Procrastination and Regret – TPW434

Procrastination can lead to regret, which can lead to procrastination, and the cycle continues. How can we move past what's holding us back and take action toward a life that matters? We can choose to overcome our procrastinating habits and learn new ways of getting things done Often in conversations with women about productivity, the subject of procrastination comes up. Many of us struggle with getting certain things done that we need to do, or say we want to do. With procrastination often comes feelings of regret for the things we haven’t accomplished, along with other feelings that are born of the stories we tell ourselves about what this procrastination means about us.  Even the most productive of us probably procrastinate sometimes, about some things. I know I do. And I’ve been thinking lately about why we do it, what the result of it is, and how we can maybe replace the habit of procrastination with something else.  What is procrastination?  One dictionary defines procrastination as “the action of delaying or postponing something”. According to an article in Vogue France, “Procrastination derives from the Latin word procrastinare, which means ‘deferred until tomorrow’. It’s irrational human behaviour because even though we know it’s in our best interest to act now, we delay unnecessarily.” Why do we procrastinate?  The Vogue article mentioned earlier says, “Research shows that procrastination is tied to being easily distracted, impulsive, and having low self-belief in your ability to follow through on what you set out to do.”  We might also procrastinate due to a fear of failure or because we're overwhelmed by the size and scope of the task before us. It all seems too big to accomplish (for us, anyway) or we can’t even figure out how to start. Procrastination can lead to regret Regret is defined in one dictionary as “a feeling of sadness, repentance, or disappointment over something that has happened or been done”. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, it is: “a feeling of sadness about something sad or wrong or about a mistake that you have made, and a wish that it could have been different and better”.  A Psychology Today article tells us that “Regret is a negative cognitive or emotional state that involves blaming ourselves for a bad outcome, feeling a sense of loss or sorrow at what might have been, or wishing we could undo a previous choice that we made.” One article from the Berkeley Well-Being Institute points to studies showing that “the things we’re most likely to regret are the things we didn’t do. Regrets of inaction are stronger and persist longer than regrets of action. . . . When we don’t take action, our imagination fills in the blanks about how awesome the outcome could have been. This leads our minds to generate more regret as we compare what currently is with what could have been (Roese & Summerville, 2005; Gilovich & Medvec, 1994).” This really resonated with me. When I take a step back and look honestly, I recognize that I get a lot done. Yet it’s easy to dismiss all that and focus on those things I haven’t done and feel bad about it.   As one writer puts it, “Regret isn’t just wishing events had gone differently; it also involves an inherent aspect of self-blame and even guilt.”