Procrastination: Self-regulation in initiating aversive goals

Procrastination is a common phenomenon that is easily recognised as one of the behaviours involved in not doing and avoiding work. However, work motiv ation theories have not devoted much attention to why people don't do thing s at work. Just as the study of abnormal behaviour is used to understand no rmal behaviour, so can the study of procrastination enhance the understandi ng of self-regulation. In this paper, procrastination is defined as the avo idance of the implementation of an intention. It is characterised by the av oidance of the intention and the preference for behaviour or thoughts that distract from the aversiveness of the intention. Individual difference vari ables, processes, and conditions are identified. Strategies to overcome pro crastination are suggested.