Procrastination Can Be Good for You!

 Confession: I Procrastinate
I procrastinate. I like to consider myself organized and good with time management, but for boring or tedious tasks, I find myself chatting with friends, reading, checking emails, or scrolling through social media.
Research shows that procrastination is common, affecting about 95% of us. Why? We simply have too much to do and not enough time. So we delay tasks or decisions. It happens!
For instance, this article started two months ago as a way to offer tips to you, the reader, on overcoming procrastination. There's no strict deadline for my blog posts, and this delay actually allowed me to see the topic from a fresh perspective.
Traditional Approach: Time Management and Procrastination
One in five of us are chronic procrastinators. This constant delay on important tasks and decisions can affect our health, relationships, and work. We need to take action and be efficient and effective in those areas.

Here's a helpful equation by procrastination researcher Piers Steel to understand why we procrastinate:
Motivation = (Expectancy x Value) / (Impulsiveness x Delay)
Procrastination happens when our motivation is low.

• Expectancy is the belief you can reach your goal. Low expectancy, or a lack of optimism, makes tasks seem too difficult.
• Value is how important the goal is to you. If a task isn't valuable, you're more likely to put it off.
• Impulsiveness is how easily you're swayed by short-term rewards. Scrolling through Facebook feels good in the moment, but it distracts you from getting things done.
• Delay relates to Parkinson's Law: work expands to fill the time available.

Here are five tips to use this equation to your advantage:

• Break down large goals into smaller steps.
• Reward yourself for completing small tasks.
• Seek help from a friend or expert.
• Just get started - any action helps.
• Remind yourself why the project is important.

Mindful Procrastination for Effectiveness
If you're still reading, you're probably someone who procrastinates but it doesn't negatively impact you much. You're here to learn how to be more effective with your procrastination.
Research shows that some delay and reflection on tasks and decisions can prevent mistakes and improve results.
Here's a mindfulness approach to procrastination: Regularly review your tasks and decisions and categorize them into four buckets:

• Important but Not Urgent: This is where procrastination happens a lot. Daily exercise and meditation are good examples. These tasks have a big impact but aren't urgent. Want to start a business? Brainstorm some ideas today. Want to run a marathon? Start with a walk around the block.
• Important and Urgent: This is where most of us function well. We might feel stressed, but we find ways to handle these tasks and decisions quickly. Work projects, bill payments, and doctor appointments fall into this category.
• Not Important But Urgent: Try to eliminate these tasks. We often take on urgent but unimportant things, like attending parties when we need rest. My rule - if it is not a strong Yes, it is a NO!
• Not Important and Not Urgent: This is the time-waster category: mindlessly watching TV, browsing social media, or constantly checking our phones. While some mindless activity can be good for creativity, this category can steal significant time and resources.

Be mindful! Procrastinate on tasks that don't align with your goals.

The Pomodoro Technique: Beat Procrastination!
The Pomodoro Technique, developed by Francesco Cirillo in 1992, is a powerful tool against procrastination. Here's how it works:

1. Choose a task to complete.
2. Set a timer for 25 minutes (the Pomodoro is a tomato-shaped timer, but any timer will do).
3. Work on the task until the timer rings, then check it off on a piece of paper.
4. Take a short break (5 minutes is recommended).
5. After four Pomodoros, take a longer break.

There are free timer apps available, or you can use a kitchen timer. There are even Pomodoro apps for smartphones.
For more details on the Pomodoro Technique, check out the following resources:

Check out this cool 2 page handout  at UCSD for building your motivation.
https://caps.ucsd.edu/_files/handouts/handout_buildingmotivation.pdf
Frank Partnoy (2012) Wait: The Art and Science of Delay Hardcover 2012
Steel Piers (2012)The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done

Measures of Procrastination Try these online tools
http://procrastinus.com/procrastination/measure-my-procrastination-3/
http://testyourself.psychtests.com/testid/2118
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_99.htm
http://www.tulane.edu/~rice/tdp/pscore.htm