Perna:

I tend to see procrastination differently: it seems to me that one can become a procrastinator in different ways, e.g.:

Some people are very scared of failure, have little self-confidence, and believe it would be awful to fail or to not get the assignment done on time. Their fears cause them to be slow and prone to make mistakes...or prone to give up early when faced with a tough task.

Other people may be confident, perhaps over-confident to the extent that they do not allow enough time to do the job. Other people may believe they are doing a better job that is realistic, so they turn in a D paper thinking it is surely an A paper. Some reasonably confident people set very high standards for the final product which they can't achieve...so they give up and often don't turn in any paper at all.

I agree with Dr. Steel that several factors are related to procrastination, such as unpleasantness of the task, impulsiveness, distractions, the extent one values completing the task, time involved, and how much time a personis willing to give, etc.

Much of putting things off is just a habit, not genetic. What do you think?? I discuss procrastination near the end of my Chapter 4. It is an important habit to get under control.

drclay