Time is flying by at the University of Virginia. Midterms are about a month away. Students who may have fallen behind in their studies still have time to get back on track if they take action now.
But studies show 15-20% of people, including those students, are chronic procrastinators. They also show between 85 and 95% of people self-report they procrastinate sometimes.
UVA Today decided now would be a good time to dig into why people put things off and how to curb the habit. Psychology professor Daniel Willingham, whose recent book "How to Outsmart Your Brain" met with rave reviews, has this advice.
Q. What is procrastination?
A. Procrastination is delaying something that you know is important to do and almost always is something that you anticipate will be unpleasant to do. You don't do it in favor of something that is more pleasant.
Q. Why do people put off doing important tasks?
A. Short-term gains are very attractive compared to long-term gains. When we contemplate rewards in the future, they're less rewarding.
Q. Can you offer an example?
A. Imagine you're walking through a grocery store, and you see your favorite brand of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, and you think, "That would be so nice to have for dessert tonight." Then you remember your doctor told you to cut back on sugar. So now you have a choice: Do I get the ice cream, or do I not get the ice cream?
Now, here's a different situation: You've just finished supper. Your spouse sits down with a bowl of ice cream and says, "Do you want this bowl of ice cream?" Again, you've got a choice. There are a gazillion studies showing this is true, that it's much easier to resist when you're thinking about getting the ice cream hours from now as opposed to having ice cream seconds from now.
Q. How can people kick the procrastination habit?
A. Habit is the key word. Notice the way we described procrastination. It's where you choose to do something other than what, in the long run, you kind of wish you had chosen to do. If you can remove the choice, then you're going to remove procrastination.
Q. How do people remove choice?
A. Habit is really your friend. Habit is something that you do without really making a conscious choice about it, like brushing your teeth. For students, making studying habitual is the best way to avoid procrastination. The way I've encouraged students to do this is to think of organizing their work by time rather than by task.
Daniel Willingham specializes in cognitive psychology and education, and he was recently ranked No. 10 in the 2023 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. (University Communications photo)
Say you have three hours a day devoted to doing your work. There's no choice involved. The first thing you do is you figure out what's most urgent. Work has become a habit.
Q. For a person who habitually procrastinates, that seems like a tough sell.
A. Habits are formed slowly. You need some other tricks up your sleeve to get to the point where work is a habit.
Trick yourself into just starting. A lot of times, people overestimate how unpleasant it's going to be. Give yourself permission to stop if you really hate it. "I'm going to set an alarm for 10 minutes. If I'm miserable doing math, I'm allowed to take my first break and read my novel for English or something that I like better."
Q. Do you have tips for larger projects?
A. For a first-year student who's been told, "You have to write a 10-page research paper," and they've never written anything longer than three pages, that's pretty intimidating.
Break down the project. "My goal is I'm going to sit down and do preliminary research for the next hour. That's going to help me choose my topic." Now, you've got a much more modest goal. If you know how to do it, break the task down. If you don't know how to do it, get some advice about how to break it down.
