Then, Nicole orders them to take out the trash again, to which Gumball responds they will do it immediately. While trying to say they are not "procrastinators," he mispronounces the word, and Anais decides to correct him. Nicole manifests a third time and tells them again to take out the trash. Intending to emphasize her demands, she assumes the persona of "The Mom-inator" (a parody of the T-800 from the movie The Terminator). Nicole goes out and explains that she "will be back" at five P.M. Gumball promises to do what she asked for, but soon, he and Darwin are in their room, inspecting their account on Elmore Plus and eating chips. Darwin asks if they should take out the trash now. Gumball tells him to hold and decides to update their status on Elmore Plus. They update their status (intentionally spelling the words wrong and adding lots of random emoticons). When they update it, the clock suddenly fast-forwards in time by almost an hour. When Gumball and Darwin try to check out what else is happening on Elmore Plus, the clock keeps fast-forwarding. They try to leave the computer, but it pulls them back like a magnet. Realizing that they cannot leave, they give up and continue eating chips while being on Elmore Plus.
The The Procrastinators
Much past research has focused on the correlation between procrastination and personality traits (e.g., impulsivity). According to the temporal motivation theory, procrastinators are impulsive and sensitive to delays in time. However, there is still a lack of direct evidence of the tendency of procrastinators to prefer immediate over future rewards. To investigate this question, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in the brain while participants performed an intertemporal choice task involving both time delay and reward processing. The participants were assigned to a high procrastination group and a low procrastination group according to their scores on self-report measures. We found that high procrastination participants preferred immediate rewards compared to future ones whereas low procrastination participants did not. High procrastinators also exhibited a larger and delayed P2 component, indicating delay time processing and abnormal reward processing. No significant effect associated with procrastination was found on the P300 component. Taken together, these findings suggest that high procrastinators are more impulsive and encode the information of delay time more slowly but with a higher level of motivation-driven attention. The current study substantiates higher impulsivity in procrastination and verifies that a difference exists in the sensitivity to time delay between high and low procrastinators.
A study done in 2004 showed that 70% of university students categorized themselves as procrastinators while a 1984 study showed that 50% of the students would procrastinate consistently and considered it a major problem in their lives.[11]
Negative coping responses of procrastination tend to be avoidant or emotional rather than task-oriented or focused on problem-solving. Emotional and avoidant coping is employed to reduce stress (and cognitive dissonance) associated with delaying intended and important personal goals. This option provides immediate pleasure and is consequently very attractive to impulsive procrastinators, at the point of discovery of the achievable goals at hand.[22][23][page needed] There are several emotion-oriented strategies, similar to Freudian defense mechanisms, coping styles and self-handicapping.
To a certain degree it is normal to procrastinate and it can be regarded as a useful way to prioritize between tasks, due to a lower tendency of procrastination on truly valued tasks.[27] However, excessive procrastination can become a problem and impede normal functioning. When this happens, procrastination has been found to result in health problems, stress,[28] anxiety, a sense of guilt and crisis as well as loss of personal productivity and social disapproval for not meeting responsibilities or commitments. Together these feelings may promote further procrastination and for some individuals procrastination becomes almost chronic. Such procrastinators may have difficulties seeking support due to procrastination itself, but also social stigmas and the belief that task-aversion is caused by laziness, lack of willpower or low ambition. In some cases, problematic procrastination might be a sign of some underlying psychological disorder.[15]
Procrastination has been linked to the complex arrangement of cognitive, affective and behavioral relationships from task desirability to low self esteem and anxiety to depression.[9] A study found that procrastinators were less future-oriented than their non-procrastinator counterparts. This result was hypothesized to be in association with hedonistic perspectives on the present; instead it was found procrastination was better predicted by a fatalistic and hopeless attitude towards life.[32]
Procrastinators have been found to receive worse grades than non-procrastinators. Tice et al. (1997) report that more than one-third of the variation in final exam scores could be attributed to procrastination. The negative association between procrastination and academic performance is recurring and consistent. The students in the study not only received poor academic grades, but they also reported high levels of stress and poor self-health. Howell et al. (2006) found that, though scores on two widely used procrastination scales[9][40] were not significantly associated with the grade received for an assignment, self-report measures of procrastination on the assessment itself were negatively associated with grade.[41]
In 2005, a study conducted by Angela Chu and Jin Nam Choi and published in the Journal of Social Psychology intended to understand task performance among procrastinators with the definition of procrastination as the absence of self-regulated performance, from the 1977 work of Ellis & Knaus. In their study they identified two types of procrastination: the traditional procrastination which they denote as passive, and active procrastination where the person finds enjoyment of a goal-oriented activity only under pressure. The study calls this active procrastination positive procrastination, as it is a functioning state in a self-handicapping environment. In addition, it was observed that active procrastinators have more realistic perceptions of time and perceive more control over their time than passive procrastinators, which is considered a major differentiator between the two types. Due to this observation, active procrastinators are much more similar to non-procrastinators as they have a better sense of purpose in their time use and possess efficient time-structuring behaviors. But surprisingly, active and passive procrastinators showed similar levels of academic performance. The population of the study was college students and the majority of the sample size were women and Asian in origin. Comparisons with chronic pathological procrastination traits were avoided.[42]
Psychologist William J. Knaus estimated that more than 90% of college students procrastinate.[45] Of these students, 25% are chronic procrastinators and typically abandon higher education (college dropouts).
With a distant deadline, procrastinators report significantly less stress and physical illness than do non-procrastinators. However, as the deadline approaches, this relationship is reversed. Procrastinators report more stress, more symptoms of physical illness, and more medical visits,[28] to the extent that, overall, procrastinators experience more stress and health problems. This can cause quality of life to decrease significantly along with overall happiness. Procrastination also has the ability to increase perfectionism and neuroticism, while decreasing conscientiousness and optimism.[11]
I decided to write about procrastination because my behavior has always perplexed the non-procrastinators around me, and I wanted to explain to the non-procrastinators of the world what goes on in the heads of procrastinators, and why we are the way we are.
Another reason to break the loop is that perfectionism (and the procrastination that results from it) is the enemy of creativity, productivity and sanity. Because perfectionists are so concerned with the outcome being just right, they are victims of risk-averse thinking, which inhibits innovation and creativity. Ironically, successful perfectionist-procrastinators are actually successful in spite of their behaviors, not because of them.
Finally, both perfectionism and procrastination have longer-term tolls on both mental and physical health. The dysfunctional thinking of perfectionism can be toxic, often leading to discouragement, self-doubt and mental exhaustion. Procrastination is equally damaging. Not only do procrastinators squander their precious resources of time, attention and focus, but the constant stress caused by procrastination eventually leads to problems like compromised immunity, digestive problems and insomnia.
Procrastinators who consistently complete tasks on time, even if it's the last minute, are motivated by emotions, activated when a deadline is imminent. They're deadline driven, and I call them deadline driven to try to get away from this stigma of the word "procrastination," but I found that I just have to use it anyway. But in contrast to procrastinators, task-driven people are non-procrastinators who, when they're faced with uncompleted tasks, are compelled to take action right away.
If they walk in the house and they notice something that hasn't been done, they feel compelled to do it, right now. They are these "Do it now" people, and I admit, I am one of them. I am not a procrastinator. I'm anything but a procrastinator, but my book completely vindicates procrastinators nevertheless. I am so humbled by my study of motivational styles, an in-depth look at procrastinators and how they get things done. They are so activated by a deadline, and usually what you see is that frenzy of activity at a deadline, and the self-doubt and the shame and all the things that propel them into action and they do what they have to do in one draft. 2ff7e9595c
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