It's February. Only one month into 2010, and almost half of the well-intentioned are backsliding on their noble New Year's resolutions, according to research. Are you among them? Did you promise yourself to be more organized at work? Did you vow to slim down and eat healthier this year? Or have you even made your resolutions yet, never mind putting them into action?
You're not alone. One in five adults fesses up to persistent procrastination, says Piers Steel, an associate professor at the University of Calgary who studies the science behind shilly-shallying. David Watson, a procrastination researcher who teaches at Grant MacEwan University, calls procrastinating "a basic dimension of personality."
Although procrastination isn't well studied outside North America, Canada has seven active researchers in the field, with three in Alberta. What does that say about us? "Draw your own conclusions," says Steel, who tactfully won't.
If procrastination is the thief of time, modern-day procrastination is turning into grand larceny. According to Steel's research, employees report they spend an average of two hours a day frittering away time at less important tasks instead of true priorities. And while Steel's historical investigation into humanity's love of putting things off shows it's nothing new (early Greek poet Hesiod was chiding sluggish workers as far back as 800 BC), Steel has found through meta-analysis of various studies that procrastination is getting worse. "There's been a five-fold increase in chronic procrastination since the first scientific research started 30 years ago," Steel says.
As we sit at our computers trying to tackle that big project, it's just too easy to tell ourselves we'll only take a minute to check e-mails, to see what's new with friends on Facebook, to watch another adorable kitten romp on YouTube or to surf from site to site in the name of "research." Hours later, the real task remains untouched. "It's a terrible dishonesty," says Tim Pychyl, an associate professor at Carleton University, who started the school's Procrastination Research Group in 1995 to study why we dawdle. "We deceive ourselves that we're still working, but we're not."
Whether or not Canadians - and, perhaps, especially Albertans - need help more than others, no one is immune to the paralyzing trait. Procrastination strikes all ages, occupations, cultures and both genders, although males have slightly higher tendencies.
But is it more common in certain personality types? Researchers have looked for links to psychology's five-factor model, which Pychyl calls "the basic colour wheel of personality." The Big Five is summed up with the acronym OCEAN - openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism. Results suggest extroverts are more likely to succumb to procrastination, as are those who score high on neuroticism (translation: worriers who don't deal well with stress). Most chronic avoiders score low on conscientiousness, defined as self-discipline and planned behaviour.
Not surprisingly, the art of postponing is prevalent in students. Up to 90 per cent of undergrads label themselves as procrastinators, reports Pychyl. "Students tell me their houses were never cleaner than when writing their PhDs."
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