THE ART OF WASTING TIME

Anna Pride

Augusta, Georgia

It is three in the morning, and a haggard man puts the finishing touches on a presentation that he has had a month to complete. A bright young boy scurries around the backyard collecting bugs for his big science project due the next morning. A grown woman packs at two in the morning for her six-thirty business trip. A man disappoints his wife with a gift of socks for Christmas, which was all he could find on Christmas Eve. What is wrong with these people? Have they been stricken with mononucleosis or chronic fatigue syndrome? A death in the family? Why do normal, intelligent people fritter their time away; and wait till the last possible moment to do the necessary? In a word, procrastination.

This phenomenon defies logic. Every other ugly duty is "gotten over with." We gulp down our proverbial green beans, always saving the best for last. Retirement comes after work, M&Ms after nasty medicine, and a soak in the tub after you scour it. It follows that every other distasteful job would be treated the same way. Aunt Nelda’s birthday present, the big research paper, a visit to the dentist and the cat’s bath should be gotten over with like our green beans and medicine For many people, however, they aren’t.

Procrastination is not just a bad habit; it is a condition of mind that has some serious causes and consequences. Far too often substandard work is the result of putting things off until the last moment. When we procrastinate, we don’t actually enjoy the time we waste. Instead, we add to our stress level by letting a project worry us for an extended period of time. To understand this paradoxical and self-defeating approach to challenging situations, we must assess what the process of procrastination involves. This common practice of wasting time has both physiological and mental causes and effects.

The art of procrastinating has been developed by humans as a method of coping. It is said that when faced with an overwhelming situation, we either have to laugh or cry. Many of us, on the other hand, just procrastinate. Daunting tasks tax all our faculties and need to be put aside if we are to complete our other duties. Some problems can be too challenging or too far out of our range of experience. If we started early and devoted ourselves to writing that speech, studying for that exam, or firing that friend, we would have time for little else. The bills wouldn’t get paid, the kids wouldn’t get fed, and the goldfish would go belly up. When asked to choose between carrying out our necessary everyday roles and performing an overwhelming task, the choice is easy: we do the small stuff.

When consequences are lose-lose, we are forced to choose the lesser of two evils. The choice between two situations that both have potentially negative consequences is called an avoidance-avoidance choice by psychologists. According to Rod Plotnic, "as the time to decide in an avoidance-avoidance situation grows near, we often change our minds many times. Usually we wait until the last minute before making the final decision and (then) deal with the disagreeable consequences" (503). An avoidance-avoidance conflict is like having two crying babies to change and only one diaper. After the unpleasant task is completed, we still have one crying baby with a dirty diaper. On these occasions, procrastination is an ironic attempt to save our sanity.

We have all been told that everything has a time and a place. Procrastination is a subconscious way of letting us know that we are attempting a project at the wrong time. All challenges need to ferment in our minds. Procrastination is an attempt to buy more of this necessary reflection time. The conscious intellect understands all too well that the paper is due tomorrow, but all that the brute database will under stand is that more time is necessary to collate, organize, and assimilate the three Russian novels that were just read. We often need to mull over the details of a situation before we act. In order to make an intelligent decision when buying a car, for example, we have to consider the range of models, prices, and payment plans.

Procrastination can also be a matter of stalling. The brain needs more time to do its work, so the will begins to filibuster. Just as when we need sleep, we yawn, and when we need water, our throats get dry: when we haven’t taken ample time to debate a topic, we feel an over-powering urge to procrastinate.

For every task and for every person there is an optimum level of arousal. This level is controlled by our nervous system in a function called homeostasis, which is "the tendency of the autonomic nervous system to maintain the body’s internal environment in a balanced state of optimum functioning"(Plotnic 63). The nervous system regulates hormone and chemical levels in the body and when faced with a challenge, attempts to bring us to an appropriate level of functioning. This is why our hearts race when we see blue lights and hear a siren and why a hero has such steely calm in a life-or-death situation. If this perfect level of functioning is not reached, we often don’t feel motivated even to attempt a task. Clearing hurdles at a track meet requires a high level of arousal. Writing a good paper, or drafting a proposal, requires a sharpness not usually present in the routine of everyday life. People who work well under pressure have a high optimum level of arousal. Our autonomic nervous system brings us to the perfect level of mental awareness necessary to accomplish each task. For this reason, we often procrastinate until the appropriate hormonal and chemical levels are reached -- that is, until the heat is on.

One can go overboard with this concept, of course. The problems associated with procrastination arise when we wait too long, attempt a project too large, and are too overly aroused or burnt out to function optimally. Such a circumstance is in direct contradiction to the Yerkes-Doddson law, which states that easy tasks require high levels of arousal and difficult tasks require medium to low levels of arousal (Rathus 254). In other words, you can’t take a math test when you are stimulated to the point of tears.

Many a night I have wondered why I am still wide awake on the eastern side of midnight. I have had plenty of time to complete the project at hand, yet there I sit. Is it because I have single-handedly consumed two pots of coffee? Is it just because I need more time to process the information? Or was the assignment just too overwhelming to complete in daylight hours? Perhaps I can tell my professor that I could not reach my optimum level of arousal, and, thus, my paper will be on her desk by Friday. I call only console myself with the thought that I am not alone.

Procrastinators, however, should take heart. Some of the best things in life wouldn’t be the same without procrastination. After all, a good wine isn’t a fine wine until it has spent some time in a cool cellar. And a quick stew may be "all right," but a stew that has been procrastinating in the pot all day is worth the wait. The French say that you’re not a woman till you’re forty -- is this procrastination in disguise? As long as people don’t procrastinate for too long, good things do come to those who wait.

Works Cited

Plotnik, Rod. Introduction to Psychology. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1993.

Rathus, Spencer A. Essentials of Psychology. 2nd ed. New York: Holt, 1989.