10
Cyberslacking on the Procrastination Superhighway
“It will only take a minute” puts me on a slippery slope toward procrastination.
IT’S APPROACHING MIDNIGHT AND Ari still hasn’t started to work on his report, even though he sat down at his computer at 7 p.m. When he got to his desk earlier that evening, his intention had been to get to work, but he thought, “I’ll just update my Facebook status—it will only take a minute.” Now, hours later, he’s still there.
Issue
I have included this short chapter because Internet-based technologies and other forms of technologically mediated communication, like smartphones, have created a whole new world of time wasting. There is little doubt that our best tools for productivity—computer technologies—are potentially also one of our greatest time wasters. In fact, the title of this chapter was taken from one of the published papers from our research group. In this paper, published more than a decade ago (long before social-networking tools became popular), our participants reported that 47 percent of their time online was spent procrastinating. I think this is a conservative estimate.
I doubt that I have to write very much to convince you that the Internet has the potential to waste time if you want it to. People I know bemoan this fact all the time. The best example I have in relation to this chapter is a reply to one of my Psychology Today blog posts. In response to the “it will only take a minute” theme, an anonymous reader wrote:
im procrastinating.. . . .that’s why im here . . . i just google things im thinking about, like this . . . or like i hear someone hum a familiar tune, so i look up the song to know who sang it . . . i mean that LITERALLY takes a minute, but then that makes me google a couple other things and then it ends up lasting a lot more than a few minutes . . . and i honestly dont realize when i end up reading the wikipedia page of some random disease that some singer had that was related to the singer i was looking up. wait, why was i looking him up? oh right, cos someone at my school was humming a song by him. . . . oh right, school. . . . essay due tomorrow, haven’t started.
like right now, i just realized . . . im commenting on an article.. . . .i wish i could read those articles about my essay and try to get 2000 words on paper in a day.
The thing is, we can end up wasting time even when we do not want to. This is the real problem, and one that we need to identify in order to make change.
I just want to be clear about something. I am not saying we cannot work and play online. Personally, I really enjoy these technologies—I use them intensively, in fact—and I know we will see them grow in importance. What I am emphasizing is that we can waste time in unexpected and unanticipated ways with these technologies when we don’t want to. This is the issue. These technologies are particularly problematic when it comes to self-regulation and self-regulation failure.
In the scenario above, Ari did plan to work on his report. He got to his desk as planned. What happened?
Ari made a rational decision over an irrationally short period of time. Although it is correct that it might take only a minute to “update my Facebook page,” a minute later Ari faced the same decision. Of course, as we learned in Chapter 5, our thinking can let us down here. We can rationalize yet another minute of delay, as another minute will certainly not compromise the report writing. It is an intransitive preference at its best, isn’t it? At midnight, Ari recognizes that it is preferable to act much sooner than he has (even though each minute prior to that, he preferred to delay just a little more).
This issue of rational decisions over irrationally short periods of time, combined with problems in our thinking like intransitive preferences, is not the only reason that the Internet and social networking in particular are potentially so hazardous to our goal pursuit. There are other reasons that we are prone to procrastinate online.
One of the reasons that social networking is so rewarding is that it fulfills a basic human need, at least at some level. That is the need for relatedness. We are social animals, and social networking makes sense.
Online social networking is also immediately rewarding.
This is a potentially addictive combination—rewarding and immediate. In fact, there is a great deal written about Internet addictions. Although it is beyond the scope of my writing to delve into this topic, it is important to note that the powerfully addictive nature of the Internet contributes to the self-regulation failure that you now understand is at the heart of procrastination. It can undermine our best intentions.
A third reason that the Internet can be a problem for procrastination is that it is a ready distraction, which is particularly troublesome for those of us who are impulsive. In fact, it can be a problem for all of us because of so many “push technologies.” For example, email and text messages are pushed to us throughout the day, so as we work, we can be constantly interrupted if we leave our email client and phone active in the background. These distractions can be exceptionally disruptive at moments when our on-task work is not going well. Then we are back to that “it will only take a minute to . . .” and our goal pursuit ends in favor of tasks that we really are not choosing to do, at least not in the long run (although it can end up that way, to our detriment).
On top of all of this is the myth of multitasking. I say myth because despite popular beliefs, research indicates that only a very small percentage of people can actually multitask effectively. Humans have a very limited attentional channel. We are better off focused on one thing at a time. Tragic traffic accidents are only one example of how potentially dangerous the myth of multitasking can be as texting drivers lose their focus on the road. The more mundane tragedy of multitasking is how we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are actually doing our work when in fact we are attending sporadically to our tasks in between email, social-networking updates, Internet searches, ecommerce, and gaming.
STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE
Although I discuss the procrastination superhighway as a separate chapter in this book, the principles for change are not really that different. They may just be a whole lot less appealing. For example, we have already addressed the notion of minimizing distractions when we discussed impulsivity. Minimizing distractions is part of that predecision to keep us on task.
Minimizing distractions is an important part of curbing our online procrastination. To stay really connected to our goal pursuit, we need to disconnect from potential distractions like social-networking tools. This means that we should not have Facebook, Twitter, email, or whatever your favorite suite of tools is running in the background on your computer or smartphone while you are working. Shut them off.
Ouch. I know—it is really tempting to find some excuse to keep it a “business as usual” approach here, but if you are committed to reducing your procrastination, this is something you really need to do. You must shut off everything except the program you need on your computer to do the task at hand. This means you can plan your “ebreaks” more consciously—again, this is an example of predecisions that help us break unconscious habits. Procrastination is certainly a habit for many of us.
This strategy of reducing distractions makes it more obvious when you are turning away from your goal pursuit to pursue some other task. Your alternative and potentially rewarding alternative tasks are no longer only a click away. A little more effort provides time for you to think if this is really what you want to do. Do you really want to abandon your goal right now? Probably not.
There have been all sorts of tools and “apps” designed to help people regulate their Internet use more. Common current examples include tools that lock you out of your email or record what applications you are using and for how long. These may be helpful to you, but techniques and technologies can never be a substitute for a commitment to change.
I think it is appropriate to end this final chapter where I began our consideration of why we procrastinate—giving in to feel good. Giving in to
feel good is a big piece of the procrastination puzzle, and the Internet provides lots and lots of short-term, but specious, rewards to which we can give in to feel good.
With a click or two we can leave the task that we feel bad about and seek immediate mood repair. If you understand that this is what you are doing, you are truly on the road to change.
That does not mean that this is easy, and I turn now to some thoughts about the road ahead. It is a journey that is often described as “two steps forward, one step back.”
Concluding Thoughts:
On the Road of Self-Change
Self-change is a journey I take daily, and I will persevere patiently as I take two steps forward and one step back.
MARIANNA IS DISCOURAGED. YESTERDAY went so well. She started her work exactly when she intended to and she stayed on task. It felt great. She made significant progress on her thesis. Today she feels like her old self. She doesn’t want to do anything. She’s already wasted the morning filing email (most of which she knows she’ll never look at again) and texting friends. Feeling low on energy, she’s thinking of having a nap after lunch. Deep down she knows she’s just avoiding her work again.
Issue
Even though the purpose of the digest format of this book is to make it a quick read, there are no quick fixes. Our old bad habits, like procrastination, are hard to change and new habits are difficult to establish. We have to put in a great deal of conscious effort before our new behaviors become routine, nonconscious patterns in our lives. Sometimes we never completely establish a new habit, and we have to put in conscious effort daily to maintain our focus where we choose.
The key thing is to be strategic. By being strategic, by making predecisions as much as possible, we can keep from following the same old worn path, the path that we know best as procrastination.
As you have learned, there are many aspects of being human that contribute to our self-regulation failure. For example, we:
like to feel good now,
are prone to discount future rewards,
are overly optimistic and biased in our planning,
dislike dissonance and will resolve it by making excuses,
have a limited amount of willpower,
can be disorganized, undisciplined, and overly self-conscious,
can be prone to distractions, and
can have irrational beliefs about our expectations of ourselves.
Each of these things can create problems for us in our goal pursuit and contribute to our procrastination. And even this partial list of factors contributing to procrastination reveals some important truths worth remembering when you feel like Marianna does in the scenario above.
First, each of us will have a different constellation of factors that is our recipe for procrastination. As you read this book, I am sure that some topics and issues spoke more directly to you than others. These are the issues that you need to address in your efforts for self-change. These are the issues you can address beginning right now.
Second, we cannot change everything at once. My emphasis has been on being strategic. You need to be strategic in your approach to self-change as well. Pick one or two issues that you recognize are problems for you. Review the chapter on these issues, if necessary, and focus on those strategies first. You can build from there.
Third, this self-change process is uneven. We truly do feel like one day we leap ahead and the next day we fall back. Although we have to be committed to change and firm in our efforts to be strategic, we also have to be kind to ourselves during this challenging process. We all face setbacks, disappointing moments, and frustrations with our apparent lack of progress. Your attitude toward these setbacks and yourself will be extremely important to your continued progress. Be kind but firm with yourself, and be willing to forgive yourself when you do not live up to your own expectations.
One of our recent studies was about this issue of self-forgiveness and procrastination. It has important implications for each of us as we take the self-change journey. What we found was that self-forgiveness for procrastination was related to less procrastination in the future. Specifically, when students in our study had procrastinated quite a bit on their preparation for an exam, if they self-forgave for this procrastination, they were less likely to procrastinate on their preparation for the subsequent exam.
This finding reflects the power of forgiveness to move us from an avoidance motivation to an approach motivation. If, for example, you had a transgression (e.g., fight or broken promise) with a friend, and you or your friend had not offered forgiveness, you would likely avoid that friend. In the case of procrastination, the transgression is against the self, and we end up avoiding the task associated with that transgression. What forgiveness does in both cases is to remove the avoidance motivation so that friendship can be reestablished or engagement with the task can happen again, respectively.
On our self-change journey, we have to be prepared to forgive ourselves for our transgressions so that we are willing to try again. We will certainly have to try again many times. As I said before, even my simple strategy of just get started may have to be invoked many times throughout the day. Start and restart.
Success will be found in this effort. It is worth the effort, as was your time in considering why it is we that procrastinate. I hope reading this book is your first step in this journey of self-change.
I would love to hear about your own journey. What worked? What didn’t? What else would you like to know? Although I cannot promise to answer every email, your input will make a difference to future writing. I invite you to write to me at [email protected].
Finally, you may want to learn more about procrastination. This digest-format book, while accurate and firmly based on research in the area, is by necessity short on details. If you want to learn more, you can find lots more through our research group Web site: procrastination.ca.
This Web site provides access to many relevant resources, not just our own scholarly publications. Perhaps some of the most accessible information is available through my “Don’t Delay” blog for Psychology Today and through my iProcrastinate Podcasts. The blog entries and podcast episodes summarize a wide variety of information about procrastination in much greater detail. In fact, you can search through the blog entries or the podcast titles on iTunes to find information specific to the issues with which you may be struggling.
I must say that I make this reference to further reading with some reservation. There is no end to reading about a topic, and the problem with procrastination, as you have learned, is that we can always find an excuse not to do our work. In this case, it is really quite possible to use your further reading and research about procrastination to procrastinate more! Ironically, this is something that readers of my blog and listeners of my podcasts have told me that they do.
So, instead of reading more, I would have you return to where I began the book to remind you that reducing procrastination in our lives is a practical thing—sensible, realistic, no-nonsense. In addition, I want to add that change is about doing, not just reading. If you put these both together, you will see that the practical (and no-nonsense) thing is to start doing, not to read more.
You probably took an interest in this book because you want to reduce procrastination in your life. You now know a great deal more about the topic. You are prepared to bolster what feels like a depleted willpower. You are aware that it is tempting to give in to feel good, so you won’t right now. And you know that every journey begins with that important first step.
It is time to just get started. I know that this will make a difference in your life.
iends
Solving the Procrastination Puzzle Page 7