TL;DR; The science is merky but researchers have noticed self-forgiveness, seeing tasks as fun (or rewarding), and changing the perspective of procrastinators have been beneficial. Emotions also play a role.
Since many may skim this article here are some highlights with direct excerpts:
- (defining proc) What I’ve found is that while everybody may procrastinate, not everyone is a procrastinator,” says APS Fellow Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University.
- (regarding a research social experiment) As it happened, chronic procrastinators only delayed practice on the puzzle when it was described as a cognitive evaluation. When it was described as fun, they behaved no differently from non-procrastinators.
- (proc is self-defeating) In an issue of the Journal of Research in Personality from 2000, Tice and Ferrari concluded that procrastination is really a self-defeating behavior — with procrastinators trying to undermine their own best efforts.
- (defining procrastinators) The idea is that procrastinators calculate the fluctuating utility of certain activities: pleasurable ones have more value early on, and tough tasks become more important as a deadline approaches.
- (link between proc and emotions) “Emotional regulation, to me, is the real story around procrastination, because to the extent that I can deal with my emotions, I can stay on task,” says Pychyl. “When you say task-aversiveness, that’s another word for lack of enjoyment. Those are feeling states — those aren’t states of which [task] has more utility.”
- (on the Neuropsychology) Rabin, the study suggests that procrastination might be an “expression of subtle executive dysfunction” in people who are otherwise neuropsychologically healthy.
- (Solutions?) Sirois believes the best way to eliminate the need for short-term mood fixes is to find something positive or worthwhile about the task itself.
- (Solutions?) Ferrari...would like to see a general cultural shift from punishing lateness to rewarding the early bird.
- (Solutions?) But while the tough love approach might work for couples [references to not doing a spouse's stack of dishes], the best personal remedy for procrastination might actually be self-forgiveness.
- (Solutions?) The research team, led by Michael Wohl, reported in a 2010 issue of Personality and Individual Differences that students who forgave themselves after procrastinating on the first exam were less likely to delay studying for the second one.
> The idea is that procrastinators calculate the fluctuating utility of certain activities: pleasurable ones have more value early on, and tough tasks become more important as a deadline approaches.
This sounds like a definition (sort of) for rational judgment. When you have a hard task, most of the time it's a good idea to procrastinate it for a while because
a) requirements may change, so that work spent early on could be useless (or even the whole task could turn out to be unnecessary), or
b) you might acquire more knowledge in the meantime which enables you to solve the task more effectively or more efficiently.
The distinction between a procrastinator and a rationalist would then be that the procrastinator also procrastinates tasks for which the outlook of these two things happening is bleak.
Since many may skim this article here are some highlights with direct excerpts:
- (defining proc) What I’ve found is that while everybody may procrastinate, not everyone is a procrastinator,” says APS Fellow Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University.
- (regarding a research social experiment) As it happened, chronic procrastinators only delayed practice on the puzzle when it was described as a cognitive evaluation. When it was described as fun, they behaved no differently from non-procrastinators.
- (proc is self-defeating) In an issue of the Journal of Research in Personality from 2000, Tice and Ferrari concluded that procrastination is really a self-defeating behavior — with procrastinators trying to undermine their own best efforts.
- (defining procrastinators) The idea is that procrastinators calculate the fluctuating utility of certain activities: pleasurable ones have more value early on, and tough tasks become more important as a deadline approaches.
- (link between proc and emotions) “Emotional regulation, to me, is the real story around procrastination, because to the extent that I can deal with my emotions, I can stay on task,” says Pychyl. “When you say task-aversiveness, that’s another word for lack of enjoyment. Those are feeling states — those aren’t states of which [task] has more utility.”
- (on the Neuropsychology) Rabin, the study suggests that procrastination might be an “expression of subtle executive dysfunction” in people who are otherwise neuropsychologically healthy.
- (Solutions?) Sirois believes the best way to eliminate the need for short-term mood fixes is to find something positive or worthwhile about the task itself.
- (Solutions?) Ferrari...would like to see a general cultural shift from punishing lateness to rewarding the early bird.
- (Solutions?) But while the tough love approach might work for couples [references to not doing a spouse's stack of dishes], the best personal remedy for procrastination might actually be self-forgiveness.
- (Solutions?) The research team, led by Michael Wohl, reported in a 2010 issue of Personality and Individual Differences that students who forgave themselves after procrastinating on the first exam were less likely to delay studying for the second one.