Why We Procrastinate

1310 Words6 Pages
Why We Procrastinate Procrastination is Commonplace Today’s world is larger and more quickly paced than it has ever been before. With that, it can also be observed that today people are faced with many means of distraction from the many forms of responsibilities that are faced in everyday life. Taking something important to do and putting it off later and later is known as procrastination, and according to a study made by Live Science, 15-20% of all people are common procrastinators, and that included in this 15-20% are 90% of all collage students. There are numerous theories and studies that have been performed on procrastination over the past decade, and most of them show different results as to what causes us to procrastinate and as to exactly why we do it. There are a few areas and points, however, that these studies seem to agree on in relation to the results of procrastination. Procrastinators sabotage themselves. They put obstacles in their own path. They actually choose paths that hurt their performance. Expert Opinions Two of the world's leading experts on procrastination: Joseph Ferrari, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at De Paul University in Chicago, and Timothy Pychyl, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada; have several statements regarding procrastination: It's not trivial, although as a culture we don't take it seriously as a problem. It represents a profound problem of self-regulation. And there may be more of it in the U.S. than in other countries because we are so nice; we don't call people on their excuses ("my grandmother died last week") even when we don't believe them. Something psychologists seem to insist, such as members of Psychology Today, is that procrastination is not something that people inherit from birth or simply develop for no particular reason. People that
Open Document