Rationale for Procrastination

Originally found in the Journal of Irreproducible Results.

Alert biologists search for the potential survival advantage of structures or behavior patterns which occur commonly and in diverse groups. Procrastination behavior is analyzed here to determine if procrastination does more than merely satisfy Parkinson's Law, that work tends to fill the allotted time.

Most procrastination behavior is performed against a deadline, e.g. a manuscript which requires one month's effort is due one year from today. A skillful procrastinator will spend at least 11½ months working on other projects and trying, but not quite coming to grips with, the project under discussion. The work of the 11½ months will probably be necessary to clear the desk as it is covered by work that is past due, i.e. work which cannot in clear conscience be further postponed. In examining the merits of the procrastination strategy - that of starting two weeks before the deadline rather than a year before - the following attributes of procrastination become apparent.

1. Procrastination shortens the job and places the responsibility for its termination on someone else (the authority who imposed the deadline).
2. It reduces anxiety by reducing the expected quality of the project from the best of all possible efforts to the best that can be expected given the limited time.
3. Status is gained in the eyes of others, and in one's own eyes, because it is assumed that the importance of the work justifies the stress.
4. Avoidance of interruptions including the assignment of other duties can usually be achieved, so that the obviously stressed worker can concentrate on the single effort. Under non-stressed conditions, the refusal to answer the phone, host visitors, or attend to routine matters wold be considered intolerably rude.
5. Procrastination avoids boredom; one never has the feeling that there is nothing to do.
6. It may eliminate the job if the need passes before the job can be done.

These advantages which accrue from the strategy of procrastination obviously serve to reinforce procrastination behavior. An in-depth examination of such rewards or payoffs of games has been made by Berne. A study of the survival and reproductive rates of procrastinators and controls is beyond the scope of this report.

The time spent on this effort was a form of procrastination on all the other things I should have been doing. This effort was supported by no grant.