| abstract
| - Procrastination can be seen as both a behavior and the lack of a behavior. The behavior is the act of turning away and doing something else in place of what the procrastinator should be doing. The lacking behavior is of course the task or activity that the procrastinator should be working on, such as homework. There are three ways to procrastinate: skip it, do it last, and escape. 1.
* Skipping it: here, even though the task is foregone forever, it is the program that is being put off. When a person skips brushing his teeth, he is putting off his whole "keep the teeth clean so they won't get cavities" program. It's like he is saying "I'll start brushing my teeth tomorrow." 2.
* Doing it last: easiest / most pleasant / least unpleasant tasks tend to be done first. When there's a big job to do, and a long list of things to accomplish in order for that job to be completed, the tendency is to work on the simplest tasks. As long as the items on the list are getting done, the job feels like it is being completed, and the procrastinator lulls him or herself into a false sense of security. This approach becomes a problem when all the easy chores are done but there isn't enough time left to complete the hardest tasks because they were put off until last! Also, new alternative tasks may come up again and again, so that the main task is never started. 3.
* Escape: the procrastinator instead does something he enjoys doing, choosing short-term gratification over long-term gain, at the cost of the benefits he would receive from doing the task he put off. This takes his mind off the (stressful) task he should be doing, or the situation he should be dealing with. This can lead to a pattern of addiction, where the more the procrastinator escapes, the more guilty he feels about not doing what he is supposed to be doing, creating more stress to escape from, leading him to continue the alternate activity so he doesn't have to think about it. But procrastination isn't necessarily the mere lack of doing something, it is something that is causing the procrastinator not to do it. In this sense procrastination isn't the behaviors done or not done, but is a behavior unto itself. As a distinct behavior, procrastination can be characterized in several ways...
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