appointment -- is just too strong to resist.

Even though you know you’re going to have to do it eventually, and you can feel the

pressure building.

Let’s face it: procrastination affects all of us. At least a little bit.

But procrastination is more complex than just laziness or bad time management. In fact,

every subfield of psychology has a slightly different way of looking at it.

A neuropsychologist might call it a failure of executive function, or how you plan ahead

and prioritize things.

A social psychologist, on the other hand, might see it as a problem related to emotion

regulation, or trying to avoid bad feelings like stress.

And evolutionary psychologists think it could be partly genetic.

Even though all their approaches to studying it are a little different, researchers can

agree that procrastination is not so great for us.

So why do we do it, and how can we beat it?

Procrastination probably goes back as far as humans not wanting to do things.

A Greek poet even wrote about it in 700 BCE, basically warning not to put off your work,

or your life will kinda suck.

And according to a 2014 study by researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder,

it might even be part of our evolutionary makeup.

To try to figure out if there’s a genetic component to procrastination, researchers

asked pairs of twins about their work habits.

And the key thing is: they compared fraternal twins, who share only some of their DNA like

any set of siblings, with identical twins, who share all of their DNA.

Because each set of twins grew up together -- with basically the same environmental influences

-- comparing their responses could help see if their genetics corresponded at all to their

procrastination habits.

The researchers developed a mathematical model to calculate whether procrastination seemed

to be inherited. They found that about half the time, differences in procrastination habits

could be because of differences in genetics.

Which is the case with lots of inherited behavioral traits -- they have some variation due to

environmental factors.

Not only that, but they reproduced a finding from other studies -- that genetic variations

in procrastination habits are related to genetic variations in another trait: impulsivity.

In other words, the researchers found that putting things off and acting impulsive are

behaviors that might be inherited together.

Both these traits are also probably related to goal-management, which they said could

be something to focus on in future research.

They also suggested an evolutionary reason why the procrastination and impulsive behaviors

might be linked.

Early human life was focused mainly on short-term survival. You don’t have time to think about

next month when you don’t know if your tummy’s going to be full tomorrow.

So our ancestors who prioritized short-term goals -- making rash decisions and putting

off the things with more distant and uncertain rewards -- could’ve been better at surviving.

And then they might’ve passed down some of their behavioral traits to their kids.

But these days, our world of skyscrapers and smartwatches places far more importance on

long-term goals.

Save for retirement! Plan your vacation six months in advance!

So that genetic factor that prioritized the short-term over the long-term is suddenly

not so much in our favor, but it still makes us prone to procrastination.

But, hold up. You can’t just blame your procrastination on your genes.

There are lots of related psychological factors to procrastination and impulsivity, like how

you manage your goals and self-regulate.

On a neuropsychological level, procrastination can be described as a problem with executive

function, which is the skill set that allows us to plan, prioritize, and carry out tasks.

Executive function is basically the ability to say “I’m gonna do the thing!” And

then do it.

Procrastination is the opposite: “I know I need to do the thing, but I’m not gonna

do it right now.”

Which is why it’s often seen as an failure of executive function.

In 2010, researchers from the City University of New York found that undergraduate students’

own reports of their executive function could predict their tendency to procrastinate.

There are lots of different types of executive function skills, which provide multiple steps

where procrastination can happen.

For example, one student might sit down to get started on an assignment, but then spend

ages getting their study materials together.

Another person might plan to work, but have trouble getting focused enough to just sit

down and start.

They get stuck at different points in the process, but they both end up putting off

work.

Other social psychology researchers describe procrastination as a failure of mood regulation.

Canadian psychology professor Timothy Pychyl says that procrastination is “giving in

to feel good.”

We’re cashing in a short-term good feeling even though we can be pretty sure it’s going

to come back to haunt us later.

In other words, procrastination is an attempt to avoid bad feelings, like the stress or

unpleasantness of the task itself.

We can rationalize this to ourselves pretty easily.

You may not want to start writing a big essay when you’re tired, so you tell yourself

you’ll do it later when you’ve had some rest. Nothing wrong with that.

Researchers like Pychyl argue that the trouble is when you do this all the time, with smaller

excuses -- habitually putting off tasks and pushing off those bad feelings.

But future-you will eventually have to confront that stress.

So procrastination isn’t just about time management and setting goals.

Mood regulation comes in when you accept those feelings of stress and recognize that they’re

not going to just disappear later.

It sounds like basic self-discipline, but it can be tricky to deal with the emotions

that come with large or difficult tasks. And we’ve all avoided negative feelings at some

point or another.

Mood regulation and executive function both relate to what psychologists call self-regulation,

so these definitions are just slightly different approaches to studying procrastination.

Is procrastination really that bad, though?

Lots of people claim they procrastinate on purpose because they work better under pressure.

And certain kinds of procrastination do have some benefits.

Like if you go to the gym to avoid starting a paper -- sure, you didn’t get the paper

done, but hey, you went to the gym!

But you’ll be hard pressed to find psychology researchers who are in favor of procrastination.

Everyone puts things off every now and then, but people who do so chronically are sometimes

found to have higher levels of stress. And there may be a complex link to things like

depression and anxiety.

In fact, there might even be physiological consequences of procrastination.

One 2015 study in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine even found that serial procrastinators

had trouble managing high blood pressure and heart disease. Mainly since it’s not a good

idea to procrastinate taking care of your health.

And because there are so many different approaches to studying procrastination, there are also

a lot of suggestions for how to beat it.

So don’t be surprised if someone’s list of tips on Tumblr doesn’t work for you.

That being said, there have been a few scientific studies done on what makes people more likely

to overcome their procrastination.

Most of these studies are conducted on undergrad psychology students, and focus on academic

procrastination -- basically, putting off school assignments until right before they’re

due.

The authors of the City University of New York study -- the one that focused on executive

function -- suggested ways instructors could work with students to help them engage with

big tasks.

Instead of assigning one big project at the end of the semester, for example, it could

be broken up into periodic deadlines or quizzes.

People tend to procrastinate less when the deadline is closer. And when the task is broken

up into small chunks, they feel like they’ve accomplished something every time they turn

in one of those chunks.

This makes students feel generally more positive, and it could make getting started easier,

because the task seems less intimidating.

So breaking up a task into bite-size pieces could be a good strategy, both for instructors

and for anyone who’s trying to get something done.

Remind yourself that you don’t have to do it all at once -- tackle it a bit at a time,

and reward yourself for making progress.

Dr. Pychyl’s research group -- the one that studied mood regulation -- also studied how

academic procrastination could be linked to how students viewed their future selves.

In an earlier study, a group of researchers at Stanford had asked people to imagine their

future selves. They also asked them to picture their present selves, as well as a stranger.

And the whole time, the team monitored the subjects’ neural activity.

When some people pictured their future selves, neurons were activated in a similar pattern

to when they pictured their present selves. Those people felt a high degree of continuity

with who they would be in the future.

But other people’s mental images of their future selves activated a pattern of neurons

that looked like they were picturing a stranger.

Pychyl’s research group built on those results, and found that the people with less future

self-continuity -- the people who saw their future selves as strangers -- tended to procrastinate

more.

Basically, these students didn’t feel as strongly that they’d be the ones feeling

the consequences. Just let future-you -- somebody else -- deal with it.

So maybe you can try to beat your procrastination by remembering that future you is… also

you.

It sounds kind of silly when you put it that way, but it just means that you should remember

that you’re going to have to do it sooner or later -- whether it’s present-you or

future-you.

And you’re probably not going to like it any more later.

This also means acknowledging your bad feelings about doing whatever it is you have to do.

Have anxiety about getting started?

These researchers recommend accepting that feeling -- rather than using it to avoid your

work -- and understanding that getting things done is a way to help get rid of that bit

of stress.

There’s definitely no one-size-fits-all cure for procrastination -- yet. Different

studies can offer different advice, and since we’re all different people, it can help

to have multiple perspectives and strategies to try.

In the end, though, all of this research seems to boil down to self-regulation, and confronting

something you don’t want to do instead of avoiding it.

It may sound easy in theory, but it isn’t always.

And if you’re watching this video to procrastinate working on something -- go get started!

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