Reply to emails? Tomorrow. Fill out that Excel spreadsheet for accounting? Maybe later. Many people have a tendency to procrastinate at work, which can sometimes be detrimental.
Fortunately, researchers in Japan may have found out how to combat this tendency to keep putting things off. The key may lie in being optimistic about the future.
Indeed, previous studies have shown that procrastinators put everything off until tomorrow because they live in the moment. They do everything they can to feel good right now, which leads them to postpone any task that seems unpleasant to perform.
Moreover, they have a certain disregard for the future and how their actions might affect future outcomes, because it all seems so far away in time.
Researchers from the University of Tokyo thus wondered whether procrastinators would stop putting this off if they had a more positive frame of mind towards the future. They tested this theory with 296 people in their 20s, asking them about their experiences over the past 10 years and their expectations for the next 10.
The academics used the volunteers’ answers and outlook to classify them into four groups, in turn subdivided into three categories of individuals: severe, moderate, or low-level procrastinators.
It turns out that people with a generally positive attitude towards the future are less likely to be major procrastinators. “Optimistic people – those who believe stress does not increase as we move into the future – are less likely to have severe procrastination habits,” said study co-author Saya Kashiwakura.
Furthermore, Kashiwakura and colleagues found that optimism influenced not only the level of stress felt by volunteers, but also their procrastination behaviour over a 20-year period. In other words, those who are not stressed about the future are less likely to put off what they could be doing today.
Surprisingly, the authors of this research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, found no direct link between procrastination and a negative perception of personal wellbeing such as low self-esteem or a lack of purpose in life.
Procrastination may, therefore, be linked to a fear of the future and not to a lack of organisation, as we often hear. Nurturing optimism means no longer being afraid of tackling all those little professional tasks that seem boring or difficult to achieve.
As such, it’s important to have confidence in your ability to succeed now and in the future, so you don’t get overwhelmed at work. Maybe that’s how you can finally tick everything off your to-do list.