Title: Procrastination and Emotion Management

Hook: Procrastination is a widespread common human behavior that we all suffer from. Most of us have been there, delaying homework assignments telling ourselves “I’ll do it tomorrow” before you know it, it’s the night before the assignments is due, sure, you had all the intentions in the world to submit the assignment days before. However, you sat there and decide instead to reply to work emails or maybe you decided instead to catch up with an old friend; hoping that by doing so you would be put in the ‘mood” to complete the task you have been putting off. In a meta-analysis “The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure.” By author Piers Steel, from the University of Calgary, states, “The voluntary delay of an intended action despite knowing that one will probably be worse off for the delay illustrated in the above scenarios is how research psychologists have defined procrastination.” (e.g., Steel, 2007) In other words, when we envision task that seem boring or difficult; we create negative feelings that can make us feel bad which make procrastinating worse than if you were to complete the task instead. Researchers have established procrastination is not a form of “laziness” or bad time management, there is a correlation between procrastination and emotion management. Dr. Tim Pychyl, professor of psychology and member of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa, states, “Procrastination isn’t a unique character flaw or a mysterious curse on your ability to manage time, but a way of coping with challenging emotions and negative moods induced by certain tasks” (Lieberman 2) The author further states that procrastination is an emotion management problem not a problem with productivity. Knowing that procrastination is dangerous deep down we know delaying these tasks will only continue to mentally torment us in the process of our procrastination, so, why do we continue to do this to ourselves? It is important to aim to shed light on the importance of managing emotions to not avoid feeling specific emotions. For these reasons, people should recognize that procrastination is a matter of emotion management because envisioning tasks creates specific negative emotions, so you avoid doing them creating short-term mood repairs.

Paragraph 1: Difficulty in managing emotions.

Topic Sentence: One reason for procrasting people should recognize is that procrastination is due to difficulty in managing emotions because certain task creates specific emotions. In a study “Overcome procrastination: Enhancing emotion regulation skills reduce procrastination” by expert for procrastination and stress, emotion regulation, communication and school psychology, Marcus Eckert states, “In an attempt to explain this widespread and potentially harmful phenomenon, several authors have proposed that negative emotions are an important antecedent of procrastination.” For instance, when people are sad or upset, they are more likely to procrastinate. Furthermore, research reveals “Increases negative feelings such as shame or guilt (Fee & Tangney, 2000), increases symptoms of serious mental health problems such as depression (e.g., Strongman & Burt, 2000)

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Paragraph 2: Short-term mood repair

Topic Sentence: Another reason more people should recognize it that procrastination is a short-term mood repair.

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Paragraph 3: rewire brain to rethink positive emotions of how you will feel when the task is over.

Topic Sentence: It is important to rewire your brain to focus on how you will feel when the task is over.

Quote #1: “This is why solutions to procrastination may involve tricking or rewiring the brain, by offering a bigger short-term reward than avoidance or by being purposeful with self-forgiveness when procrastination does occur.”

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Rebuttal: Some may argue that people should not fall into self-doubt/pitty. While this is an arguable statement it is important to consider not everyone has the same abilities to handle emotions on their own and may need additional support.

Conclusion: Overall, this essay discusses some of the major associations between procrastination and emotion management. Among causes of difficulty in managing emotions and short-term mood repair, it is important to first deal with these causes that have been given little attention or that more people should be aware of. This may include being more forgiving of yourself when you do find yourself procrastinating. Another tactic to better improve your procrastination may be practicing more self-compassion which can mean being more kind to yourself as Dr. Pychyl suggests.

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