Why Do We Wait Until the Last Minute?
Why am I sitting here on the last week of classes writing this blog post when I had 6 weeks to do it? Great question.. I procrastinated. This is not always a result of poor time management; it can be a learned avoidance response. Avoidance responses are behaviors we use to escape an unpleasant feeling, like stress or anxiety. Especially when it comes to starting and completing an assignment. By avoiding the task, we will temporarily feel better and avoid the stress. This is an example of negative reinforcement. When putting off the task, we feel good, and our brain learns to associate procrastination with feeling good. The more we put things off, the more we are training our brains to procrastinate.
This ties in to the topic of operant conditioning. This avoidance behavior is beneficial in reducing the feeling of discomfort we feel in the moment. Yet, that's until we are scrambling the night before an assignment do and we feel even worse then. The good news is that many of us are not alone. According to Verywell Mind, “an estimated 75% of students procrastinate regularly, and around half of these students feel that this behavior is a persistent problem.”. In even better news, because this is a learned avoidance behavior, it can be unlearned using behavioral strategies such as setting deadlines and self-reinforcement. We can train our brains to take action, not avoidance.
References:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/avoidance-response
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-psychology-of-procrastination-2795944
I love the honesty when it comes to the procrastination! (I did the same thing aswell). As much as I hate the feeling of doing things last minute, that relieve and moment of satisfaction of not having to do it in the moment always gets me. It is interesting because the relief I get from dong things ahead of time is far greater then the moment of satisfaction procrastinating gets me but I cannot help but wait. I have gotten better with it over time as college has gone on because procrastinating is not sustainable for some work loads! I have been working to unlearn it myself to save myself that stress.
ReplyDeleteI am also procrastinating! I have gotten better at doing assignments way before the deadline. But like you said, it's a learned response, so I still waited until the last minute haha.
ReplyDeleteYour post immediately grabbed my attention with its honesty and humor about procrastinating even while writing about procrastination. I appreciate how you connected this behavior to operant conditioning, explaining how avoidance becomes negatively reinforced because it reduces discomfort in the moment, even if it leads to more stress later. Framing procrastination as a learned avoidance response, rather than simply poor time management, makes this topic feel much more practical and human. Recognizing that it is a learned behavior also offers hope that we can learn healthier patterns to replace it through intentional strategies and practice.
DeleteProcrastination might also be tied to delayed gratification. It often feels easier to spend time with family or read a book now, while the satisfaction of mastering a complex topic or earning a good grade is something that happens further down the road. Choosing immediate comfort can be so tempting, even if we know the long term reward is worth it. It makes me wonder how strategies like breaking tasks into smaller, immediately rewarding steps, or using self reinforcement after small wins, might help bridge that gap between present comfort and future goals. Perhaps if I can find a way to positively reward myself, thus giving more instant gratification to smaller chunks of work, I can help reduce procrastination.