How to Implement Science-Based Interventions and Combat the Habit of Procrastination

Procrastination is the irrational delay of engaging in the execution of/ completion of a task, despite expecting to be worse off due to the delay. The processes underlying engagement in procrastination have been related to several behavioural tendencies studied in animals and humans alike, indicating that procrastination is a universal phenomenon (Zentall, 2021). Various studies have explored potential causes and risk factors involved in procrastination-educing behaviour and interventions for procrastination. Data on the mechanisms that facilitate procrastination are diverse. In studies with a foundation in learning theory, procrastination is often considered a result of operant conditioning, with the self-sabotaging behaviour being negatively reinforced. In more comprehensive studies shifting investigations of procrastination to cognitive- and personality-related factors, procrastination has been distinguished as an unreasonable behaviour resulting from irrational thinking about i) the self and ii) situational factors.

Although procrastination is a widespread phenomenon engaged in by roughly 50% of college/ university students and 20% of the general adult population, individuals who find themselves “victims” of this habit often swear never to procrastinate again… until they do… and then do it again, until they find themselves in a vicious and seemingly inescapable cycle of self-sabotage. This behavioural tendency has been linked to lower income, poor academic and work performance, lower self-esteem, and even depression (Zentall, 2021). So, needless to say, wanting to overcome procrastination permanently is a reasonable desire.

Based on the available data, student populations are arguably the most prominent demographic collectively affected by procrastination. As a student myself, I am interested in exploring the learning mechanisms and cognitive factors that contribute to this frustrating habit, the efficacy of some of the most popular interventions to date, and how students can utilize basic concepts in learning theory and therapeutic interventions in their daily lives to independently improve their overall quality of life.

How We Learn Procrastination

It is unsurprising that such a diverse range of theories for why we procrastinate are available. After all, every person has a unique brain, a unique personality, and a unique upbringing. As a result, our unique behavioural tendencies result from the lifelong interactions between our innate qualities and our environment. However, despite the vast array of factors that can lead up to why an individual procrastinates, procrastination as a behavioural tendency can be observed across cultures and species (Zentall, 2021).

At the most fundamental level, the act of procrastinating (that is, the irrational delaying of a course of action/ completion of a task despite expecting to be worse off in the future) can be analyzed by understanding the interplay between operant conditioning and avoidance learning: in its most basic form, operant conditioning occurs when a biologically significant stimuli (i.g., a reinforcing stimulus or a punishing stimulus) is delivered immediately following a specific response (i.e., either an instrumental or operant response) that results in the successful completion of a task (Domjan, 2018); avoidance learning occurs in a procedure where an organism must perform a specific response (i.e., either an instrumental or operant response) to prevent an aversive/ unpleasant event from occurring (Domjan, 2018).

When we consider procrastination as a behavioural outcome of operant conditioning, the very act of procrastination itself can be reinforcing — hence why it is such a tricky addiction to break: when we procrastinate, we actively avoid doing something that needs to be completed. If the task we are avoiding has a deadline, our anxiety understandably increases as the deadline grows nearer and the task remains incomplete. For people who do not finish their tasks before their deadlines, this failure may be an effective punishment to deter procrastination in the future. However, for a punishment effectively deter a behaviour, it must be i) consistent and ii) immediate (Domjan, 2018). The reason procrastination is such an addictive habit lies in that there isn’t always a punishment for procrastination: when you manage to put off engaging in a task for as long as possible and still manage to complete your task before the deadline, the intense relief experienced upon successful completion reinforces the behaviour of procrastinating. This same type of negative reinforcement has been observed in studies using free-operant temporal avoidance with rats: the rat will receive a shock if it does not complete a specific (operant) response before a deadline. While this may initially be startling to the rats, once they learn the amount of time between trials that they have to complete the required task (the deadline) they will procrastinate completing the task for as long as possible (Zentall, 2021). From findings like these, researchers speculate that “persistence of procrastination may involve a form of negative reinforcement associated with the sudden decline in anxiety or fear (relief) when the task is completed prior to the deadline” (Zentall, 2021).

Other research on the mechanisms underlying procrastination suggested that the tendency to engage in procrastination may occur due to avoidance learning: in procedures of avoidance learning, an organism typically must engage in a specific behaviour/ complete a task to prevent an unpleasant event/ stimulus from occurring (Domjan, 2018). When people procrastinate, they participate in a behaviour that delays engaging in something they find aversive (e.g., calculus homework). Corroborating what avoidance learning suggests, delay reduction is an experimentally supported tendency for animals to prefer engaging in immediately appealing activities “as opposed to delaying engagement in enjoyable activities to work on required tasks that don’t offer immediate pleasure” (Zentall, 2021).

Beyond Learning: Mood, Emotion, and Personality

It has been recognized in psychology for about a century that “conditioning” is not the only means through which behaviour can be influenced. Animal behaviour — including human behaviour — is complex and cannot be accounted for through a single theory or even a single paradigm. Knowing this, to fully comprehend the nature of procrastination and how to counteract this habit, only understanding the learning mechanisms that enforce it is insufficient. The interplay between theories of learning and cognition can be observed in clinical studies with self-identified “chronic procrastinators,” which have identified a wide range of emotional states, beliefs of self-efficacy, and personality traits that promote engagement in procrastination (Steel et al., 2016).

Recall the “delay reduction” explanation for procrastination? The tendency for animals to prefer engaging in immediately appealing activities “as opposed to delaying engagement in enjoyable activities to work on required tasks that don’t offer immediate pleasure” (Zentall, 2021)? Well, when we apply this tendency to humans, we must consider how our natural inclination toward pleasure interacts with our long-term goals in our current environment. According to Emotional Regulation Theory, when people procrastinate, short-term, “good” feelings in the present (i.e., immediate gratification) are being prioritized over our long-term achievements (i.e., required tasks) (Shatz, n.d.).

What’s interesting about Emotional Regulation Theory is that it expands on the behaviourist notion that rewards and reinforcements are sole motivators of behaviour and suggests that one’s engagement in procrastination has cognitive underpinnings: procrastination is proposed to occur due to a “temporal disjunction” where a person feels “disconnected from their future self, [leading] them to prioritize the desire and needs of their present self” with little regard for the consequences that they will face in the future (Shatz, n.d.). Paradoxically, when we decide to procrastinate, it may seem entirely rational — we are actively choosing to do something we enjoy rather than something that causes us discomfort. However, procrastinators tend to find themselves worse off for their behaviour in the long run, making procrastination a form of “misregulation,” according to Emotional Regulation Theory (Shatz, n.d.).

Letting one’s hedonistic desires dominate their decision-making is not the only way that individual cognition can influence engagement in procrastination. Taking a more “mental health” oriented look into the habit of procrastination, self-efficacy, or how much you “believe in yourself,” is negatively correlated with procrastination: the more you believe in your ability to successfully do something (i.e., your self-efficacy) the more likely you are to actually do that thing (and refrain from procrastinating) (Steel et al., 2016). In this way, self-esteem and irrational beliefs about oneself play a considerable role in procrastination and can be reflected in a person’s social life and academic performance. According to Temporal Motivational Theory (TMT), one’s motivation to complete a required task is positively related to self-efficacy and the value an individual assigns to that task (Steel et al., 2016). Confirming the predictions of TMT, irrational beliefs about one’s self-worth (i.g., low self-worth) and low self-esteem have both been associated with self-reported procrastination; and anxiety and depression have been associated with both self-reported and behavioural procrastination. With these findings in mind, one can counteract procrastination by shifting their self-concept from a self-doubting position to a position of high self-efficacy that is “mastery and goal-oriented” (Steel et al., 2016).

Putting It All Together: Interventions for Procrastination

One consensus that is quite apparent across studies investigating therapeutic interventions for self-regulatory issues is that using a single approach in isolation is ineffective. Maladaptive behaviours like procrastination are not only a result of reinforcement, nor are they only a result of personality traits: there is an interplay between the mechanisms of learning and cognition, which is why interventions based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) have consistently been able to significantly and sustainably counteract procrastination. And the best part about these findings is that you may not even need to hire a therapist! You can apply different aspects of CBT in your own life to help yourself reach your full potential.

Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (CBC) is a short-term and goal-oriented intervention that uses behaviour science to enhance the well-being of patients unaffected by clinical mental health issues. Specific “coaching protocols based on cognitive-behavioural techniques” (Karas. et al., 2009) that are successful in enhancing “emotional competencies, goal attainment, leadership skills, mental health, metacognition, and quality of life” (Karas. et al., 2009) can be applied to one’s personal life in a self-directed manner. For example, in Rozental et al., 2016, participants who engaged in either self-guided or therapist-guided Internet-based CBT (ICBT) yielded significant improvements in self-regulation and overall decreases in procrastination at a one-year follow-up — indicating that the results of these therapeutic interventions were both high in efficacy and longevity (Rozental et al., 2016).

Suppose you decide to embark on a jouncy of self-guided procrastination intervention. In this case, you can measure your progress through your ability to achieve self-set goals (which should be written out before beginning the intervention). Karas. et al., 2009 found that participants engaging in CBC were successfully able to overcome the maladaptive habit of procrastination by “1) enhancing motivation to change, 2) goal setting, 3) monitoring progress, 4) [engaging in active] time management, 5) disputing unrealistic beliefs, and 6) relapse prevention”.

Long story short, procrastination can feel all-consuming, and you may feel that this nuisance of a habit is impossible to overcome without the help of an expensive therapist… if even then! But this is not the case. By taking an active step forward to making some simple changes in your style of living, making an effort to see yourself as able to achieve anything that you put your mind to, and remaining dedicated to achieving your goals, you can change your life for the better — no matter what that looks like to you.

Sources:

Domjan, M. (2018). The Essentials of Conditioning and Learning (4th ed.). American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4313047

Karas, D., & Spada, M. M. (2009). Brief cognitive-behavioural coaching for procrastination: A case series. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 2(1) 44–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521880802379700

Rozental, A., Forsell, E., Svensson, A., Anderssno., G., & Carlbring, P. (2016). Overcoming procrastination: One-year follow-up and predictors of change in a randomized controlled trial of internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2016.1236287

Shatz, I. (n.d.). Procrastination Theories: The Psychological Frameworks for Explaining Procrastination. Solving Procrastination. Retrieved April 4, 2023, from https://solvingprocrastination.com/procrastination-theories/

Shatz, I. (n.d.). The Important Link Between Self-Efficacy and Procrastination Solving Procrastination. Retrieved April 4, 2023, from https://solvingprocrastination.com/self-efficacy/

Steel, P., & Klingsieck, K. B. (2016). Academic procrastination: Psychological antecedents revisited. Australian Psychologist, 51(1), 36–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12173

Zentall, T. R. (2021). Basic behavioural processes involved in procrastination. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.769928