Procrastination, Health, and Well-Being

Fuschia M Sirois, Timothy A Pychyl

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780128028988
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Cognitive Psychology & Cognition
• Index: Psychology

Research on procrastination has grown exponentially in recent years. Studies have revealed that procrastination is an issue of self-regulation failure, and specifically misregulation of emotional states—not simply a time management problem as often presumed. This maladaptive coping strategy is a risk factor not only for poor mental health, but also poor physical health and other aspects of well-being. Procrastination, Health, and Well-Being brings together new and established researchers and theorists who make important connections between procrastination and health.

The first section of the book provides an overview of current conceptualizations and philosophical issues in understanding how procrastination relates to health and well-being including a critical discussion of the assumptions and rationalizations that are inherent to procrastination. The next section of the book focuses on current theory and research highlighting the issues and implications of procrastination for physical health and health behaviors, while the third section presents current perspectives on the interrelationships between procrastination and psychological well-being. The volume concludes with an overview of potential areas for future research in the growing field of procrastination, health, and well-being.

• Reviews interdisciplinary research on procrastination
• Conceptualizes procrastination as an issue of self-regulation and maladaptive coping, not time management
• Identifies the public and private health implications of procrastination
• Explores the guilt and shame that often accompany procrastination
• Discusses temporal views of the stress and chronic health conditions associated with procrastination

Part 1

Introduction and Overview

Chapter 1: Introduction: Conceptualizing the Relations of Procrastination to Health and Well-Being

Chapter 2: Recovering Kairos: Toward a Heideggerian Analysis of Procrastination

Chapter 3: Structured Nonprocrastination: Scaffolding Efforts to Resist the Temptation to Reconstrue Unwarranted Delay

Chapter 1

Introduction: Conceptualizing the Relations of Procrastination to Health and Well-Being

Fuschia M. Sirois Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Abstract

This introductory chapter of the first volume on how procrastination relates to health and well-being outlines the ways in which our understanding of the implications of procrastination for health and well-being have evolved over time. After outlining the two different traditions that have been most used by researchers for understanding the nature of well-being, I provide a brief review of the research to date on how procrastination may relate to each of these components of well-being and their dimensions with the aim of demonstrating how these conceptualizations may be useful for organizing, understanding, and addressing gaps in the research on procrastination and well-being. Next we turn to the issue of procrastination and physical health and present a brief overview of how theory and research directed at understanding the implications of procrastination for health has developed over the past decades. A central development of this research is the introduction of the procrastination-health model, which provides a useful conceptual lens from which to view the direct and indirect ways in which procrastination is linked to outcomes related to physical health.

Keywords

procrastination

well-being

physical health

psychological

psychophysiological

Nothing [is] so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

–William James

Our understanding of the causes and consequences of procrastination has burgeoned over the past three decades, as researchers have turned their attention to some of the likely but not always expected outcomes of needlessly delaying important and necessary tasks. In many ways James’s reflection captures the essence of the potential psychological and physical toll of procrastination that much of this research has addressed. Knowing that a task is there waiting to be completed, but not being able to bring yourself to complete it can be draining psychologically. Early research has demonstrated that these incomplete tasks are difficult to forget, are more concretely remembered, and accordingly consume more energy (Zeigarnik, 1927). If we also consider the feelings of guilt and shame that arise from the admonition of procrastination (Fee & Tangney, 2000; see Chapter 9, Delaying Things and Feeling Bad About It? A Norm-Based Approach to Procrastination), and the accompanying negative self-evaluations from acknowledging that this delay is needless (Flett, Stainton, Hewitt, Sherry, & Lay, 2012; McCown, Blake, & Keiser, 2012), it becomes clear that procrastination can be psychologically and emotionally fatiguing, as well as very stressful.

What may be less obvious is that there are some very real and concerning physical health consequences associated with procrastination, both in the short and long term. These consequences may be further amplified if the task that is being procrastinated is directly related to managing one’s physical health, such as going to the doctor for a medical diagnosis or check-ups (Samet, Freedberg, Savetsky, Sullivan, & Stein, 2001; Sirois, 2007; Sirois, Melia-Gordon, & Pychyl, 2003; Yaniv, 2002), engaging in health maintenance and promoting behaviors (see Chapter 6, Measurement of Health-Related Procrastination: Development and Validation of the Exercise and Healthy Diet Procrastination Scales; Sirois, 2004), or even going to bed at a reasonable hour (see Chapter 5, Bedtime Procrastination: A Behavioral Perspective on Sleep Insufficiency; Kroese, De Ridder, Evers, & Adriaanse, 2014). When procrastination becomes a characteristic way of responding to tasks which are unpleasant or aversive, or which trigger feelings of self-doubt, then procrastination may have effects that are both negative and far reaching. If we view procrastination this way, that is, as a relatively stable, trait-like tendency, it is not hard to imagine how procrastination can create vulnerabilities for poor health. Increasingly, personality is being acknowledged as an important epidemiological factor for understanding health-related trajectories and outcomes, due primarily to its links to modifiable risk factors for the development of mental and physical health issues, such as stress, diet, and physical activity (Bogg & Roberts, 2013; Hampson, Goldberg, Vogt, & Dubanoski, 2007).

In this introductory chapter of the first volume to address how procrastination relates to health and well-being, I provide a brief outline of the ways in which our understanding of the implications of procrastination for health and well-being have evolved over time. Many of the theoretical advances on this topic have emerged within the past 15 years, as researchers have proposed and tested new models specifically focusing on understanding how procrastination might relate to health. New conceptualizations of the intrapersonal emotional and cognitive processes underpinning procrastination have also contributed to a more complete understanding of the implications of procrastination for well-being. This research has moved from a more descriptive view of the associations of procrastination to negative affective states such as depression and anxiety, to a more process-focused view that attempts to explain the why of thes...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Part 1: Introduction and Overview
• Part 2: Procrastination and Health
• Part 3: Procrastination and Well-Being
• Index