Procrastination is the most efficient form of self-sabotage. Procrastinators go out of their way and choose ways to sabotage themselves. Joseph Ferrari and Timothy Pychyl gave reasons as to why people would sabotage their own lives. They gave ten reasons to explain why. Twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators, admitting to their maladaptive lifestyle, admitting to their problem of self-regulation; part of the reason is because we don’t take the problem seriously as a culture, and we don’t call people out on their phony excuses, instead letting them slide by.
Procrastination isn’t a problem of time management, as they have the ability to estimate time the same as everyone else. Procrastinator are made, usually as a result of their family, perhaps because of controlling parent(s), inhibiting the child’s ability to make their own decisions and regulate themselves. Self-regulation often plays a part with alcohol too – as they drink more than they intended too, perhaps as an avoidant coping style. Procrastinators lie to themselves, such as “I do best under pressure,” and “I’ll do this tomorrow”; instead they just squander their resources and perform sub-par. Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that require minimum commitment; which acts as another avoidant coping style, to distract themselves from regulating their emotions, such as fear of failure.
Dr Ferrari identifies that people procrastinate for three main reasons: thrill seekers – waiting for a last minute euphoric rush; avoiders – who may be avoiding fear of failure or fear of success, and would have others think that they lack effort rather than lack capability; and decisional procrastinators – they just can’t make a decision, absolving them of responsibility of the outcome of events.
Reading this article hit home particularly hard because I also