What Are YOU Waiting For?

Procrastination Deconstructed
By Debra Huron

ust because Dr. Tim Pychyl is an expert

in procrastination doesnt mean hes an
expert in avoiding the tasks on his todo list. The Carleton University professor of
psychology, author, podcaster, and Psychology
Today blogger admits that even he sometimes
though rarely procrastinates. Its part
of human nature, he explains.

Seizing the Day!

When you hear Pychyl talk about his specialty
and his research, and when you read The
Procrastinators Digest, it becomes clear that
the mind behind the message understands
the need for compassion in dealing with the
foibles of the human spirit.

Working with Chelsea, Quebec artist Paul

Mason, Pychyl has also created a series of
cartoon strips called Carpe Diem, which
are included in his book. The cartoons
gently lampoon the rationalizations of the
procrastinating college student featured in
the strips.

Procrastination is short-term mood repair,

he says, though procrastinating today on a
given task doesnt mean were going to feel
any more like doing it tomorrow. And thats
why Pychyl employs many strategies to avoid
falling prey to it.

Pychyl practices what he preaches, making

the most of his own time. He once considered
making theology a career, and can claim
five university degrees to his name. He also
worked as a tennis instructor and a wilderness
guide before managing the canoe and
kayaking operations of a local business. Now
56, he enjoys dog mushing and keeps a team
of huskies at his homestead near Carp.

This philosophy has motivated Pychyl (a name

that rhymes with Mitchell) to write the kind
of pithy and practical book that people who
procrastinate can read in an hour or two. He
set himself to the task during a 2010 sabbatical
from teaching at Carleton University. The
result: The Procrastinators Digest: A concise
guide to solving the procrastination puzzle
[available at www.procrastinatorsdigest.com].

36 HEALTHWISE OTTAWA Fall 2012

Viktor Frankl, who was famous for his

book Mans Search for Meaning, wrote in
his autobiography that he struggled with
procrastination. I found this fascinating
because it seems to me that procrastination is
a deeply existential issue. It is about getting
on with life. Thats why I think every world
religion has the idea of sloth as a sin.
You know, the one thing that is truly a
limited resource in life is our time. You and I
will run out of time.

My father used to say to me, even as a little

boy: Its good that you know that. What are
you going to do with that knowledge?

We love to read about our problems rather

than fix them, Pychyl says. But I wanted to
get the gist of why we procrastinate into this
book and give people a strategy so they could
deal with it.

When you are procrastinating, you are

wasting the most valuable thing you have,
which is time, says Pychyl.

Managing Our
Emotional Health

Illustrations: Paul Mason

Procrastination at work

Pychyl defines procrastination as the

voluntary delay of an intended action, despite
knowing that were going to be worse off
for that. Procrastination to him is about
emotional regulationits about giving in

Illustration: Paul Mason

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Fall 2012 HEALTHWISE OTTAWA 37

to feeling good, giving in to short-term

rewards. If we could learn to manage our
emotions more effectively, we would be able
to apply reason to the way we manage ourselves, he says.
Its not that he espouses reason over emotion.
But he does feel that we all need to employ
some emotional intelligence when it comes to
recognizing what it is were feeling and how
we can harness those feelings for positive
outcomes. With procrastination, were
reinforcing a behaviour through the negative
thoughts we have surrounding it. And that
reinforcement also contributes to a certain
amount of self-deception.
Research shows that about 20 per cent of the
population procrastinates to the point where
procrastination has negative impacts on work,
relationships, and how we thrive (not just
survive) in life.
Even for those habitual procrastinators,
the practice falls more into the realm of a
psychological tic, Dr. Pychyl says, than into
the definitions of mental disorders listed in the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (or the DSM, as its known within
the medical community). Pychyl says that the
personality types most likely to procrastinate

38 HEALTHWISE OTTAWA Fall 2012

are those who score lower on the conscientiousness scale and higher on impulsivity.
I think procrastination is just one form
of self-regulation failure, he explains. It
belongs to a class of psychological issues
like overeating, compulsive shopping, and
problematic gamblingwhere people find
themselves doing things against their own
best interests, and theyre aware of that.
They say, I shouldnt be eating this, I
shouldnt be buying this, I shouldnt be
gambling, I shouldnt be putting this off,
but they find they are unable to regulate
their behaviour.
While some people claim procrastination
is a good thing, Pychyl would argue that.
Procrastinating means youre voluntarily
delaying doing something you know yourself
would be in your own best interest.

Eschewing Labels
Can we call someone a procrastinator in the
same way we might call someone a gossip or
an exaggerator or a chronic liar?
Well, I think that labels are terrible things,
says Pychyl. Labelling is never helpful. Its
a little bit like calling someone lazy. We

impugn people with these labels. On the

other hand, sometimes you can own the
label because you can see it in yourself and
others see it in you.
Pychyl believes that considering the flip side
of labels involves understanding how we do
not have enough nuanced words for delay.
We seem to use the term procrastination for
everything, he says.
For example, if someone wisely delays doing
something in a situation where they need
to wait to act, thats not procrastination,
he explains. So, imagine that at the end
of a day, you say to yourself, Im a terrible
procrastinator because I didnt do this or this
or this. Well, thats a horrible thing to say
to yourself if, in fact, your son was sick and
you needed to spend time with him and other
things had to wait. The failure to act wasnt
because you were procrastinating. It was
because you had other priorities.
Not every form of delay is procrastination,
he asserts, nor should it be labelled as such.
True procrastination occurs when we fail to
self-regulate. Its a weakness of will. Its not
the necessary delay associated with rational
planning and setting priorities.

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Paying the Price

When we do procrastinate, feeling ashamed
about it is a common reaction perhaps as
common as feeling ashamed after weve eaten
a large bag of jujubes. Its a natural feeling.
People who tend to procrastinate are also
likely to berate themselves for it, as if its a
crime against oneself.
Is it?
One of the things people dont realize about
procrastination is that others pay a price,
says Pychyl. I like to call it second-hand
procrastination, just like second-hand smoke.
He gives the example of the dad who has
a report due the next day, but who has
procrastinated completing it at work. Now
its urgent and hell have to spend the evening
doing it at home. Who suffers? Not just the
dad; itll also be the kids, because they wont
get to see their father. Nor will his friends,
whom hed planned to get together with later
that evening.
[He] thinks, Oh, it only affects me. Im
the one with all the stress. Well, no: youre
breaking social commitments, and so I think
we also have to see that it has repercussions
HWO
for others.

Fall 2012 HEALTHWISE OTTAWA 39

Healthwise Ottawa: We live in a world of

high-level distraction...with phones ringing,
mobile devices beeping, a TV in every room,
an iPod in every ear. Do you think that life
in Canada today creates more or less of a
tendency for people to procrastinate?
Dr. Pychyl: You know, a lot of people say
to me, weve always procrastinated. But I do
believe that technology makes us more prone
to procrastination. Its because everything is
just a click away.

Imagine Im at my desk, which is where a lot

of procrastination occurs, and I dont feel
like doing the work. I am confused and I
dont know what to do next. This is invoking
emotions in me that I dont enjoy...and I
think: it will only take a minute to check
my email or update my Facebook page.
And because of that because its so easy
and available we go there. And the next
minute, we can make the same decision: it
will only take me a minute to go to this link.
So we find ourselves making this rational

choice over an irrationally short period

of time. It is rational to say it will only
take me a minute to check my email, but
its irrational to think we can keep that to
a minute, because a minute later, youre
going to have to make the same decision.
You know how this story ends. Hours
later we wonder where the time went.
If I didnt have this technology, Id at
least have to pick up a magazine and then
it would be pretty obvious that Im not
working. But if Im looking at a screen
and Im still using technology, which
is supposed to be a tool, it appears that
Im working.
One more story...were working at our desk
and we have a thought, Im going to get a
snack all of a sudden, youre hungry.
And maybe its stress-related hunger. Who
knows? In any case, you go to the fridge
and you think, Ill have that yogourt.
And you pick up the yogourt and you see
that the container has left a ring, which
you dont normally clean, but today that
ring bothers you for some reason, and you
say to yourself, It will only take a minute
to wipe up that ring. So you go to wipe
the ring, but you realize the pickle jar is in
the way and you actually grab the pickle
jar, but its stuck. So, you think, It will
only take a minute to wipe that pickle jar
off and to clean this shelf.

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The Stories We Tell Ourselves

(Q & A with Dr. Tim Pychyl)

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Literally, 25 minutes later, youve got

everything out of the fridge and a
bucket of water on the floor to help you.
And when your spouse walks by and
comments, Are you cleaning the fridge?
your answer will be, No, Im working on
my report.
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40 HEALTHWISE OTTAWA Fall 2012

Physical, mental and emotional benefits...

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Fall 2012 HEALTHWISE OTTAWA 41