The Real Causes of Procrastination

At the 2014 SENG Conference, I snuck out from behind my booth to visit a few sessions. One was about procrastination and gifted students, presented by Joanne Foster, author of the upcoming Not Now, Maybe Later.

My key takeaway was that procrastination is more nuanced than simple laziness. Joanne actually listed twelve different types of procrastination. Here are some of the different types:

• Fear: some people wait until the last minute because they’re afraid to tackle something difficult.
• Confidence: perhaps they know they and handle it, so they leave only that last minute for the task.
• Busy-ness: maybe the child is over-committed and waits until the last minute because that’s the only minute they have.

I related to “Pressure Pot” procrastination, in which someone enjoys the thrill of getting everything ready in a short amount of time. It adds an extra challenge and can appear impressive to have “just whipped it together.”

When students wait too long to start, be careful not to immediately accuse them of laziness, but consider the root cause. Are they scared, overwhelmed, confident, unchallenged, or something else?