Procrastination and force-field analysis

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." Douglas Adams.

In this post, I want to explore how a whole system approach using force-field analysis can provide a more nuanced and personalised understanding of procrastination.

Most of the advice on overcoming procrastination contains the implicit or explicit assumption that procrastination is dysfunctional — it's a behavioural aberration. I find it more helpful to think of it as an adaptive response pattern. It's your brain's way of alerting you to the fact that there's some sort of conflict going on.

If you try to understand what your brain is attempting to alert you to, you have a better chance of finding a way of dealing with procrastination that works for you.

Most people who offer advice on procrastination either never had a problem with it themselves or, if they did, they are basing their advice on what worked for them. But the root causes of their procrastination may be different from your root causes. So, it's probably worth trying to work out what causes your procrastination so that you can create your own unique solution. Force-field analysis is one way of doing that.

Types of forces

Force-field analysis is a management tool for understanding the factors within a situation that make it more or less likely for something to happen. This makes it a useful tool to understand what is going on in procrastination — where something that ought to be happening isn't.

At a basic level, there are two types of forces — towards and away-from. Towards forces increase the chances of something happening and away-from forces decrease them.

It can also be useful to differentiate between push forces and pull forces. Push forces are all about the motivation to avoid negative things (threats), whereas pull forces are about pursuing positive things (opportunities).

When discussing forces that relate to human motivations, it's probably most sensible to consider basic human needs.

The system of forces in procrastination

A lot of discussion on procrastination portrays it as a dysfunctional trait of the individual, and a lot of advice on how to tackle it is directed at fixing the individual so that they function better.

I have found it much more helpful to think about the whole system and to consider the relationships between the individual (you), the task and the environment in which it's all happening.

This means there are three potential relationships you could examine: you-to-task, you-to-environment and environment-to-task. Whilst it would be interesting and potentially important to explore how the environment shapes the task to make it more or less procrastination-inducing, that's not the focus of this post. Instead, we'll focus on the two relationships that include the individual and their needs.

The relationship between you and the task

The forces acting in this relationship are related to how the characteristics of the task interact with your current level of need satisfaction. They can be divided into:

• Attracting forces, pulling you towards engaging with the task. These are aspects of the task (or just the act of undertaking and completing it) that you may perceive as providing an opportunity to satisfy your currently unsatisfied needs.
• Repelling forces, pushing you away from engaging with the task. These are aspects of the task (or just the act of starting it) that you may perceive as representing a threat to your currently satisfied needs.

The relationship between you and your environment

The forces acting in this relationship are related to how the context in which you are operating impacts your current level of need satisfaction. They can be divided into:

• Compelling forces, pushing you towards engaging with the task. These are aspects of your environment that you perceive as a threat to your currently satisfied needs.
• Distracting forces, pulling you away from engaging with the task. These are aspects of your environment that you perceive as opportunities to satisfy your currently unsatisfied needs.

The balance of forces

The extent to which the towards forces (Attracting and Compelling) stack up against the away-from forces (Repelling and Distracting) will determine your likelihood of engaging with the task.

If the away-from forces are much stronger than the towards forces, your likelihood of engaging with the task is low.

Instead of viewing it as a dysfunctional behaviour, procrastination can be viewed as one valid (if passive) method for dealing with this imbalance of forces — wait until the towards forces have grown sufficiently to overpower the away-from forces. In some cases, this may be completely legitimate. Some people need the energy that a certain level of stress provides to overcome the away-from forces. The knack is to be able to find the most appropriate 'stress window', where the Compelling force of the stress is enough to get you moving but before it flips to anxiety and becomes another Repelling force.

For complex or creative tasks, you may also need to allow time for non-conscious mental processing to happen (incubation). Sometimes, your gut tells you that you're not ready for the task. A good technique in this case is to engage with the task for a short time and then stop. Go and do something else undemanding — preferably something vaguely related to the task — and let your non-conscious mind get to work on it. This sometimes produces sparks of insight that transform the Attracting or Repelling forces between you and the task. In some cases, you might even carry on with the task once started, but knowing that you intend to stop makes starting it less risky.

A slightly more active method for dealing with this imbalance is to identify the various forces acting on you in a particular situation, evaluate which forces are having the most influence on you, and to determine which of those forces you might be able to change.

Before I look at that in a bit more detail, it's useful to have a little detour into needs.

Human needs

I'm not going to go into detail here about what might or might not be fundamental human needs. So many people (including me) have produced 'definitive' frameworks of human needs and nobody seems to be able to agree about them. So, I'm just going to mention a few that seem relevant to procrastination because of how they interact with certain task characteristics. If you think I've missed any, please feel free to fill in the gaps.

• Interaction — the need to engage with other people. Tasks that are isolating can be a threat to this.
• Reciprocity — the need to perceive a balance between your efforts and other people's efforts. Tasks where you perceive unfairness can be a threat.
• Stimulation — the need to have new and interesting information feeding your senses. Boring and repetitive tasks can be a threat.
• Predictability — the need to be able to have some idea of what comes next. Ill-defined tasks or tasks with uncertain outcomes can be a threat.
• Mastery — the need to see oneself as capable of developing competence. Tasks with steep learning curves or limited opportunity for learning can be a threat.
• Certainty — the need to believe that your ways of thinking and acting are the most appropriate. Tasks where you have previously been unsuccessful can be a threat.
• Performance — the need to be seen by others as competent and effective. Tasks with a high risk of visible failure can be a threat.
• Affirmation — the need to receive positive reinforcement from others. Tasks with limited opportunity for obtaining feedback can be a threat.
• Autonomy — the need to feel in control of your own actions and reactions. Compulsory tasks with few options for making choices can be a threat.
• Meaning — the need for things to be coherent, significant and purposeful. Tasks that are perceived as random, trivial or pointless can be a threat.
• Rest — the need to allow time for processing and recovery. Tasks that are relentless and exhausting can be a threat.
• Influence — the need to be perceived by others as someone to emulate or respect. Tasks that are perceived as diminishing status or power can be a threat.
• Authenticity — the need to act consistently with one's own values and self-image. Tasks that are perceived to compromise one's identity and beliefs can be a threat.

Being aware of your own needs is an important step in understanding how the forces of procrastination are acting on you in a particular situation.

It can be useful to look at these needs as either pursue needs and protect needs.

• Pursue needs are relevant to pull forces. They are needs that are not currently satisfied and so you actively seek opportunities to fulfil them.
• Protect needs are relevant to push forces. They are needs that are currently satisfied. You may be alert to any threat that might deprive you of that satisfaction.

Shifting the balance

Having gained more of an awareness of the root causes of your particular flavour of procrastination, you can then think about where to target your energies in order to have the most impact on the balance of forces. Below are a few examples. You may be able to come up with others.

Increasing Compelling forces

This entails amplifying the threats you perceive in your environment to your satisfied protect needs. To do this, you may have to engage more with your environment (embed yourself).

• What will people think of me if I procrastinate on this task (influence/performance/affirmation)?
• Who will be inconvenienced by me delaying this task (reciprocity)?
• What potentially unforeseen consequences might there be from delaying (predictability)?

Decreasing Distracting forces

This entails reducing the perceived opportunities in your environment to satisfy your pursue needs. To do this, you may have to engage less with your environment (separate yourself).

• How could that thing I'm contemplating doing instead of the task be less rewarding than I think (stimulation)?
• How might that distraction activity tire me out (rest)?
• How would it look if I were caught doing this instead of what I'm supposed to be doing? (influence/authenticity/reciprocity)?

Decreasing Repelling forces

This entails reducing the threats towards your protect needs that you perceive in the task. This may involve reframing threats as opportunities.

• Could I make a conscious choice about how long to delay this task rather than just letting it happen by default (autonomy)?
• Would I actually benefit from something boring and repetitive right now (rest/predictability)?
• Can I break this into manageable chunks (predictability/certainty/mastery)?

Increasing Attracting forces

This entails increasing the perceived opportunities to satisfy your pursue needs within the task. This might involve looking at the task in ways that amplify the opportunities.

• What could I do to make this task more interesting (stimulation) or tailor it to my strengths (authenticity)?
• How could I get a better understanding of what this task involves (predictability) and why it's necessary (meaning)?
• How could I view this as a learning experience (mastery)?

A personal example

One of the common causes I identified for some of my own procrastination was when I perceived a Repelling threat to my autonomy. When it felt like the task was something I had to do and I didn't have any choice in the matter, I was using procrastination as an act of rebellion to preserve my freedom. It was as if part of me was saying, "I'll show you who has no choice!"

Once I realised this, I decided to make this a conscious process. Every time I felt resistance towards doing an obligatory task, I would offer myself a genuine choice "You can choose to do this now and get it over with or you can choose to delay it and deal with the consequences."

And it worked. Sometimes, I still delayed the task but I did it as a conscious choice. But, quite often, I chose to get it out of the way. By offering myself a choice, I boosted my sense of autonomy and buffered it against the threat from the task.

Why eat the frog when you can befriend it?

For some unpleasant but straightforward tasks the advice to 'just get on with it' might be enough. Although, it may be as harmful as saying 'just pull yourself together' to someone experiencing distress.

A more sustainable and adaptable approach is to understand the procrastination ecosystem and work out where best to direct your efforts.