Understanding Procrastination: Causes, Effects, and Strategies
Author : Sachin Patil
1.Procrastination in Teams
Joshua S. Gans (2016) examines the impact of present-biased preferences and naivete on teamwork, particularly in relation to procrastination and free-riding behavior. While naive individuals tend to procrastinate, their presence in teams can sometimes enhance overall performance by eliminating inefficient free-riding. The study introduces a flexible model that links present bias to non-Bayesian updates of beliefs, illustrating how variations in belief reassessment—categorized as “introspection” and “extrospection”—affect motivation and efficiency. The findings suggest that a mix of different behavioral types within a team can optimize productivity, highlighting the importance of diversity in cognitive processing and strategic thinking.
2.Choice and Procrastination
Donoghue introduces a model of procrastination where individuals choose from a set of options while being partially aware of their self-control issues. The model replicates previous findings and generates new ones. It shows that providing additional choices can lead to procrastination, as individuals may delay completing a task in favor of a more attractive but never-completed option. Moreover, people may procrastinate more on important tasks compared to unimportant ones.
3.Procrastination and Time-Inconsistent Preferences
Matthew Rabin (1999) examines the implications of time-inconsistent procrastination for the design of temporal incentive schemes, which reward an agent based on when he completes some task. The authors find that if principals designing contracts wish to induce agents to behave efficiently, they will make incentives “steeper” than if the agent did not procrastinate. The paper also shows that deadlines can be (second-best) optimal given time inconsistency, even in stationary environments where they would never be optimal with time consistency.
4.Procrastination and Projects
Kulpmann Philipp, (2015) analyzes a dynamic moral hazard problem in teams with imperfect monitoring in continuous time. In this model, players work together to achieve a breakthrough in a project while facing a deadline. The effort needed for the breakthrough is uncertain, but players share a common prior belief about its distribution. The paper characterizes the optimal effort path for general distributions of breakthrough efforts and demonstrates that, in addition to free-riding, procrastination also arises.
5.The Role of Personal Routines in Bedtime Procrastination
Magalhaes, et al (2021) conclude that the relationships between bedtime procrastination, general procrastination, academic procrastination, perceived importance of sleep, and personal routines (wake-up time and dinner time) in a sample of 446 university students. The results showed that general procrastination, academic procrastination, and perceived importance of sleep were all directly related to bedtime procrastination. Additionally, wake-up time and dinner time partially mediated the relationships of general procrastination and perceived importance of sleep with bedtime procrastination. These findings suggest that personal routines may play a role in bedtime procrastination, and that interventions targeting bedtime procrastination should consider the promotion of healthy sleep routines.
6.Fighting Procrastination in the Workplace: An Experimental Approach
Nazaria Solferino (2010) stated tha how procrastination and planning issues affect employee performance, compensation, and job satisfaction. A randomized experiment in a Colombian bank introduced frequent goal reminders and small in-kind rewards to encourage timely task completion. The results showed improved workload distribution, higher compensation, reduced stress, and increased job satisfaction among employees. Crucially, branch managers played a key role in reinforcing these effects, highlighting the importance of organizational support in overcoming procrastination.
7.Performance of Procrastinators: On the Value of Deadlines
Herweg (2008) et al stated that This study explores how people handle tasks over time, focusing on those who tend to procrastinate. It introduces a new way to think about effort and performance in a single task, showing that procrastination can hurt overall results. Interestingly, just knowing about self-control issues doesn’t always improve performance. When looking at multiple tasks, the study finds that deadlines can help people organize their work better, leading to improved performance and well-being. This provides a factual basis for why deadlines are often useful.
8.When Doing Nothing is less Important than Doing Nothing”
Nazaria Solferino (2012) Conclude that a model of bad and good procrastination. Bad procrastination is defined as a situation in which a person procrastinates on a task even though the task is worth doing. Good procrastination is defined as a situation in which a person procrastinates on a task because the task is not worth doing. The paper also discusses the concept of productive procrastination, which is a type of good procrastination in which a person uses the time that they would have spent on a task that is not worth doing to do something else that is productive.
9.Procrastination on Long-Term Projects
O’Donoghue, et al (2002) explores self-control problems and time-inconsistent preferences in the context of long-term projects. The authors develop a model that examines how the structure of costs and benefits over the course of a project can lead to procrastination, even when people intend to complete the project. The paper also shows that if the cost structure is endogenous, people are prone to choose cost structures that lead them to start but not finish projects.
10. A Theory of Government Procrastination
Taiji Furusawa (2011), et al concluded presents a theory to explain why governments often procrastinate in implementing socially beneficial policies that have upfront costs but yield long-term benefits. The theory is based on the idea that governments are present-biased, meaning that they are more concerned with the present than the future. This present bias can lead governments to delay implementing policies, even if those policies would be beneficial in the long run. The paper shows that procrastination is more likely to occur when the costs of a policy are immediate and the benefits are long-term, and when there is uncertainty about the future. The paper also shows that procrastination can lead to inefficient outcomes, such as underinvestment in public goods.
Conclusion
This literature review explores procrastination across different contexts, including teamwork, workplaces, government policies, and personal habits. Studies highlight how present bias, self-control issues, and external factors like deadlines and incentives influence procrastination. While procrastination often reduces efficiency, strategic planning and diverse team dynamics can mitigate its negative impact. The research also emphasizes the role of personal routines, structured deadlines, and managerial support in overcoming procrastination for improved productivity and well-being.
Fabian Herweg & Daniel Müller, 2011. “Performance of procrastinators: on the value of deadlines,” Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 70(3), pages 329-366, March.
Joshua S. Gans & Peter Landry, 2016. “Procrastination in Teams,” NBER Working Papers 21891, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Kulpmann, P. (2015). Procrastination and projects. Center for Mathematical Economics (IMW), 544. Germany
Magalhaes, P., Pereira, B., Oliveira, A., Santos, D., Nunez, J. C., & Rosário, P. (2021). The Mediator Role of Routines on the Relationship between General Procrastination, Academic Procrastination and Perceived Importance of Sleep and Bedtime Procrastination. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(15), 7796.
Nazaria Solferino (2010), The Multi-Faces of Procrastination, Department of Economics and Statistics University of Calabria, Italy, June 2010
Nazaria Solferino, 2012. “Defining Bad And Good Procrastination,” Working Papers 201205, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza “Giovanni Anania”
O’Donoghue, Ted & Rabin, Matthew, 2002. “Procrastination on Long-Term Projects,” Working Papers 02-09, Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics.
Taiji Furusawa & Edwin L.-C. Lai, 2011. “A Theory of Government Procrastination,” CESifo Working Paper Series 3680, CESifo.
Ted O’Donoghue & Matthew Rabin, 1999. “Incentives for Procrastinators,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3)
Ted O’Donoghue & Matthew Rabin, 2001. “Choice and Procrastination,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1)