What Causes People to Procrastinate, then Rush?

"What causes us to procrastinate, then rush," Frank Roche of KnowHR, asks. He'd like to sort out the ambiguity. No doubt he's seen every form of delaying tactics in the field of human resources. "Is this a brain-related issue," he wonders. "With all the GTD-related advice out there, it tells me that a lot of people are procrastinators...or they don't multitask well. Is procrastination hard wired?" Great questions, Frank, since procrastination increased 39% in the last 25 years...

Thanks for posing these for the Question Train Series.

Causes... Interestingly, Piers Steel of the University of Calgary just finished a 10 year study which concludes that temptation is one of the most pervasive causes of procrastination. When you stop to think there are so many fun activities available such as computer gaming, Internet messaging, which are just a click away at work. Add to that, TVs in every room, online video, Web-surfing, cellphones, video games, iPods and Blackberries.

Genes Play a Part Rewards and instant gratification highly affect procrastinators. In a study prepared by researchers, Liu, Richmond and Ginns of the National Intstitue of Health, found that dopamine, a brain chemical that functions as a neurotransmitter, suppresses a gene helps a circuit in the brain absorb the chemical messenger dopamine, which is involved in the brain's memory and reward system. Amazingly, they can turn monkeys into the kind of nonstop worker you are not likely to find in the next cubicle.

Dopamine has many functions in the brain, including important roles in behavior and cognition, motor activity, motivation and reward, sleep, mood, attention, and learning.

Without the dopamine receptor, the researchers found monkeys "consistently stayed on-task and made few errors, because they could no longer learn to use visual cues to predict how their work was going to get them a reward." The monkeys were like other primates, they're "in no hurry to do work any sooner than it needs to be done."

Procrastinators are made not born On the other hand, leading procrastination experts Joseph Ferrari, and Timorthy Pychyl note procrastination's due to upbringing...

Procrastination is learned in the family milieu, but not directly. It is one response to an authoritarian parenting style. Having a harsh, controlling father keeps children from developing the ability to regulate themselves, from internalizing their own intentions and then learning to act on them. Procrastination can even be a form of rebellion, one of the few forms available under such circumstances. What's more, under those household conditions, procrastinators turn more to friends than to parents for support, and their friends may reinforce procrastination because they tend to be tolerant of their excuses.

Why the rush? Most people are self-regulated and want to avoid the consequences. But there's more... some folks actually get a rush from putting things off and working fast at the last minute...

"On the one hand, procrastinators enjoy the pleasure that accompanies jittery nerves before a deadline," according to Ferrari, "but they also have less self-confidence than their peers." He notes that procrastinators may exert less effort because they want people to think that they're not trying rather than believe that they are incapable.

In experiments reported in the European Journal of Personality, procrastinators completed less of a task than nonprocrastinators when given a strict time limit, but fared almost as well with more time. Ferrari believes that this reflects scaled back efforts under pressure.

I can remember classmates in college telling me they actually get a rush from doing work at the last minute. We also see it on the job. Sadly, procrastinators do not perform at optimum... But there's hope.

Hard-wired? Since the human brain has amazing plasticity, it can be wired differently. But, it takes rewiring a lifetime of habits. Even procrastinators can rewire to work ahead, but it takes doing, doing, doing it over a period of time. The more we do something the more our brain rewires for that activity.

Ellen Weber claims human nature's lazy and requires rewiring...

What you do shapes the routines that define you as unique. Victims who see themselves as stuck in their problems, will stay stuck … because they will build victim routines into their basal ganglia daily. We each get hit with 22 stressors daily … and victims sink with these while high performance minds fight back.

Here’s how it works. Each time you set clear targets, and motivate yourself to follow through and do one concrete strategy to reach them, you set your “human nature” for example, to become more successful, alive and timely.

Thanks for such great questions! With procrastination on the increase, your work's cut out.. I'm wondering what strategies work best for you and others to avoid procrastinating?