How to Put a Stop to Putting Things Off

By Christina Breda Antoniades
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, June 15, 2008

More than once during your ongoing game of dodge-the-guy-in-accounting, you have pondered the obvious: Why don't I just fill out the stinking form already? It's a good question, too. Why is it that you still haven't turned in an expense report from the business trip you took three months ago? And why, oh, why did you blow off shopping for your significant other's birthday present and opt instead for a last-minute "gift basket" cobbled together at CVS, Whitman's Sampler and all? While you're at it, you might as well consider why, despite the flickering "check engine" dashboard light, you drive past the auto repair shop every day and think, "I'll do it tomorrow."

Wouldn't it be nice to be proactive, thoughtful, thorough and on time in all things? To be the one who gets the thank-you cards in the mail before the helium has even seeped out of the party balloons? Whose taxes are filed while there's still snow on the ground? The one who realizes that "It's next on my list" is the kiss of death?

You can take solace in the fact that you are, at least, not alone. "Everyone procrastinates," says Joseph Ferrari, a DePaul University psychology professor who has extensively researched procrastination. In fact, 20 to 25 percent of people put off things so persistently that they're deemed chronic procrastinators. "They don't RSVP on time, they wait until the gas is on empty, they don't go to the doctor when they're supposed to," Ferrari says. "It's what they do."

Sometimes procrastinators come out on top (when someone else picks up their slack or the problem disappears on its own), but more often, procrastination has a negative impact. Beyond the immediate fallout from your failure to get it done, there's the stress of something hanging over your head, the time spent making excuses, the loss of credibility when you routinely fail to perform and, worst of all, the opportunities missed while you're frittering away valuable minutes.

Of course, if you've avoided the big work project that's due next week, chances are you did so with corresponding excuses: You have more immediate fires to fight, the project is boring or it's overwhelmingly complex. You're overworked. Underpaid. Cue the violins. But there's probably more to your procrastination than you've recognized. At the root of stall tactics, there often is fear, says Elyse Goldstein, a psychologist in private practice in New York.

For some, it is fear of failure, which creates anxiety and a subconscious self-protective response. For others, it is fear of success. Such procrastinators worry that "if they do well, more demands will be placed on them," Goldstein says. To be safe, they put it off.

Other forces are at work, too. Procrastinators may be unable to quell their inner critic. You know, the one that says, "You stink," over and over until you quietly close your laptop and slink home to console yourself with a bottle of wine or a pint of ice cream. Or they may seek to create a false sense of greatness. "If you don't do something and you don't put it out there, you can't get criticized on it," Goldstein says. "You can hold on to some fantasy of being perfect."

Some procrastinators even do it for the thrill, Ferrari says. "If they pull it off at the last minute, there's this rush, this euphoric feeling they get," he explains.

Of course, some experts think it's all much simpler than that. "It's almost a knee-jerk reaction to discomfort," says psychologist Bill Knaus, author of "The Procrastination Workbook."

"You don't want to feel uncomfortable, fearful, uncertain, bored or whatever else the negative feeling is," he says. So you "needlessly avoid a timely relevant activity until another day or time." When that day or time arrives, "the probability is that you'll put it off again."

Take a Good Look at Yourself

For hard-core procrastinators (the 20 percent labeled "chronic"), time management and organizational efforts aren't likely to have much impact. Ferrari likens such efforts to "telling a depressed person to cheer up." Therapy is often the only ans wer.

But for the other 80 percent or so, those people who procrastinate only some of the time, simple measures can greatly decrease the tendency to put off things (see "Starter Steps"). Most of them boil down to revamping how you think about things, overcoming inertia and managing your time better.

The first step, though, is to stop deluding yourself. You may find yourself sputtering, "I work best under pressure!" But you won't get any support from science. "Studies show [procrastinators'] performance is actually pretty bad," Ferrari says. And though you might think someone who takes longer is slow because he's focused on being thorough and accurate, "actually, procrastinators are impulsive at the last minute," Ferrari says. In other words, they work quickly and take shortcuts.

So ditch the rationalization. Instead, start "thinking about your thinking," says Knaus, who recommends making a mental shift away from the typical self-absorbed point of view ("I don't want to do it now because I'm too busy," for example) to a self-observant point of view. The self-observant person asks, "What kind of awful baloney am I telling myself to get myself off my back?" Knaus says. Taking it further might lead to, "I feel uncomfortable, and I tell myself that I don't want to do it, so I do something else, and I repeat this pattern."

The next step is understanding why you've deemed the task at hand so unpleasant. "What makes it intolerable?" Knaus asks. You might find it really is unpleasant, which isn't an excuse to avoid it, but you might also find that your perception is out of whack with reality. If you've put off mailing a thank-you card, for example, is it really because you "haven't had a minute to get to it"? Or have you spent more time considering it and coming up with excuses than you would have writing it, addressing it and mailing it?

Identify the Root of the Problem

Consider, too, those underlying reasons that might be to blame. Are you fearful of being controlled by others? Of failure? Of success? Are you listening to that inner voice that says you won't do it well? If you know what's stopping you, you can better address it. So, if you've been putting off assembling the baby's crib because you resent your mother-in-law's frequent suggestions that you get it done, you might need to recognize the root and rethink.

"You can still be independent and in charge of things while being generous," Goldstein says. "Don't turn it into a power struggle." Instead, get out the screwdriver and start assembling. (And don't imagine jabbing her in the arm with it -- that's just not nice.)

If, on the other hand, fear is causing you to procrastinate, you may need to talk yourself down from that ledge. Tell yourself, "If I'm going to fail, I may as well find out now," Goldstein suggests. And if you're going to succeed, "you can always take things at your own pace." Besides, the consequences of not completing a task are probably far more concrete and assured than the chances of failing. "Push through your anxiety," Goldstein says. "Feel the fear and do it anyway."

Of course, "do it anyway" isn't always easy to pull off. And, ultimately, there's no getting around the fact that any tool aimed at preventing procrastination is effective only if you use it. That is, of course, the rub. It takes work to force yourself to work.

The good news is that "pretty good" may well be good enough. As Knaus says, "Perfection exists only in theory." If you can moderately curb your procrastination, you're likely to see rewards: in reduced stress, improved effectiv eness and less wasted time and lost opportunity.

"If you do 10 percent better than most people, you're a superstar," Knaus says. And the guy in accounting can stop stalking you, which you'll both surely appreciate.