There's a lot of myths out there about why people procrastinate. The common wisdom is that, you know, teach somebody to manage their time better and they're stopped procrastinating or give them better self-control. So what we when we look at procrastination then in terms of emotion regulation, one way to think about is that we're not avoiding the task per se. What we're avoiding is a negative emotions associated with that task. And so procrastination becomes a way to cope with those negative moods.
We all know the feeling of scrambling at the last minute to finish a task that we could have and should have tackled much sooner. Fuschia Sirois, PhD, of Durham University, talks about why procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not one of laziness or poor time management skills; how it can harm our mental and physical health; why it’s so tied up with guilt and shame; and how self-compassion can help us overcome it. Links Fuchsia Sirois, PhD Speaking of Psychology Home Page