The Hong Kong Polytechnic School of Design SD5173 Capstone Reflective Thesis
a guide to managing procrastination at the workplace Meher Luthra
Student Id : 17097302G
Clifford Choy
Proffessor and Mentor
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
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abstract Everyone procrastinates. The word itself has become a part of popular culture, and is visible commonly in multiple blogs, merchandise and books around us. But procrastination wasn’t always a negative word in history. In some cultures, it simply meant delay. As proven through psychology, procrastination is an inherent trait of humans. Further, the context of a procrastinator, the environment he is in the tasks he is faced with further additions to the degree of this behavior. As all procrastinators vary in their levels of procrastination, this thesis focuses on the group of active procrastinators, who procrastinate in a timely manner, and still yield results. Therefore, there is a duality in this word. A duality of meaning, a duality of the procrastinator and what he wants, and the duality of whether to fight it or to use it. Every year, companies face annual losses, due to online and offline procrastination of employees. An average employee spends 3-15 minutes a day at a stretch on a task, and about two hours a day at maximum productivity.
An executive summary of the thesis
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
The reasons for this vary from boredom to even non-effective utilization of an employee’s skills to the lack of value perceived in the job by the
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A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
Who Is This Thesis Meant For?
Creative Professionals / Directors of design firms
When Should This Thesis Be Read?
Before the start of a project / Task
employee. At the base level, employees look for autonomy within the workspace. Can providing freedom to procrastinators actually improve their productivity. As a solution, this thesis suggests that the time spent procrastinating at work could be used to create new values within the organization. Also, Can the overall health of an organization improve by incubating new skills within employees and focusing on their well-being. Further, can procrastination benefit the local community?
KEYWORDS : Productivity, Guided Procrastination, Business Management, Incubation, Community
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procrastination
productive
80%
20%
un productive
Introduction
Studies show that employees spend about 2 hours a day, being productive. The rest of the day is spent on personal activities. For a business, this is about 40% of their yearly losses. (Alex Soojung Kim Pang). The high costs of this offtask behavior in a business, is a primary reason to study this behavior. I myself struggle with procrastination, and I tend to underestimate my timing. Through this, I hope to gain insight into this topic, how it shapes us, and how it can be guided in workplaces to get more time utility.
Research Objective
Through this thesis, I attempt to understand procrastination and find a guide to help employees procrastinate in a productive manner. The energy spent procrastinating could be used to generate new values within the company. I attempt to question the meaning of the word procrastination, as it has transitioned through history and what it may mean for workspaces.
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
Organisation and Structure
The method I followed was similar to the double diamond design process. I began with the idea of building around the word procrastination. I went into this process without thinking about the outcome, and began researching material which has been written about it. I found that a majority of the material written about this speaks of the negative aspects of it, and finds ways to overcome it. A large portion of the material dealt with academic procrastination. As I began to refine my research, I found a few positives in procrastinating as well. Further I found how the meaning of the word has shifted over time. I converged my research at a mid-point, to define how procrastination can be guided at a work place. I then began to research specifically into employee behaviors, workplace effects of procrastination and some suggestions on how to guide it. This is a breakdown of how I have structured my findings. Research
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define
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develop
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5
deliver
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Chapter 01. Understanding Procrastination
Chapter one looks at what procrastination is, what are the kinds of procrastination and how it has shifted in meaning over time. The focus of the thesis is on active procrastinators, whose behavior lies on a scale between nonprocrastinators and passive procrastinators.
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Chapter 02. Why procrastinators procrastinate
Chapter two looks at the context of procrastination in a micro and macro context. The micro concept deals with various responses within a procrastinator, personality traits and motivations which influence procrastination. The macro concept looks at the system of the world, how it fosters procrastination through multiple distractions and monetizing on our free time.
with some insights on what could lead to solutions. It looks at how job meaning, autonomy, positive reinforcements and collaborations have been beneficial to reduce procrastination. It addresses what could be done to use this time wisely.
Chapter 06. Suggestions
This section looks at how this micro and macro context affects a procrastinator. It speaks of some positive and negative effects of procrastination. Some research looks at procrastination lending itself to the incubation of new ideas, strategic decision making as well as a balance of life and work. The negatives look at the effect of this behavior on an individual, his organization and the snowball effect on colleagues.
This section is the guide for managers for workplace procrastination.it looks at how employee time can be restructured to allow time for creativity, innovation and personal development. It looks at how this time could also be used to benefit the organization through CSR and how this could further benefit a community. The second guide looks at restructuring the tasks and relationships of the employee by providing him with the autonomy to do so. It speaks of the benefits of job crafting by providing various case studies from the world giant Google. The third part of this section deals with improving employee well being to increase engagement and motivation within the workplace.
Chapter 04. Organization Procrastination
Chapter 7 Outcomes
Chapter 03. Effects of Procrastination
This section focuses on the workplace. After understanding the views on procrastination, and the procrastination economy it looks at white collar jobs procrastinate more than blue collar jobs, as well as self-employed vs employed. It understands hob meanings and how this leads to methods of employees procrastinating within the workplace.
Chapter 05 Insights
This section summaries the previous sections
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
This section deals with the outcomes for the employee and the expected benefits for the community, and how firms can adapt these strategies.
Research Method
The method of research was desk research with a lot of reference to published papers in psychology and user behavior. Some references were also made to books on how ideas are generated and where creativity comes from.
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table of contents. 01 – 05
06 – 11
12 – 15
16 – 18
19 – 21
22 – 31
32 – 33
34 – 37
Chapter 01. Understanding Procrastination
Chapter 01. Why procrastinators Procrastinate
Chapter 03. Effects of Procrastination
Chapter 04. Organisation Procrastination
Chapter 05. Insights
Chapter 06. Suggestions
Chapter 07. Outcomes
References
Findings
Procrastination
Implementation
Micro Context
Decision Making
procrastinate more
Time Based Structure
Suggestions
Psychological Perspectives
Incubation
Dual Nature of Humans
Efficiency
Kinds of Procrastination
Macro Context
Health and Well Being
at the Workplace
Age of Urgency
Work Life Balance
Procrastination Economy
Negative Effects
Distraction Addiction
Effects on the Individual
Work Flow and System
Effects on the Organisation
What is Procrastination
Kinds of Procrastination History of Procrastination
Positive Effects
Which fields
Summary of
Guide to Managing
Expected outcomes
Task Based Structuring Wellbeing
Effects on other Colleagues
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
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A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
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chapter 01.
Sometimes tasks are put off when we are being cautious, due to the perception of the nature of the task or our own personality traits. This perception towards the task, creates divergent behavior and thinking, where one feels that they can accomplish the task in the future or when they feel ready. While procrastinating, one group of people put off the task when they feel the pressure of failing at the task. Another group finds, creative ways to enjoy this delay, through various ways of self-entertainment. No one voluntarily chooses to develop procrastination habits; however, it is a widespread phenomenon found more now cause of the increasing number of distractions in our daily life.
What is Procrastination
Procrastination comes from the Latin “pro,” meaning “forward, forth, or in favor of,” and “crastinus,” meaning “of tomorrow” (Klein, 1971). It stands for tasks, which are intentionally delayed when there are forthcoming deadlines. Some definitions look at procrastination, as “Slowness as a consequence of not getting around to it. (WordNet (r) 1.7).
Understanding Procrastination
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
As procrastination is more than delay and more of a decision not to act, it is useful at times to collect information to make correct decisions. However, the point where you continue to collect resources beyond the adequate amount, is the point where procrastination reduces one’s productivity. (Nguyen, B., Steel, P., & Ferrari, J. (2013).) As it includes so many elements of psychology (Emotions, behavior and perceptions) it is a complex phenomenon, which is only going to increase in the future.
Procrastination is different from some tasks which we are mentally putting off while scheduling and prioritizing multiple tasks. For example, sailors in port who are waiting out a tropical typhoon or doctors putting off surgery while their patient’s life-signs stabilize would not be considered procrastination.
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A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
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Active procrastinators like working under pressure, as the adrenalin rush which comes from deadlines help they obtain valuable results. Last minute tasks challenge and motivate them as compared to passive procrastinators.
Kinds Of Procrastinators
Studies between non-procrastinators and active procrastinators show that they have similar traits of time management and efficiency.
research or perform unrelated tasks before the submission of the final output.
Non Procrastinators
Active Procrastinators
Passive Procrastinators This visualisation is a scale of the kinds of procrastinators from passive procrastinators to non procrastinators
For this thesis, I have compiled the terms which are relevant to my solution. As multiple definitions exist, I will be focusing my solution on Active Procrastinators.
Passive Procrastinators
Passive procrastinators are stereotyped procrastinators. These individuals, as proven through research (Chu, A. H., & Choi, J. N. (2005) require time to make decisions and act on tasks. They don’t work well under pressure, and as deadlines come closer their outlook towards the task becomes negative and they question their ability to achieve their goal. (Ferrari, Parker, & Ware, 1992). Their selfdoubt and fear of failure may cause guilt and
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
eventually lead to depression (Steel, Brothen, & Wambach, 2001). They tend to give up and fail to complete the task. At the workplace, a passive procrastinator exhibits certain characteristics. Managers should notice employees who appear calm and steady for long stretches of time but work hurriedly in short bursts. Skowronski, Mark, & Mirowska, Agata. (2013) They spend more time complaining about the pending task, than actually working on it. This may be due to a certain lack of discipline, and a fear of failure. This procrastinator may show visible signs of frustration and confusion. The may also additionally delay the task by asking the management for more time to
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For this procrastinator, management needs to provide positive reinforcements and reassurances as these procrastinators tend to fear failure.
Active Procrastinators
Active procrastinators are a subgroup within procrastinators. They are capable of making quick decisions on time. They appear to be procrastinating to an outsider, but they in fact work differently. (Chu, A. H., & Choi, J. N. (2005) In psychological terms, that means different cognitive responses interact and produce different behavioral patterns. Active Procrastinators have been shown to have believe in themselves and think they can overcome obstacles. They act on decisions in a timely manner, and leave certain tasks to work on others. As they are more aware of their own abilities, and the time given for the task they direct their attention towards tasks in a different manner. They focus on maximizing their time utility, even though it may appear to be procrastination.
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
They may plan their activities in an organized manner, however aren’t completely rigid with this structure. They switch between multiple tasks and engage in new tasks which they perceive as more important. Studies have speculated, that this spontaneous and flexible time management is an important characteristic of active procrastinators. Active procrastinators, tend to incubate ideas before generating them into the task. These individuals have a clear reasoning in their minds for delaying tasks, and do not show the same emotional stresses which are shown by the passive procrastinators and complete their work on time. For these individuals, the management should let them work in the style which suits them. Skowronski, Mark, & Mirowska, Agata. (2013)
Chronic Procrastination
When procrastination becomes a part of all decisions in everyday life, it is known as chronic procrastination. Research finds that 15-20% of adults (Harriott & Ferrari, 1996). suffer from chronic procrastination. As it is persistent, it may cause problems related to health and stress, especially for the procrastinators who match their self worth with their performance on tasks. This phenomenon can also extend beyond tasks, to personal goals (Working out, quitting smoking, leaving a toxic relationship.)
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implications of procrastination seemed to increase when the need for discipline in industrial factories for workers.
History of Procrastination In this section of my thesis, I have attempted to study it in various cultural contexts as well as the changing economies of the world.
Long before this need for efficiency, the Egyptians defined procrastination with two verbs, one as laziness and the other as waiting for the right time to act upon a task.
At present the word procrastination, seems to have a negative meaning. In the early 1600s, literature in England from that time looked at procrastination as simply to delay. One may delay eating dinner as it was only 3 in the afternoon.
Like in France, the word procrastination as negative can be seen in England with the rise of monarchs and different classes. There are recorded exerts from various cultures, speaking of “nobler” classes and their inclination towards procrastination. For example, The General History of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles, Capt. John Smith — adventurer and founder of Jamestown — wrote of his gang of shiftless cavaliers, “Many such devices they feigned to procrastinate the time.”
However different cultures attempt to look at the word in a different manner. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod was one of the first to write about procrastination as early as 700BC. In his poem “Work and Days,” Hesiod addresses his brother Perses to stop avoiding his duties: Do not put your work off till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin. Similarly, Thucydides, an Athenian general during war with the Spartans addresses procrastination as the most criticized personality trait. However, he mentions it is useful in delaying the start of war. In the east, the sacred Indian Book written in 500BC, The Bhagwat Gita speaks of Procrastination as undisciplined, lazy wicked and malicious as a reference to a group of people called “Taamiska”
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
The French culture however looks at procrastination as a positive. Here physical labor was the job of the lower classes. The nobles were to be the warrior class. However, in the middle ages, under the monarchy of Louis XIV the upper classes saw a shift to being more of a leisure class. Consumption, elegance and court manners became their trademark, In other parts of the world the first shift of the meaning of the word came with the first assignment of tasks. This happened around the same time as the building of empires and the start of business. Further, the negative
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Death Laws began to emerge to battle procrastination. The policy of “He that will not worke shall not eate,” since eating seems to be one of the few things about which one cannot procrastinate for long. The historian and author W.A. Pannapacker delves into the history of the term Procrastinate in Leonardo Da Vinci’s life. The famous artist has more incomplete works than completed ones. A lot of the incomplete ones, being some which he had received commissions for. He describes this as creative procrastination. He believes that the negative idea towards procrastination has come from the various historical movements like the rise of nations, the industrial revolution, income disparity in classes and religious factors.
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
With an increase in the pace of life, the word procrastination had become internalized guilt creating phenomenon. People no longer needed to be told that procrastination was a negative thing, they felt ashamed putting tasks off. This guilt seems to be carried on even in the current day and age. In France, currently the April 26th, 2011 is declared as the International Procrastination day. D’Equainville a Frenchman, published a pamphlet in favor of procrastination. He looked at the past and the present French perceptions towards capitalism and looks at the fact that we need to procrastinate with all the trends that constantly weigh us down. He looks at the fact that intentional delay for tasks allows us to only pursue the necessary ones and ignore the ones which aren’t worth pursuing. This French approach to questioning the modern-day pressure of the effective use of time looks at Procrastination more as a solution and less as a problem. Around the world as well, a small shift is visible in business advisers also advocate the idea of a “not to do list” which may be as valuable as a ‘to do list”. This French way is a direct contrast with the American view of Procrastination. They view it as a problem where a majority of the population views procrastination as a hindrance to their fulfillment. Some researchers believe that as the word procrastination has been created from a historical context, it is possible to change the meaning of the word from a negative shame creating phenomenon to something more positive.
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chapter 02.
Why Procrastinators Procrastinate Klingsieck, K. B. (2013) in his paper has attempted to combine research from various behavioral psychologists and studied them from four perspectives. This table taken from his paper summarizes the various approaches.
Differential Psychology Perspective
Motivational Psychology Perspective
Clinical Psychology Perspective
Situational Perspective
Understanding Procrastination as
a personality trait
a motivational and volitional deficit
a clinically relevant phenomenon
Being evoked by Situational features
Theories that have been referred to in order to explain procrastination
Big 5 personality Model
Self -Determination Theory, Temporal Motivational Theory Action Control Theory
Psychoanalysis, Cognitive Behaviorism Neuropsychology
Examples of variables that have been associated with procrastination
Conscientiousness Neuroticism Perfectionism
Intrinsic Motivation Goal Orientation Self-Regulation Time Management
Anxiety, Depression Stress
Task Difficulty, Task Attractiveness Task Specificity
01. The Differential Psychology Perspective
This perspective looks at procrastination as an inherent personality trait. It uses the big 5 personality trait model to understand the connections between procrastination and personality.
Context : Why procrastinators procrastinate
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
The studies through this find some correlation between Conscientiousness, which is selfdiscipline and goal drive and procrastination. Through studies conducted by various researchers (Schouwenburg, H. C., & Lay, C. H. (1995)) across genders and cultures, they found
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A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
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people with a lower level of Conscientiousness tend to procrastinate more. Some clinical observations by Ellis and Knaus (1977) show that sometimes procrastination may be the cause of low frustration tolerance, which is linked to low conscientiousness. Cognitive Distraction techniques could help battle the frustration of the Delay of gratification (Mischel, 1981). Another look at this personality procrastination could be the behavior of impulsiveness. Clinical studies have looked at it as the choice between larger tasks and smaller more preferred tasks. Impulsiveness also has a close connection to need for instant gratification. Impulsive people have shown to pursue things of the moment, and ignore long-term responsibilities. A Small level of openness has been observed in tests. However, there is not a direct connection to the creativity of the individual.
02. The Motivational &Volitional Psychology Perspective
Motivational Orientation Motivation is the motivation which pushes an individual to take on certain tasks. Researches have identified internal and external drive to be the two main motivators which enable a person to complete a task. External motivations come from positive or negative external environments. Studies found relationships between both these factors. External motivations Conti (2000) were important to prevent the delay of tasks, whereas people with a high internal drive spent more time on completing their projects.
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
Passive procrastinators had a low internal and external drive, whereas active procrastinators have a high external drive and a lower internal one. This proves that external factors pave a great deal towards task motivation. In this case, the context of the workplace, the management and the team the procrastinator is a part of. Active procrastinators complete tasks last minute, but do not spend unnecessary time on projects. Studies, have shown that they approach life and work with the mindset of achieving as much as possible in as little time. Steel (2007, 2010) found through his temporal motivational theory that individuals delay tasks when they have a low expectancy about the output, there is a low value to them in performing it and there is a large gap between the benefit expected to do it and actually doing it. This translates to people finding the task boring, tedious and look for instant gratification first. STRESS-COPING STRATEGY When faced with stress, Individuals either choose to remove the stress cause or to reduce the discomfort caused by it. (Latack & Havlovic, 1992). These coping strategies come mainly in 3 types - task-oriented strategies, emotionoriented strategies, and avoidance-oriented strategies (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989; Endler & Parker, 1990, 1994; Kosic, 2004). Task oriented coping aims at immediate problems and is highly visible in Non-procrastinators. This task oriented approach is also visible in active procrastinators, who understand themselves. their way of working and their ability to overcome stressful situations.
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Emotional coping looks at reducing the stress emotions and Avoidance oriented coping methods look at distracting or ignoring a problem. Passive procrastinators, as mentioned struggle with self-handicapping fears of failure and tend to engage in emotional or avoidance coping strategies. As a result, they may engage in non-important, trivial tasks and ignore the one on hand.
03. The Clinical Psychology Perspective
Some researchers believe procrastinators to be prone to boredom and tend to look for stimulating situations.
04. The Situational Perspective
This view of psychology looks at the context of the procrastinator and the environment he is in. This view observes the task characteristics, difficulty levels and attractiveness. As procrastination looks at the choosing of a task over another, the favorability of the task is an important aspect to understand the procrastination behavior. Some researchers believe that the timing of rewards and punishments is an important factor to measure procrastination. The further the deadline is the more the procrastinator tends to procrastinate. Studies done in organizations show that procrastination is more common in high - status employees. A high percentage of employees, engaging in personal activities was due to boredom. (D’Abate & Eddy, 2007; Wan, Downey,
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
& Stough, 2014) Another finding was, that employees working in jobs which need them to perform the same activity every day, and not be creative showed high procrastination levels. (Vitak et al., 2011
future self will do it
Present Dual Nature Of Humans - Future Versus Present Time Orientation
Another way to understand procrastination, is to look at the duality concept of human beings. This view looks at the fact that procrastinators comfort their present self, by projecting their task onto the future self. This concept of short-term time and long-term future orientation is discussed in detail by Sirios and Pychyl as a two-part theory of procrastination. Their view is that the procrastinator uses this coping mechanism as they can’t deal with their emotions at that moment.
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Why Procrastinators Procrastinate As mentioned earlier, procrastination is a mixture of character traits, external environments. The external environments include the task at hand, as well as a macro context of the current ecosystem.
Age Of Urgency
Messages on media we consume, speak in tones of urgency, with subtle messages of no time to waste, or act now. We live in the culture of things that must be done now.
diverting their attention by disconnecting from the world around them. Currently, people work longer than they have ever worked, and this economy is built around providing some forms of leisure within a neverending workday. Media companies monetize on these leisure moments and new features are added in constantly to gain profits from this consumer behavior. The model of this procrastination economy is decentralized and gains value from the connection between individual workspaces and the larger online culture. (Benkler) The shift in the work culture as visible through history and the rise of new media technologies (Melissa Gregg and Andrew Ross) aims to make productivity the main focus of a person’s work life.
Procrastination Economy
The procrastination economy is built around the concept of providing humans with the means of “self-entertainment” during every empty moment. This has extended to all avenues of a person’s life, starting with the snooze button on an alarm clock, to the reading material on a commute to “media snacking” in the workplace. Human beings have always daydreamed at work, the rise of digital platforms create a record of the procrastination behavior. The instant gratification which comes from interacting with digital content through various media is forcing people into the habit of following their whims and
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
As people work longer hours and they are interacting with more digital content than they have ever. They look for short bursts of entertainment within this long day. Surveys on the use of social media at work, show that on an average 40 of people check their media intermittently through the day. YouTube, is one of the most popular websites, as it provides short content on a range of interests. The average time spent on one session of YouTube is 40 minutes, even it is playing in the background. As a solution, YouTube launched the take a break feature. In a user’s settings, they can add the control time spent on YouTube, where they get a notification if they spend more than a certain time on videos
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A Harvard graduate’s initiative, Stikk helps the user fight this procrastination economy by signing contracts with them. These contracts are signed on personal goals, like losing weight, quitting smoking etc. Adding the monetary value to this behavior pushes the user to fight this behavior. Multiple authors, too have launched books to fight procrastination behavior. Other companies, monetize through aiding this behavior. The “boss button” is an easy tab to add to a browser. If someone of a higher position passes, the user can click this tab and convert their browser instantly into a spreadsheet.
are autogenerated. An average employee during the workday sends 110 messages. According to Lord Buddha (Mind Monkey shin’en 心猿), the human mind is filled with drunk monkeys jumping around. All humans have these, and each one is jumping for attention. All teachings around the world have urged people to find a way to quieten their mind. In this age of excessive information bombardment, maybe meditation and mindfulness be introduced as a new company value. Facebrocrastination Meier, A., Reinecke, L., & Meltzer, C. E. (2016) look at Facebook, as a new form of procrastination. The book, distraction addiction by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang looks at the applications we use i.e Facebook and Twitter, actually make it engaging for the user because they happen almost without a thought”
Workflow And System
Distraction Addiction
Mobile devices have invaded everyday life, and subconscious habits have entered our lives related to these devices. It is acceptable and normal to quickly check a message during a meeting. Further the procrastination economy, makes entertainment accessible and all points. A day in the life of an average person begins with the snooze button of their alarm clock, followed by an instant check of messages, most of which
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
Currently, the work culture of small organizations is CEO Driven. The innovation, generation of new ideas and the direction of the company depend on the attributes of the leader. (Sucheta Nadkarni and Pol Herrmann). This creates a hierarchical structure of work, where individual skills may not be completely utilized. As mentioned earlier, boredom and lack of skill engagements are some of the key reasons for procrastination levels being high within employees. Based on the future trends prediction of jobs and organizations published by Mckinsey, the current hierarchal system in organizations will move to more of a collaborative team with the focus being on the development of new skills.
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chapter 03.
Some studies have looked at procrastination as a tool. In the art of procrastination, there seem to be some advantages to procrastinating. Certain situations where it is useful to procrastinate are
Decision Making And Timing
At times procrastinating while making decisions could be beneficial. As Peter Golder and Gerard Tellis discusses in their paper, sometimes waiting could be an advantage especially as second movers in business. They compared the companies which were the first movers, with companies that followed launch in the market. The followers waited until the first movers had created enough demand in the market. The results showed that half of the first movers were likely to fail. Further Context forces us to act quickly, however ,there may not be enough information or access to resources to make an informed decision. The idea lab founder, Bill Gross, ran a research on what drove success and failures within firms. He analyzed the composition of firms, skill-sets of employees, business vales and finances and found the timing to be the number one ingredient for success. Here, to be understood is that planning is important, however, procrastination in a strategic manner, where one waits out for timings and procrastinates strategically may have some benefits.
Incubating Ideas As An Inverse Procrastination
Effects of Procrastination
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
A lot of research discusses procrastination as a time of incubation.
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A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
The concept of “Inverse Procrastination” as discussed in Thinking Strategically, looks at procrastination as a priority for an innovator. They believe that only by moving the thought of a task to your subconscious mind can you buy time to work on it before physically completing the task. They look at how the lead time to a task is sometimes more important than the task itself.
One law of Inverse Procrastination looks at how what you may do today, while putting off a task may be useful later on for some other goal whether at work or in a personal domain. This “incubation time” has also been discussed by Adam Grant in his book Originals. Here he brings up the case study of one of his students, Jihae Shin who looked at home procrastination may lead to original thoughts. As one is intentionally delaying a task, the time could be used for divergent thinking on the same problem To study this further, she conducted an experiment with college students, asking them to write business plans for an empty plot on their university. She divided them into groups, where the group which didn’t procrastinate suggested some conventional ideas for the land. The other group was asked to do something else, that is
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play some computer games like Minesweeper, Free cell etc. She found that the group which procrastinated produced 28% more creative ideas than the non-procrastinators. A core requirement of this experiment was that the students know about the task before procrastinating, ensuring they have this task at the back of their mind. Only with deliberate procrastinating could they generate an output of creative ideas. She further conducted this experiment with a Korean furniture company. Further through research she found, that procrastination doesn’t directly lead to creativity, however, the gestation time can allow employees to think of new ideas creatively. A lot of creative thinkers tend to struggle with procrastination. Another research conducted by Rena Subotnik found that Science geniuses in schools, went on life (10 years later, when they were in their early thirties) to procrastinate as a form of incubation to solve scientific problems.
Health And Well Being
As mentioned earlier, active procrastinators tend to focus on maximizing their time utility. As they tend to focus only on the important tasks towards the end, they can pursue more goals through pleasurable activities. A study done with college students showed similar results where the students who procrastinated were less stressed as they ended up putting off tasks to pursue more pleasurable activities. Tice and Baumeister (1997) in their study too found procrastinators to be in a better state of health physically. According to the World Health organization , stress has become an epidemic. Lack of time is one of the key reasons, for stress in people. This statistic was published as a study across various cultures.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF PROCRASTINATION
The negative effects of procrastination are well known. Some of them being,
Effects on the organization
For the organization, the financial and time losses of employees procrastinating. Nguyen, B., Steel, P., & Ferrari, J. (2013). For firms poor performance and productivity are interlinked. Skowronski, Mark, & Mirowska, Agata. (2013)
Effects On The Individual
As mentioned earlier, the effects on an individual are feelings of guilt, stress and demotivation. In the short term the advantages are a balance of pleasure and work but in the long term it could cause effects to the health of the individual. Studies find procrastinators even deal with the health issues by fixing them later. Sirois, F. (2007)
They felt the time they spent putting off tasks, actually helped them to think the tasks through and focus only on the essential details of it.
Effects On Colleagues
Efficiency
As the deadline for a task approaches, many people find that they can still complete it on time last minute. They can generate ideas, faster under a time crunch. This view on procrastination believes that there are multiple kinds of procrastinators and sometimes this may increase the efficiency. A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
Some effects on employees could be in the form of “second-hand procrastination”, where often they find themselves working hard for the loss of productivity of another co-worker. Additionally, it may affect the work culture by being problematic and inappropriate. (Pychyl and Flett, 2012)
Work-Life Balance
Through studies done by Schraw, Wadkins, and Olafson (2007) they found procrastinators tried to keep a balance between work and social activities
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chapter 04.
High Procrastination White Collar
low Procrastination Blue Collar
Self Employed
Employee
Percieve Job Meaning
No Job Meaning
Which Fields Procrastinate More?
Harriott and Ferrari (1996) researched into which category of employees tended to procrastinate more. Through their research, they found employees in white collar jobs procrastinated more than employees in “blue-collar” jobs. Through research speculated that a possible reasoning for a difference in procrastination levels could be due to the fact that blue collar employees may have job insecurity, and fear termination for mistakes as well as finding an equivalent paying job. This fear leads to more work effort from their side. As white collar jobs are also more exposed to the devices of the procrastination economy, and may partake more in this behavior.
Further studies by Ferrari, Doroszko, and Joseph found self-employed professionals (lawyers, physicians, etc) procrastinate more as compared to people working in employed jobs. The jobs which require quick action (doctors, surgeons, etc) procrastinate lesser. Barrick, Mount, and Li’s ([ 2] ) Theory of Purposeful Work Behavior finds a reason for procrastination levels to be high depends on the perception of the employee for the meaningfulness of the work. Jobs which lack value, allows more procrastinatory behavior in emoloyees where they feel demotivitated. However, where they perceive value they find more proactivness and selfefficiancy even from procrastinators. Further studies with the support of the O*NET database revealed this table of jobs of highest and lowest proffessions of procrastination. They were analysed across work value, work style, occupational interest, and constraint. Occupation High Procrastination Jobs Food servers Legal Secretaries Computer System Administrators Library Assisstants Sales Representative Moderate Procrastination Jobs Photographers Poets, lyricists and creative writers Lawyers Education teachers General Operation Managers Low Procrastination Jobs Chief Executives Librarians Economists
Workplace Procrastination
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Loan Officers Military
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chapter 05.
PROCRASTINATION AT THE WORK PLACE Research in employees at organizations, finds two behaviors of procrastination at the workplace
Soldiering
This practice, defined by Paulsen (2015) views the behavior of an employee avoiding their tasks through daydreaming, taking long coffee breaks and other avoidance methods for more than an hour a day, without intentions to hinder performance of others or to transfer their work onto other employees. Metin, U. B., Taris, T. W., & Peeters, M. C. (2016).Some possible reasons for participating in this behavior is when the employee doesn’t feel challenged in terms of work obligations and what they can perform. This could also be connected to lower salary and an overall feeling of threat to well-being.
Cyberslacking
Metin, U. B., Taris, T. W., & Peeters, M. C. (2016). We can see this behavior as a direct connection to the procrastination economy as well as the age of distractions. This behavior is known as online procrastination, where an employee may appear to be working, but is browsing social media, online shopping, gaming or instant messaging. This procrastination is very expensive for firms, because of the productivity time wasted as well as the excess costs of risk mitigation of viruses etc.
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Insights
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As seen in the research, certain forms of procrastination have been beneficial in incubating and generating new ideas. We as individuals live in a world which is designed to help us procrastinate. Through the history of civilization, the meaning of the word has changed from simply meaning delay, due the influence of the economy. As the industrial revolution forced one to focus their energies on productivity, the word slowly turned into a negative meaning. In some cultures, it is celebrated.
GUIDE BOREDOM DISTRACTION ADDICTION PROCRASTINATIONE ECONOMY AUTONOMY JOB MEANING JOB DESIGN WORK CULTURE COLLABORATIONS COMMUNITY WELL BEING
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
Some insights showed that the personality of an individual affects how much he procrastinates. Other studies showed that at a level, procrastinators crave freedom, and work around the system to feel like they have it. Other reasons showed, that active procrastinators look to strike a work life balance. The perception of the job meaningful ness is also an important trigger to procrastination. They tend to avoid tasks which are boring, tedious, monotonous and look for instant gratification. Therefore, procrastinators have two choices, either to fight the habit or to use it.
Apart from the personality of the procrastinator, the environment he is in matters as well. Studies have found a qualitative and quantitative switch in the use of devices and how they affect the workplace. The constant buzz and information overload makes it difficult to concentrate and has resulted in the work day getting longer the
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average productivity time reducing. Employees spend 3-15 minutes at a stretch on a task, and two hours a day working. Studies have found a qualitative and quantitative switch in the use of devices. The constant buzz and information overload makes it difficult to concentrate and has resulted in the work day getting longer the average productivity time reducing. Employees spend 3-15 minutes at a stretch on a task, and two hours a day working. As the context matters, the management in organizations needs to address this problem. They can guide the procrastination habits of their employees, to create a move productive outcome for the firm and the people working there. This will control the negative effects to the organization, in terms of financial and productivity loss. Further, good job design where there is more freedom and sense of control from the employees has been proven to reduce procrastination. (Weymann, 1988) Autonomy, allows employees to reduce boredom when stuck on tasks and let them feel a sense of control. This could also work to a certain extent for passive procrastinators.
procrastination. Further, mental health and well-being is becoming more and more of a necessity in this fast paces lifestyle. With the high levels of stress, could tasks and a workday be restructured to create new values of mindfulness and a break from distraction addictions. Management, by focusing on the well being of employees allows them to feel value at work. Change is a process, and also a constant. All organizations are constantly evolving and the future of jobs and work, relies heavily on collaborative processes, where new skills and creativity in employees are a key to become drivers for innovation. Can this down time be used to incubate new ideas and innovations in employees as well as benefit the community?
An individual’s contribution should be clearly visible as the more the person feels valued at work,they tend to procrastinate lesser. Positive reinforcements and assurances go a long way for the employee to feel job satisfaction. Collaborations between team members has also been visible to be a way to reduce
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chapter 06.
GUIDED PROCRASTINATION As employees will procrastinate due to the internal and external context, it is important to find a way to guide this. I have looked at a guide in three ways.
01. Guide their Time
The downtime could be used to better create new values within the workspace, and to create new skills and ideas which benefit the employee, the organization and the community.
02. Guide their Tasks
This could be done by allowing autonomy for decision making, in terms of jobs and relations. The management could further control these tasks by mentoring the breakdown of time and tasks.
03. Create Job Meaning
The management could find ways to focus on the health and well being of the individuals, in order to increase value and meaning for employees in the workplace.
Suggestions
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01. Guide Their Time
Guide Time for Innnovation
As mentioned earlier, active procrastinators feel confident in their skills and time utility. They work better under pressure. As they subconsciously know the exact amount of time they need for a skill, the remaining time could be used to cognitively stimulate them further. Autonomy (freedom from external control or influence; independence) has been found to reduce workplace procrastination, and could be used within the work environment. Although, this may seem counterproductive to an outsider to engage employees in more projects, there are actually various benefits both to the employee and the organization. This guide of their energy to a personal project, will allow them to break down their time pursuing the pleasurable activity of the project, against the mundane tasks of daily routine.
Server Density
It maybe argued that the company scale of Google is large enough to allow this balance of freedom and restriction. However, this model has shown positive results in a smaller firm as well.
A positive experience which was discovered by this startup was that, an innovating employees random week of reimplementing server reinforcement led to the solution of issues problem which had been getting multiple complaints from clients. Then the management decided to allow the entire team to work on this
Google’s model of working is being considered as the work model of the future. One of their initiatives implemented by them was to allow employees to spend 20% of their time working on any project which interests them. This actually led to the most innovative projects from Google. This initiative, made the employees feel empowered and gave them the ability to make choices. The most important innovation to come out of this personal time was Gmail.
Procrastinators, as mentioned previously are prone to boredom so the addition of more projects will actually help them switch between tasks and reduce the possibility of boredom. However, there should be close attention to what kind of procrastinator they are. This approach would work for active procrastinators, as passive procrastinators may feel overwhelmed and fear failure with the addition of more tasks.
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Google 20% Time
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A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
Inspired by Googles method, they knew that they need to have a more planned approach as with smaller companies, the number of people working on core projects is higher. At Server Density, engineers get one week out of six to work on whatever they like, as long as it benefits or is closely related to the firm. They call this the �random week� and have found this week has led to a lot of creative innovations from employees.
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Guide Time to Help Community
their time, and this “procrastination� period could at least be productive, Additionally, they found that the employees felt more motivated and valued, which led to a positive work culture within the firm. Another result from Random week was they found employees actually self-taught themselves new skills to keep up to date with the industry. The usual training sessions, bored most employees but when it was a project of their choice they actually put in the time to research and find new skills. They noticed at times, the projects opened up discussions and interests across various departments and breaking boundaries created a better work flow. Similarly, Forum has a work culture which is considered to be a new age way of working. Inspiration space is a paid day every month, where employees can take an afternoon off to engage in activities which allow for personal growth. These activities could be art shows, poetry, musicals, plays, movies etc.
employees random week. Server Density, though small found that It was key to find a way to guide how the employees use their time. As they need to closely monitor their return on investment, they suggesting setting up some positive reinforcements for the employees like ranking systems, incentives, etc.
This may be for various reasons, such as to provide the employee with some time to recuperate or simply to create inspiration which may come useful at some other time.
This initiative allows employees to be able to do any one thing of their choice. This is aimed to engage employees within CSR and to create a positive change in the community. They believe one single action can change a community. It may be as small as riding a bike to work, recycling to even expanding that further to volunteering, creative ways of reducing waste.
Guide Time to Foster Entrepreneurship LINKEDinCubator
LinkedIn initially launched Hackday, which similarly allowed employees to work on personal projects for one Friday every month. Some employees during hackday, decided that they should take this to another level. They pitched the idea of the Linked in Incubator, which is focused on allowing employees to turn into entrepreneurs. The creativity and enthusiasm from employees led to new proposals for tools, ways of working, infrastructure improvement. It also led to a breakdown between the boundaries in teams actoss engineering, product design marketing, sales, etc. As active procrastinators, need time to incubate their ideas before starting the task at hand, are spontaneous and work well under pressure, maybe management could help foster this way of working to benefit the company.
This outcome enabled them to guide creativity, within their employees. They understood that people are never a 100 percent productive with
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AT&T – Do one Thing
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A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
One employee from the organization, encouraged more people to volunteer with the NGO Back on my feet, which helped homeless people build self esteem. Another employee ran an initiative within the firm to collect cardboard boxes, and found a way of re-using them to keep them out of waste landfills. The time spent on these tasks, should benefit the company but not takeaway from the initial tasks. As active procrastinators are prone to boredom, and utilize their time for maximum utility this works well as an initiative for them. AT&T recognized that employees like to be recognized for their work (Refer Soldering in kinds of procrastination) they enabled their employees to share their do one thing stories through internal communication channels as videos, digital and print content. This positive story telling makes an employee feel like their skills are valued. They also understood that an individual is part of the full community and change begins with one. They aim to focus on the positive change in one employees life and how that could spread to a full community.
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02. Guide Their TASKS Job Crafting And Autonomy
Guide time to learn NEW SKILLS AND VALUES
As autonomy has been shown to reduce procrastination at the workplace, employees could have the freedom to create their own aspects of the job to fit their needs. Studies done by Hackman (Demerouti et al., 2001; Hackman & Oldham, 1976) further prove that jobs and motivation are interlinked. Some studies have also shown positive connections between autonomy and motivation,
Companies which make way for new skills, encourage creativity and focus on well- being are more likely to have motivated and engaged employees. As Google has set the example of workspaces, many companies are following with breakout spaces where people can relax, chat, engage in personal skills like art or even learn musical skills.
(Grant & Parker, 2009; Oldham & Hackman, 2010) in design theories view job crafting as the future model of work in organizations. Employees can shape the boundaries of their tasks, looking at cognitive challenges they may encounter. The job crafting approach looks at employees as individuals, with individual needs and aims to allow autonomy “re-invention” within that.
As mentioned earlier in the positive effects of procrastination, it is sometimes important to move away from the task in front of you, and keep it on the back burner to stimulate new ideas. Lateral thinking as a way of problem solving could be encouraged within organizations.
For a firm, it could be a strategic advantage, as studies done by (Van den Heuvel, Demerouti, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2010) show that job crafting reduces the anxiety which comes from coping in an organization which is constantly in the state of change. (All organizations are in a state of rapid change at the moment, because of the dynamics of a changing ecosystem).
Further, this opens up consversations acrtoss various teams and helps conversation flow. MMU ( Manchester Metropolitan University, runs an event called Engage week for employees seeking to learn new skills. These skills aren’t directly related to projects but even focus on projects like like sign language, sports event, crafts and culinary skills.
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A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
Job Crafting includes Task crafting which means the addition or removal of tasks where the employee can define the time and effort spent on them. The employees can use the skills they feel the most confident about, for example blogging over phone calls and still achieve results for the organization. As the procrastinator feels more power of decisions, they tend to procrastinate lesser, and are more engaged within tasks. The other aspect to job crafting is relationship crafting, where an employee can define cross sector interactions as a way to maximize utility. This means effective building of relations between different departments and eventually building up the organizational culture. A hidden benefit of job crafting is the perception which is linked to the role, instead of looking at the employees as mass engineers, or mass workers the employee now becomes an individual who views himself as a mentor or a teacher or a learner based on the job crafting boundaries he has defined for himself.
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03. CREATE JOB MEANING Focus on Wellbeing
Case Study
The sales and administrative positions at Google didn’t feel the same creative freedom as the other employees working there. They accepted the job as is, because of the reputation of Google. Through a job crafting workshop with the Yale professor Amy Wrzesniewski they aimed to enrich the lives of the employees by allowing them to be architects of their work. They made them look at jobs at flexible building blocks and giving them the insight to look at familiar jobs in an unfamiliar way. They began to create ideal work environments for themselves. To record a change in their behavior managers and coworkers rated people’s engagement and happiness before and after a few months of the project. The results were that the employees who looked at their jobs as dynamic showed increased levels of happiness and work engagement. 70% of them, who changed their default jobs and default skills actually moved on to roles they wanted earlier. They realized they were the ones creating the limits for themselves, and job crafting allowed them to break free. The results from this original and personalized job lasted only six months, however jobs and organizations are constantly evolving, so job crafting should be a continuous process.
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
Task Structure And Planning
The managers in an organization can also contribute towards this process. They can suggest methods of models as well as identify individual needs based on their observations. By crafting time management skills they can also reach out to passive procrastinators. For employees with lesser attention span, tasks can be restructured to allow for procrastination. As a normal task works from A-B. Tasks for employees could be broken down to smaller sections to allow for a balance between productivity time and Time spent soldiering or cyberslacking. most productive time
day
Task Time Planning
Individuals, often have a certain time of the day where they are most productive and their skills can be utilized at the maximum during that period. Often time management strategies, ask them to utilize the benefits of that time. These are known as internal prime times where one achieves the most, and can fit well with an active procrastinators process.
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This is a new trend in workspaces, where health and well being are an added benefit within workspaces. From exercise machines, standing work-desks and gyms attached to the building, this trend has been taking shape for a few years. In fact, in the past year, more firms are introducing meditation as a part of the workday. As procrastinators, aren’t aware of the time actually procrastinating, and the additional aid of the distractions around us, meditation has been suggested as great way to bring mindfulness to the workspace. In the book, Thinking Fast And Slow the author has described two ways of thinking within the brain, the first being fast, emotional and spontaneous and the other being slower and logical. A solution for procrastination has been to move thoughts from the first way to the other. It helps focus thoughts into one place, and allows the person meditating to concentrate their mind on one task in front of them. As mentioned earlier, most spiritual practices and religions have looked at calming the mind as a way of well-being. This stillness suggested has been a way for people to become more aware of the task and break subconscious feelings of overwhelm, stress, distraction they may have, through a conscious habit of focusing on them. This is a need further, to drown out the other distractions around the procrastinator. As
A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
mentioned earlier, procrastination comes in various forms, making coffee, browsing the internet, but through this guide one can focus even for a short bit on the task at hand. Scientifically as well, meditation has proven to control impusles and increase control.
Living Well Project
A senior manager, at AT&T Global launched an initiative called the living well projects. It is scheduled during lunch hours, where he guides meditation to focus and refresh the mind. After half hour of this process, he finds employees calmer, relaxed and willing to go back to the rest of their day. This project though started internally, has spread out to the community and other work cultures are picking this up.
Google : Search Inside Yourself
This concept is not new, and has been in practice for years with firms like Apple, Google, Nike, HBO etc. Steve Jobs, took the personal benefits he gained from meditation and tried to introduce them into the corporate culture of Apple. He allowed for meditation rooms within offices, where employees can take breaks to recalibrate and enhance creativity. Google, launched in 2007, an initiative called Search Inside Yourself, which is an on-site meditation space focused on improving the well-being of employees. 31
chapter 07.
Intended Outcome
An intended outcome for the employee is to improve the motivation and engagement he feels at the workplace. This freedom in time and task structure could lead to the development of new and original ideas within a workspace. This has shown to foster creativity and collaboration between team members. As the time procrastinating could be focused on social responsibility, in a way that AT&T has done, one can increase the value of the firm from the wasted losses in productivity Further this can have positive advantages for the reputation of the firm. As the employee feels more rewarded, and engaged in the work space, he will begin to find value and meaning in his job. This has shown to reduce procrastination. Further, focus on wellbeing from the employers side, leads to more focused and mindful employees. The intended outcome can be visible as in this visual – a balance of various things. A balance of productivity and creativity, A balance of the organization and the community, and the individual and his own needs. As times evolve, so should systems of work. If one sticks to conventional ways of working, growth is stunted.
Outcome
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A Guide To Managing Procrastination At The Work Place
So how can firms implement this? 01. A small firm, can look at structuring an employee’s time for CSR. As this helps the company to benefit not only financially, it can lead to more positive reputation for the firm, as well as improvement in the local community. Their next goal could aim for a small amount of time off, one day in six weeks or inspirations days per month which will help in the personal growth and development of employees. 02. Medium firms can look at encouraging employees to take on one project per month, as it will add to the individial well being as well as bring contributions to the firm. They can develop their Csr further through employee engagement and allow a certain degree of autonomy at work. As medium firms work in teams and have available resources, managers can allow for a certain amount of task restraucturing from the employees end. 03. Large firms can allow for an entire week off for a personal project. They can additionally create workshops and spaces to benefit the wellbeing of the employee. They can allow for job crafting, and behaviour crafting as there are more members working on various tasks, the scope of collaboration and outsourcing can be defined.
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An almost complete thesis made with long stretches of procrastination which involved watching tons of Youtube videos, taking another innovation class, drawing , reading books, taking a trip, some naps, some daydreams, some coffee breaks, some chatting with friends, some surfing the internet etc.
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