There has been a delay in my blog posts. A little ironic given the title of my blog, Don't Delay, I suppose. The editors of Psychology Today gave this title to my blog back in 2008; the first blog to deal with the topic of procrastination. In fact, I wouldn't say "don't delay." I delay all the time. So do you.
The thing is, not all delay is procrastination. Certainly my summer hiatus from blog writing was not procrastination. I had no intention of writing.
I have an intention today - a very clear one. I want to share some research results that are "hot off the press" as they might say in old-fashion newspaper speak. This research delineates 6 kinds of delay, two of which we consider procrastination.
My most senior doctoral student, Mohsen Haghbin, is months from completing his dissertation. His research has involved creating a better measure of procrastination (something I'll write about later, pardon the pun), as well as a Delay Questionnaire, which he calls the "DQ."
The DQ was constructed using many carefully crafted scenarios about different kinds of delay in our lives. Based on participants' ratings of these scenarios and analysis of patterns in these ratings, Mohsen identified 6 types of delay: Irrational/Needless, Hedonistic, Inevitable, Purposeful, Arousal, and Delay due to Psychological Distress.
Quite a list, isn't it? My summer writing delay with the blog was part Purposeful Delay (I wanted/needed/deserved a break from my computer) and part Inevitable Delay (or unavoidable) as my children's summer holidays meant a signficant change of focus for me as well. No procrastination.
In contrast, the Irrational/Needless and Hedonistic types of delay define the procrastinatory space in our lives. We're either putting things off when it's in our own best interest to act because we're using task avoidance to cope (putting things off to future self) or seeking immediate pleasure quite explicitly (no intentions made even on important tasks while we're busy having fun). In both cases, we're "giving in to feel good," typically at a long-term cost to our goals.
For the sake of completeness (while keeping this brief), I'll note that arousal delay is highly related to hedonistic delay, and it does remind me that although we don't work better under pressure, some people use this pressure to motivate themselves. And, it's worth noting that Delay due to Psychological Distress is a special case, one that philosopher Al Mele argues keeps one apart from the criticism of procrastination or weakness of will. As he notes in his writing on weakness of will, only the non-depressed agent can be considered to have a weakness of will per se. When we face psychological dysfunction such as depression, delay may best be understood as a symptom.
I think Mohsen's research is incredibly important, and I will return to it in this blog later in the year - another purposeful delay as I await the results of yet another student's research on the fallacy of the notion of active procrastination. In the end, I hope to clarify further what we mean by procrastination in relation to other forms of delay, because delay takes many forms in our lives, some quite sagacious and others quite self-defeating.
What kind of delay interests or troubles you? Understanding the difference is important.