Why do we ‘put off’ doing some work/project/chore knowing that we would have to get to it sooner or later? There is a term for it – procrastination. When I started looking up this topic, I found that it is a quite common habit. About 95% of people procrastinate occasionally with some 20% of them being habitual procrastinators. While it is not unusual or harmful to occasionally procrastinate, it can be detrimental to one’s health, well-being and even relationships, if it becomes a habit. Many studies have found that it raises stress levels in the long run, though there is a temporary respite in the short term — the stress of completing just being ‘put off’.  

Here I am reminded of the holiday homework my boys got in school. They would never want to get started, arguing that there were weeks of holidays left to complete it. No amount of nagging helped. And before they knew it, it would be the last week, and they would howl in frustration at the quantity of work they had to complete.

Psychologists list three major emotions: anxiety, boredom and frustration as being the cause for most procrastination. Other factors include fear, perfectionism, lack of confidence and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder). One might procrastinate taking up an assigned task at the workplace for the fear of failure; being a perfectionist one might put off starting something, waiting for perfect conditions to achieve the best result or the enormity of a task might be intimidating, prompting them to put it off. And then there are those who thrive on the thrill of completing a task literally at the ‘eleventh hour’, their justification being that a tight deadline gets the best out of them. For more information on this topic, here is an excellent link.

Kids often dawdle or put off doing something entirely when they are asked by their parents or elders to finish their homework or some chore. Their rebellion is a way of defying authority while asserting their independence. In adults this can be attributed to ego which baulks at complying immediately with some order or request.

Procrastination needs to be distinguished from laziness, because the latter is a mental state, with the person being disinclined to doing anything at all. Procrastination on the other hand, is specific to some chore or project related to work or school, and the person tends to put off doing it for one of many reasons, but instead take up something else that is more interesting or more urgent in comparison. Interestingly, procrastinators are aware of the negative effects and yet are unable to overcome the behaviour.

Procrastination has many unpleasant consequences. For instance when someone puts off going for the prescribed medical tests for fear of finding that they are afflicted by some serious ailment, the delay could prove dangerous, even fatal. Procrastination can affect relationships, as when someone is depending on us to do some work, and we delay doing it. Likewise, putting off connecting with someone close can have unfortunate consequences too. No one knows when their time is going to be up in this world. There is no point regretting the omission later, is there?

Procrastination is not limited to projects related to the workplace or school, and other timebound governmental or other official procedures. It can affect small things around us in the home too. How often do we put off chores because we feel overwhelmed by it, find it unpleasant, or think we have a lot of time to do it? I know of many cases where people have missed the last date for submitting some form or the other, or missing out on opportunities due to this habit.

This is not to say that one needs to rush to do all the work. The key is to distinguish between jobs that can afford to wait to be tackled and those that need immediate attention. For the opposite of a procrastinator is the ‘hurrywart’ who burns the candle at both ends while burning the midnight oil too, to finish a project superfast. This can be an impediment to teamwork, where others might not be so fast, and would get stressed by this person. More so, if he is the kind to rub it in to the others about their tardiness. I remember my mother being one such hurrywart who not only did everything superfast, but also expected us children to be super-duper fast. If we did not comply, she would simply do the chore, adding to our stress to finish it before she noticed it!

Coming back to dealing with procrastination, I came across a very interesting method of tackling chores and tasks. Called the One-Minute-Rule, it was coined by Gretchen Rubin. She advocates immediately taking up tasks that would require one minute or less to complete, instead of putting them off and let them become huge. There are a million small chores around the house like wiping down the kitchen counter, dusting the worktable, putting out the trash, which keep getting put off. The cleaning jobs around the house – whether routine or periodic often become the casualty of procrastination, being the most boring or even unpleasant. These are the chores that lend themselves perfectly to the 1-minute-rule.

When I first found this wonder rule, I had to read up more on it, which led me into a maze of rabbit holes till I came to the Japanese system of Kaizen – loosely translated as continuous improvement, which has supposedly influenced the one-minute rule. It is a corporate philosophy employed by the Japanese to achieve incremental improvement at the workplace to increase productivity. While it does not work towards incremental improvement in household chores or other projects that we put off, it certainly helps in better organisation and cleanliness.

Being a believer in ‘preventive housekeeping’ I try to avoid making a mess, putting away things as and when I use them while cooking or after returning from a shopping trip to the grocery store or vegetable market among other such ‘preventive’ acts, I think I was already following the one-minute-rule unconsciously.

There are big and small chores around the house that pile up – dusting and wiping down surfaces being a couple of them. If something is going to take more than 1 minute, it can be broken up into smaller chunks and tackled. Like ironing a pile of clothes. Just iron a couple of items at a time to avoid the sense of overwhelm. This works best for elders who do not have the energy to take up big projects like decluttering their space. They could do a corner at a time or a shelf at a time.

There is also a 10-minute rule for bigger projects that get put off for various reasons. Psychologists advise one to pick it up and stick with it for at least 10 minutes. If by that time one gets immersed in it, well and good. If it is too much of a strain that brings on a host of negative emotions, it can be put aside for another time, but not too far into the future!

Whether we tackle the emotions that make us procrastinate, remedy health and mental issues like ADHD, depression, etc. that aid in the negative behaviour, remove distractions that take us away from the task, or adopt the one/two/10-minute rule, we must proactively deal with the problem, to avoid becoming habitual procrastinators.

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