Local psychology experts say procrastination negatively affects almost everyone at some point in their lives, but it’s not necessarily a matter of self-control or laziness.
Ghiath Arodaki, San Jose State industrial and systems engineering senior, said he finds himself procrastinating quite often.
“On one side, you want to achieve something, you have goals in mind and . . . that ambition is your drive, your motivation,” Arodaki said in a Zoom call. “But on the other side, there is this ‘Live in the moment’ feeling.”
Lesther Papa, SJSU psychology assistant professor, defined procrastination as putting off something important even though the consequence of doing so will likely lead to a negative outcome.
Papa said people often simplify the cause of their procrastination to laziness, bad time management or that they work better under pressure.
He said there are many unseen factors that drive procrastination and hinder a person from completing tasks until the last minute.
Those elements can include mental health, low self-esteem, self-sabotage and other environmental factors.
Joseph Zamaria, University of California, San Francisco associate clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and program director of psychotherapy, said these factors will be unique from person to person.
“There’s conflict involved inside a person,” Zamaria said in a Zoom call. “There’s a part of oneself that wants to get the thing done and there’s another part of oneself where they don’t want to do the thing.”
Papa said deadlines are also a component that contribute to a person’s procrastination.
“The biological processes in your body will respond to deadlines, for example, in the same way that it would to a bear attack, lion, spider,” he said.
Papa said our bodies react to deadlines as if it will harm us and putting it off allows us to avoid the threat.
“The thing though is that the deadlines are often not harmful, right, and so what happens is the deadline tends to trigger something that you perceive as harmful,” he said.
Papa said the key is attempting to figure out what people individually find so threatening.
“It’s usually not the deadline itself but then something connected with that deadline,” he said. “Whether it be fear of failure, fear of not doing a good job, maybe realizing that you’re unprepared for that deadline and being too afraid to ask for help.”
Papa said bodily response occurs because of the amygdala, a structure in the brain.
“One of the key aspects of the amygdala is that it is the thing that helps you sense fear and so it works with other structures in the brain to release a hormone called cortisol . . . a stress hormone,” he said.
Papa said cortisol is the chemical in the human body that slows digestion and reroutes some of that energy into muscles to fight or flee from a situation.
“This cortisol, after it gets to a certain level, typically your hippocampus, which is usually what is implicated in memory, your hippocampus kind of monitors that system and signals to your body ‘OK, alright, we got enough cortisol here, we have enough stress to motivate us to do something,’ ” he said.
Papa said after the situation is over, cortisol levels will decrease, and biological responses get back to normal.
“But what happens is then, if you are under stress for a very, very long time that cortisol actually starts to damage structures including the hippocampus itself,” he said. “It makes that hippocampus less effective at its job, at being able to control that cortisol level.”
Although being under constant stress for too long can have harmful effects on the human body, people continue to procrastinate repeatedly.
“We’re inclined to be avoidant of change and we’re inclined to be avoidant of pain or of suffering,” Zamaria said.
Zamaria said it is also because of negative-reinforcement strengthening a person's desire to put off their tasks.
“You’re taking something that is aversive, unpleasurable and you’re making it go away and by making the bad thing go away, you’re increasing a behavior, in this case, procrastination,” Papa said.
Papa said people keep procrastinating because they remember how good it felt to escape their stress the last time.
“You’d rather release that dopamine in your brain . . . it feels better than studying,” Ghiath Arodaki said.
Additionally, Arodaki said there are moments when people find themselves completely distracted.
“It was a Saturday morning . . . that day I woke up early and I had my phone on, and I saw one of the things that were trending was Silent Hill,” Arodaki said regarding the horror video game franchise. “It brought back nostalgia and I spent the next two, three hours opening things . . . rather than going and starting my day and studying.”
Arodaki said he chose to go on his phone even though he knew he could have spent his time in a more productive way.
“Even though you go through the punishment then later of whatever the negative outcome is, the bad grade, the guilt for not doing the assignment . . .because [procrastination] feels good and is pleasurable, that reward system then kinda outweighs the punishment system,” he said.
Arodaki described his experiences before, during and after he procrastinated.
“Recently what I’ve been feeling is ‘Oh I have to do this, I’m very excited because that will get me to my goal,’ and then I open it up and . . . resistance is the first thing I feel,” said Arodaki. “My focus slips and unfortunately, I procrastinate.”
He said while procrastinating, whatever distraction he chooses to partake in is not actually enjoyable because in the back of his mind, he thinks about the tasks he needs to complete.
“Afterwards, you feel totally hungover like, ‘What did I do?’ ” Arodaki said. “I just wasted time. I could have used those two, three hours that I just wasted to finish that task.”
Zamaria said procrastinators can overcome those internal battles that cause them to postpone their responsibilities, including remaining committed to a “non-judgemental, compassionate, curious attitude of exploring oneself.”
Papa said it starts with looking internally to understand the meaning behind procrastination.
“The key thing is not to talk about the fact that you’re avoiding your work, but you’re talking about the reason why you avoid it in the first place and that is the key distinction,” he said.
He said it is important that people try to shift their mindset to focus on how completing their assignments can help them to move forward in their lives.
“The thing about procrastination is it feels great and delicious in the moment, right, but later on that’s where the negative consequences are,” Papa said. “So what you want to do is take a look at ‘What is the long-term goal about the thing that I do?’ ”
Papa said focusing on long-term goals will help switch motivation toward participating in activities that benefit your future rather than procrastination.
He said metabolizing stress can help manage the feelings that trigger procrastination, which can be done through stretching, cardiovascular exercises, walking, a bike ride, etc.
Papa said it is essential to find a good workspace with no distractions to focus on tasks avoiding procrastination.
Additionally, Zamaria said changing habits little by little is an effective way to prevent future cases of procrastination.
“Just stay with the thing for 30 minutes, even if you write two sentences in 30 minutes, it’s like building a muscle, it’s like being able to tolerate that sensation,” Zamaria said.
Papa said while procrastinators might not benefit from putting off their responsibilities, it can help them understand what is significant and insignificant to them.
“That choice to go with your valued activity, that could be a way to learn from your procrastination,” Papa said.
He said working on an assignment for 45 minutes and then watching TV afterwards allows it to become a reward for you rather than a source of procrastination.
“If you’re going to learn from your procrastination, that's what you want to learn,” Papa said. “Learn how to give yourself those procrastination activities as rewards, as earned activities, versus activities to distract from really important things.”
