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Tomorrow, maybe

Photo: Sampath Kumar g.p.

Couch potatoes Telly and the Internet add to the problem

Mark Twain said, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” Though in my case it is more like never put off until tomorrow what you can do after a week.

My name is Aparna Narrain and I am a procrastinator. Being a journalist I can’t really afford to skip deadlines. Unfortunately, when I agreed to do an article on procrastination, I took the subject a little too literally. So, two weeks later, after one wedding, an illness, two films, a Christmas party and several hours of TV and sleep, I found myself frantically typing away two days before the deadline. And for about the hundredth time I cursed myself for not finishing my work earlier. Help may finally be at hand though.

Piers Steel, a professor at the University of Calgary, Canada, has come up with an equation for procrastination in his book, “The Procrastination Equation: Today’s Trouble with Tomorrow”, by studying 250 college students.

With the equation, procrastinators can figure out how much of a chance they have of overcoming their problem. Using ratings of up to 10, first multiply the expectation of success, E, by the value of completing the task, V. Then multiply the previous tendency to delay tasks, T, by the consequence of failing to complete the current task, C. The first total is then divided by the second. A person with a score less than three is a chronic procrastinator.

According to Steel, who admits to being distracted by computer games himself, procrastination has been with us for an extremely long time and it likely represents an innate part of human nature. However, he says that the frequency of procrastination has increased. Prof. Steel says that procrastination is on the rise because TV, computer games and the Internet provide countless opportunities for distraction. In addition, nowadays many jobs are “self-structured” with people setting their own deadlines. He says the belief that procrastinators are either lazy or perfectionists is wrong. However, he adds that procrastinators believe that they can complete a task and also care about it.

Dhillan C., a radio jockey, doesn’t agree completely with the findings of the research. He feels, there are many factors that have contributed to the rise in procrastination. “There is a lot more to do today. Unlike say 15 years ago, you don’t have just one task to finish in a day. Now you have about five to six different things to do. If you haven’t finished the first task, you can move on the second one and then get back to the first one. So basically there is a culture of working in instalments, as a result of which there is a lot of scope for procrastination.”

Dhillan adds, “I agree that procrastinators tend to live for today but I don’t agree completely that they are not perfectionists. They may put off other things to make sure that a particular task or moment is perfect but they will invest every bit of attention to make sure of that.” As for the equation, Dhillan says he will use it. “I do suffer quite a bit from procrastination and I will use the equation to help me overcome it.” Avinash Timothy, a corporate investment analyst, says, “Procrastination has seeped into everyone’s life in some form or the other. It’s true that procrastinators are more precipitate and erratic. For instance, recently I had to give my cousin a pair of cufflinks by evening as he was getting married the next morning. But then I figured that he needed it only the next day. So instead I went to a mall, then a video game parlour and a movie.”

However, he says that he will not use the equation. “I am not going to use some equation to run my life because I believe that if you really want to do something you should do it by yourself and not because some equation tells you how to.” Shilpi Roy, trainee officer in a NGO, says, “I tend to procrastinate a lot so I will definitely use the equation. I tend to put off things because I am a perfectionist and I pay attention to detail.”

Steel says that self-knowledge may include knowing the goal is large and breaking it down into smaller steps and tackling it one at a time or removing distractions. Now if only someone would come up with an equation for late-coming.

Better late?

If you are interested in finding out more about procrastination, log on to www.procrastinus.com, a website authored by Piers Steel. It contains quotations, jokes, information on famous procrastinators such as Douglas Adams and findings of studies on procrastination. You can also find out just how much of a procrastinator you are by answering a list of 81 questions and get advice on how to stop putting off things. The site also has links to other websites on procrastination

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