According to Psychology Today, we all Procrastinate when faced with certain activities or tasks. What makes a difference is the degree to which we procrastinate. So, how can we describe Procrastination? It mostly refers to the act of delaying the things that we need to do, regardless whether we actually want to, or just need to do them.

Although when we think about this type of undesired delays we do not necessarily associate them with issues such as retirement savings, income taxes deadlines or missed medical appointments, these are some of the examples illustrated on psychology websites.

How many people are true procrastinators?

Some psychologists make a distinction between what seems like procrastination and what it really is, so while reading on this subject you may come across the expression pure procrastination. According to Psychological Science, the word is defined by some experts as a "voluntary delay of some important task that we intend to do, despite knowing that we’ll suffer as a result".

Also, there is a distinction between the act of procrastinating at a certain point and being a procrastinator, so pure procrastination is often associated with chronic procrastination. According to experts such as Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University, the term chronic procrastination would apply to 20 percent of people, which he describes as a large percentage.

Why do people still procrastinate?

As procrastinating usually implies negative effects, for instance, a low productivity, if we think about it we may be tempted to assume that after a person or another procrastinates a few times, that person would become aware of the disadvantages of this voluntary attitude of delaying. In the case of true procrastinators as experts put it, the disadvantages resulting as an outcome of their delays are simply not enough to make them avoid procrastination in the future, not even in the near future.

What’s the paradox? According to some experts, this kind of attitude would actually be a behavioral paradox which has a lot to do with the emotional aspects of procrastination, as illustrated on psychologicalscience.org: "Ironically, the very quest to relieve stress in the moment might prevent procrastinators from figuring out how to relieve it in the long run."

Are you a procrastinator? If so, do you think you are a pure procrastinator or do you just procrastinate once in awhile?
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