Procrastination:

Putting off until tomorrow what is better done today

Procrastination is the purposeful delay of the start or completion of a task

(Solomon & rothblum, 1984). Person on his own call left the task for some later
date or time. In the end, he is left with short time of span and it leads to
discomfort.

It is considered to be chronic or dysfunctional when such behavior disrupts

everyday functioning by impinging on ability to work and creates psychological
and physical discomfort (Macown & Johnson, 1991)

In order to facilitate self-serving attributions and protect self-image, people may

construct actual external barriers to success or arrange and contrive in advance
possible justifications for defeat (Berglas & Jones, 1978; lay et al., 1992;
shepperd & arkin, 1989).

This process, called self-handicapping, allows for external attributions for poor
performance (Rhodewalt, Morf, hazlett, &Fairfield, 1991).

Self-handicapping is one of a larger class of self-defeating behaviors that

individuals employ in order to get short-term benefits and protect the self-image
by creating or locating external reasons for the inability to accomplish life tasks
(Baumeister & Scher, 1988).

(Ferrari, 1991b; senecal et al., 1997) not surprisingly, procrastinators are notorious
for self-handicapping. Perhaps they more acutely fear failure than do those who
do not put off tasks, or because procrastinators have difficulty with self-regulation
(the setting, pursuing, and following of goals) and must therefore be externally
motivated to get their work done (tice & baumeister, 1997).

Procrastination at work and time management training

For certain tasks, in particular easy, boring or routine tasks, time pressure may
simply create a challenge and may lead to finishing a task faster ( freedman &
Edwards, 1988). Some people believe that the more nearer the deadlines of
submitting any task the more they do better under pressure.

Procrastination has been shown to function as a temporary relief from stress (tice
& baumeister, 1997) and as a strategic factor to repair a bad mood temporarily
( tice, bratslavsky, & baumeister, 2001). It is been a place where a person feels
free from every tension. One can put tension aside and do what they want to do
except the useful activities.

Rethinking procrastination: positive effects of Active procrastination

behavior on attitudes and performance

Tice and Baumeister, (1997) reported that compared with non-procrastinators,

procrastinators experience less stress and have better physical health when
deadlines are far off.

Procrastination at work and time management training

It presents an intrapersonal conflict between what one should do and what one
wants to do and losing it instead of solving it (bazemen, tenbrunsel & wadebenzoni, 1998). Procrastination is usually considered as avoidance behavior, and
person is avoidant for any action to be take place. The action is important but
person consider it to be unattractive and it causes a approach-avoidance conflict.
A person fights with the mind to resolve conflict between limbic brain and the
impulse for the action to be taken and at the end the emotional state of a person
wins and he goes for procrastination.

Pressure at work has lead to expressions such as time famine, that indicate the
feeling of having too much to do but not having enough time to do it ( perlow,
1999). Procrastination is a cruel cycle that increases the time pressure. Every
person from childhood heard from their parents or teachers to do their work on
time so that they can finish their tasks in a timely manner and they couldnt be the
victim of time famine but the state of procrastination overwhelm the person and
they usually put off things.

Rethinking procrastination: positive effects of Active procrastination behavior

on attitudes and performance

Knaus (2000) argued that not all delays lead to negative outcomes. For example,
delays resulting from time that was spent planning and gathering vital preparatory

information can be beneficial (knaus). Most of the people claim that they can
work better and gives more innovative ideas (Chu & choi, 2005).
Why not procrastinate? Development and validation of a new active
procrastination scale

Although procrastination has mostly been studied in terms of its negative

outcomes (Ellis & knaus, 1997; Ferrari, 2001), chu and choi (2005) showed that
active procrastination has positive implications for individuals in terms of selfefficacy, depression, stress coping, and performance. Successful time
management and self-regulation need not necessarily mean rigid regulation of
activities (macan, shahani, dipboye & Philips, 1990). By freeing themselves from
a strict time structure and shifting attention from routine and schedules to
effective accomplishment of the goal, active procrastinators may experience less
stress and engage in more constructive responses to work related stress (e.g., time
pressure) which, in turn, includes higher performance and greater overall life
satisfaction ( choi & moran, 2009).

Bui (2007) stated that chu and choi ( 2005) introduced a novel idea for the area
of procrastination research: the notion that delaying ones work can actually be
helpful and related to positive characteristics.

When confronted with last-minute time pressure, active procrastinators tend to

enjoy the feeling of being challenged, which results in increased motivation (chu
& choi, 2005).

Self control:
Procrastination, deadlines, and performance: self-control by
precommitment

A self-control problem arises when preferences are inconsistent across time or

context (ainsile, 1975; loewenstein, 1996).

In addition exercising willpower to resist temptation ( hoch & loewenstein,1991;

muraven & baumeister, 2000), people can bind, or precommit, their own behavior
(prelec, 1989; schelling, 1992; strotz,1956; thaler & shefrin, 1981;
wertenbroch,1998).

Procrastination at work and time management training

The preference for immediate outcome has been studied extensively as the failure
to delay gratification or the lack of impulse control (ainsile, 1975; micheal, shoda
& reake, 1988). Lack of self-control lead the people to go for useless activities
while doing a particular task e.g., answering phone again and again without any
reason, eating habit in between work and surfing on internet instead of preparing
presentation etc. In all these activities, the behavior of a person shows that he is
having less control over his impulse and he frequently putting things off and thus
making himself the victim of time famine.

The inability to control ones attention and thus overcome the more pleasant
distraction is the core of procrastination (van eerde, 2003).

Time management skills:

Procrastination at work and time management training

Macan (1994) proposed a process model of time management, in which the

relation between time management and outcomes such as performance, tension
and job satisfaction is mediated by the control of time.

Lay & Schouwenburg (1993) hypothesized that time management was mediator
of the relation between trait procrastination and dilatory behavior.

Time management is based on the assumption that recording, managing, and

consolidating time may help a person deal efficiently with his or her time
(Ducker, 1966).

Planning may help to strengthen volition that is, consciously choosing to act
according to the longer term outcome rather then distracting oneself (van eerde,
2000).