conducive to procrastinating and learning how to overcome it is, therefore, one of the most important skills you can learn.” (from: The End of Procrastination by Petr Ludwig & Adela Schicker)

Definitions for “procrastination” range from “trouble persuading yourself to do the things you should do or would like to do” (Petr Ludwig & Adela Schicker) to “the action of delaying or postponing something” (Oxford English Dictionary) and “keeping delaying something that must be done, often because it is unpleasant or boring” (Cambridge Dictionary). Wikipedia adds the aspect of “delaying a task despite knowing it might have negative consequences”. In 2007, Gregory Schraw et al. proposed a specific definition for academic procrastination which must be at once “counterproductive, needless, and delaying”.

According to the literature there seems to be a fine line between simply running behind with important stuff that needs to be done with highest priority and a more pathologic avoidance technique that as a result turns deadlines into a seemingly unsurmountable road block. Thus, procrastination is not necessarily just a bad habit or a lack of determination towards finishing up what needs to be done but a behavioral pattern that deserves attention and may need treatment.