When You Have a Procrastinating Client or Colleague, Time Management Will Not Work

A star associate at your firm working for your legal team who brings in a lot of work to the firm repetitively fails to respect the deadline for filing timesheets, resulting in delays in payment for work done and impacting the cashflow of the firm. You passed on feedback in the annual performance review and have received many promises that this issue will be tackled. You have just had a phone call from a company you regularly advise; they are declaring bankruptcy and now cannot pay for months and months of legal work undertaken by your star candidate, who had never filed timesheets for services rendered.

You are working at the law firm under a brilliant partner with an international legal background. Together you are dealing with a foreign jurisdiction with a different time zone, making court submissions difficult to affect in a timely manner. This is a high-pressure case, and the managing partner reminds you both repeatedly that the reputation of the firm and potential to open a new market for clients are at stake. The partner reviews the documents needed to be submitted over and over again and agrees to file the final submissions. But the partner leaves it until the last day and the final hour. A family emergency arises, and the partner files the submissions late—rendering them inadmissible.

You have a client whom you have known for many years and who has been affiliated with your firm for well over a dozen years. That client has financial resources for your continued consulting. But this client has a long history of never submitting files, papers, and material you have needed to effectively support his legal needs. The client fails to return phone calls, email messages, or texts. When scheduled for appointments, the client shows up late or reschedules. When asked, gently, about these tendencies, the client always seems to have a realistic, believable excuse. Still, there seems to be no change in the client’s behavior.

You have an associate in your law office, a colleague, who seems to be a “rising star.” The colleague has stellar law degree training (from an outstanding institution) and was a law clerk in a prestigious judge’s court. Now with your firm for the past couple of years, the colleague has just litigated and won a major case, bringing local and national attention to the firm. Another major case has come into the firm, so you ask this colleague to be the lead attorney. That request was over three weeks ago, and there has been no follow-up, little contact with the litigants, and not much happening. When you ask the colleague for the latest status, with the court date looming, the person answers, “working on it . . . don’t want to reveal it to others until I have it perfect.” Interim case steps get delays, so you wait, and wait, and wait, and. . . .

Why are these situations so common, so relatable? Is procrastination what is really happening? The short answer is maybe. There are rarely any absolutes in psychological research.

The scenarios tell the stories of a colleagues and clients who may have a fear of failure. If they never or seldom have legal situations finished (unless a judge rules that the case has been going too long), then failure is never real. Instead, excuse after excuse after excuse is offered. And because you do not want to offend or you trust the person, you accept those excuses. Oh, the client calls them “reasons,” but if there is this pattern, they are most likely “excuses.”

In the scenarios, we see stories of a star associates and colleagues who, while successful once, may be unsure that success would be maintained and have a fear of success. If they believe they cannot maintain a high level of performance, they may delay in order not to be asked for additional challenging situations. There is a fear of success that might not always show a positive public face on job performance.

But these scenarios have much more information to teach us, so let me begin.

How It Began

In the late 1980s, there were practically no scholarly publications on the topic of procrastination. Understanding the causes and consequences, and maybe the cures, to chronic procrastination from a social-personality psychology perspective was nonexistent. There were a few papers on “writer’s block” and on “career indecision,” but those are not procrastination. It is now over 35 years later and I still explore this maladaptive lifestyle (see the side bar with a list of scholarly texts and book chapters of interest on procrastination).

Over the years (especially in the ‘90s) when research on procrastination began to increase, scholars stated, “this is not a serious problem” and “it’s not that major.” In 1995 the first major data-based text was published. Procrastination is not just delaying, waiting, postponing, or dawdling. It’s delaying the start or finish of a task to the point of feeling discomfort. Later, in 2010 as additional scholarship was collected, the definition expanded to note that this purposive delay is irrational to success or reaching a goal or completing a task. It is an active avoidance strategy. And it is maladaptive. For scientists, procrastinators are persons [women and men; there is no significant gender difference] who delay the start or completion of tasks across situations and time and feel uncomfortable—are upset—not to finish. This delay is irrational and counterproductive to reaching goals.

Returning to the star candidate, partner, client, and colleague scenarios above, we need to assess the following: Are they delaying only around legal issues [client] or just when asked to meet deadlines at work [colleague]? If the person only delays in one context, in one situation, then the individual is “procrastinating.” But the individual would not be a “procrastinator.” We all may delay a task we do not want to do because of fears or because it is hard, or because we find it boring or unpleasant. But that does not make one a procrastinator—just someone who delays. In contrast, procrastinators delay at home, at work, in relationships, when dealing with others, when they must make decisions. You might be surprised by the prevalence of individuals who procrastinate as a maladaptive lifestyle.

How Common Is Procrastination?

People in the United States are not procrastinating more now, in the 21st century, than in the past. In a 1991 published study, Joseph R. Ferrari, Compulsive Procrastination: Some Self-Reported Characteristics, 68 Psych. Reps. 455 (1991), it was reported that 20 percent of adult women and men self-identify as “chronic procrastinators,” meaning they purposively delay tasks at home, for school, at work, and in relationships, appointments, etc. This style is their lifestyle.

Prevalence of 20 percent among women and men, without psychiatric disorders, is higher than for persons diagnosed with depression, substance abuse or alcoholism, and panic attacks. Please realize we are referring to a maladaptive lifestyle impacting relationships, home life, work-related situations, academic behaviors, etc. These 20 percent chronic procrastinators don’t RSVP on time, fail to mail greeting cards on time for celebrations, wait until the gas tank is empty before refilling, have food spoiling in the refrigerator because it got old, receive third late notes for paying bills, stay up late at night unable to go to bed, etc. This is their lifestyle.

And we like procrastinators because they are very sociable people. Joseph R. Ferrari, A Preference for a Favorable Public Impression by Procrastinators: Selecting Among Cognitive and Social Tasks, 12 Personality & Individual Differences 1233 (1991). The issue is, however, that we excuse their lateness over and over and over and . . . . It’s serious; it is not funny. Procrastinators are not lazy; they work hard on avoiding tasks and situations that might reveal their strengths, and weaknesses, to others and to themselves. Joseph R Ferrari, Self-handicapping by Procrastinators: Protecting Self-esteem, Social-esteem, or Both?, 25 J. Rsch. in Personality 245 (1991); Joseph R. Ferrari, Procrastination and Project Creation: Choosing Easy, Nondiagnostic Items to Avoid Self-relevant Information, 6 J. Soc. Behav. & Personality 619 (1991). We continue to represent the client and work with colleagues noted above despite their delay tendencies.

But a prevalence rate of 20 percent reflects that it is not isolated or affecting only a few people. There are many people who report—who see themselves and are seen by others—as chronic procrastinators. Joseph R. Ferrari, Still Procrastinating? The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done (2010); Joseph R. Ferrari & Nicole Landreth, “Guess I Am a Procrastinator”: Self and Other Perceptions Among Rural US Citizens, 16 N. Am. J. Psych. 121 (2014). The prevalence of procrastination has not risen; instead, the media and social scientists are discussing/studying the topic more often. There is a need to examine the causes and consequences of chronic procrastination across the US, to show it is alone not a “‘procrastiNATION’ Thomas P. Tibbett & Joseph R. Ferrari, The U.S. as a ProcrastiNATION: Assessing Indecision on Life Satisfaction and Life Regret, 20 N. Am. J. Psych. 111 (2018). We are not demonizing procrastinators, just noting it is common because it is learned, and it can be unlearned. See Ferrari, Still Procrastinating?, supra.

Still, remember this maladaptive lifestyle is not just a US thing. In the past 30 years, this rate is rather consistent and across many other countries. A 20 percent procrastination prevalence was found globally: in England and Australia (Joseph R. Ferrari, Jean O’Callaghan & Ian Newbegin, Prevalence of Procrastination in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia: Arousal and Avoidance Delays Among Adults, 7 N. Am. J. Psych. 1 (2005)); in Ireland, (Susan Lavin, Joseph R. Ferrari & Sarah Sinnamon, Procrastination and Internet Addiction: Examining Personality Factors Among U.S. and Irish University Students (poster), 9th Biennial Procrastination Rsch. Conf. (Bielefeld Univ., Germany, July 9–10, 2015)); in Canada, Spain, Peru, and Venezuela, (Juan Francisco Díaz-Morales, Joseph R. Ferrari, Karem Diaz & Doris Argumedo, Procrastination and Demographic Characteristics in Spanish Adults: Further Evidence, 146 J. Soc. Psych. 629 (2006)); in Poland and Italy, (Marco Mariani & Joseph Ferrari, Adult Inventory of Procrastination Scale (AIP): A Comparison of Models with an Italian Sample, 19 TPM-Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psych. 3 (2012)); in Austria, South Korea, and Japan, (Miki Nomura & Joseph R. Ferrari, Factor Structure of a Japanese Version of the Adult Inventory of Procrastination Scale: Delay Is Not Culture Specific, 20 N. Am. J. Psych. 223 (2018)); in Turkey, (Joseph R. Ferrari, Bilge Uzun Ozer & Ayhan Demir, Chronic Procrastination Among Turkish Adults: Exploring Decisional, Avoidant, and Arousal Styles, 149 J. Soc. Psych. 402 (2009)); and in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and India, to name just a few nations.

Because we find high chronic procrastination rates around the world, without a significant gender difference, it suggests this tendency is not some unique Western lifestyle issue. It is more than just a tendency to delay or wait. Instead, it means we need to consider the impact of procrastination on our lives. And keep in mind, you are not alone; procrastinators must not withdraw and self-shame over the chronic maladaptive lifestyle.

Where Does It Come From—Nature or Nurture?

There is a common belief heard over and over—a growing belief in the press and even by some scholars—that people are “born procrastinators.” This belief is not true.

We are not born a procrastinator; we are not the product of “bad genes” from our parents. We learn procrastination as a way of life, to avoid responsibility, to complete or begin tasks.

Several studies looked at the origins of procrastination, from within one’s family. In one study, Joseph R. Ferrari & Michael J. Olivette, Perceptions of Parental Control and the Development of Indecision Among Late Adolescent Females, 28 Adolescence 963 (1993), women were surveyed on their reflections of their parents’ parenting style and their tendency toward indecision (what scholars call decisional procrastination). Results found that women who reported indecisiveness claimed controlling, demanding family environments.

A second study extended results with behavioral procrastination, finding that for women, procrastination tendencies begin with authoritarian parents who take rules seriously, and they want their kids to know it. They are not particularly warm, are not keen on excuses, and expect obedience. This style seems to lead to a failure to bond emotionally as well as rebellious behavior, anxiety, and delinquency. In our study, it seems to lead to procrastination tendencies too.

These studies prompted diving deeper into family settings and these learned behaviors. In one study, women and men participants completed procrastination measures and an inventory on the quality of their relationship with mom, dad, best friend same sex, and best friend opposite sex. In addition, the parents of the sample participants also completed the same decisional and behavioral procrastination measures. Joseph R. Ferrari et al., The Social Support Networks of Procrastinators: Friends or Family in Times of Trouble?, 26 Personality & Individual Differences 321 (1998).

Dads (not moms) have the parental influence on kids to become procrastinators. Mom, you are off the hook this time (because, usually, Freud blames you for everything). And that dad was authoritarian—cold, demanding, believing “as long as you live under this roof, you do as I say.” Procrastinators reported a high conflict, shallow, and distant relationship with dad. Perhaps the child could not rebel so the only way to maintain some independence was to procrastinate (which probably made dad even angrier!).

Furthermore, procrastinators (women and men) turned to their friends, not their family, for social support when times were rough. Joseph R. Ferrari et al., id., Sure, if you lose a job or a relationship goes sour, your friends will feel bad for you and may comfort you. Your family, if you are a procrastinator and this happens often, instead say things like, “there you go again!” We do not want to hear that.

Perhaps you are thinking: “those cited studies are only self-reported and seem to be mostly correlations; what do we know genetically about procrastinators?”

In July 2017, at the 10th Biennial Procrastination Research Conference at DePaul, in Chicago, IL, an important presentation was made. Gustavson and Mikake compared identical twins on procrastination tendencies and found that less than 50 percent of the common variance was attributable to genetics. Daniel E. Gustavson & Akira Miyake, Genetic Influences on Procrastination Underlie Its Correlations with Personality, Cognition, and Psychopathology (paper presentation), 10th Biennial Procrastination Rsch. Conf. (DePaul Univ., Chicago, IL, July 13–14, 2017).

By the way, the Ferrari et al. study discussed above (Ferrari et al., The Social Support Networks, supra) also showed no correlation between parents and their children’s reporting of procrastination rates. Tibbett and Ferrari examined what develops into a procrastinator identity. They found across three randomized partitions that indecision (decisional procrastination) and regrets about education, career, and finances most increased the likelihood of identifying as a procrastinator. Thomas P. Tibbett & Joseph R. Ferrari, Return to the Origin: What Creates a Procrastination Identity?, 7 Current Issues in Personality Psych. 1 (2019). Dutta, Truax, and Bouchard replicated and supported the earlier developmental studies reported above, suggesting that procrastination is learned. Ranjana Dutta, Jordyn P. Truax & Joshua Bouchard, General and Domain-Specific Delays in Students and Their Relationship to Parenting. (paper presentation), 10th Biennial Procrastination Rsch. Conf. (DePaul Univ., Chicago, IL, July 13–14, 2017). Uzun, LeBlanc, Guclu, Ferrari, and Aydemir (2020) just completed a study with Turkish emerging adults, finding that family factors (family cohesion and control) mediated the relationship between life satisfaction and (academic) procrastination tendencies. B. Uzun et al., Mediation Effect of Family Environment on Academic Procrastination and Life Satisfaction: Assessing Emerging Adults (2020) (unpublished manuscript).

Taken together, its nurture, not nature, that makes your client and colleague consistently use “fraudulent excuses” (aka lies!) to gain more time for things they must get done.

What Are the Common Myths About Procrastination?

Unfortunately, folks still claim procrastination as laziness, poor time management, delay, waiting, or postponing. Some authors even try a positive spin on procrastination, claiming it is a “good thing” if we delay tasks to be done around deadlines, placing tasks in order of importance. However, that type of delay is “prioritizing,” not procrastinating. See Tibbett & Ferrari, The U.S. as a ProcrastiNATION, supra, for a summary; see Ferrari, Still Procrastinating?, supra, for details.

It is not adaptive for the client above to keep delaying prep for its cases, or for the colleague who delays prep for major cases. True, they learned to be this way. But also true—they can unlearn and change.

There are three common myths about procrastination we hear a lot. Let us review them briefly:

Myth #1: “Technology Today Makes It Easier to Procrastinate . . .”

In 2006 a newspaper reporter reported that the snooze button on alarm clocks was the first technology promoting procrastination (giving us an additional nine minutes in bed, then another nine minutes, next another nine minutes, and so on) since it was first available in 1956—50 years before. Interesting—who knew?!

However, technology has always tried to “make our life easier.” For instance, the first gas-fueled automobile engine was made by the Benz Motor Car—in 1885. No longer did one have to take hours to get his horse and buggy together to go 10 miles down the road to see his neighbor—the “horseless carriage” saved you time. Want to contact your friend at a longer distance, say, across the country? There was a time you had to write a letter, place it in the postal mail, and then wait several days (or a week) before you got a reply from the friend. Then, in 1879, a guy named Alexander Graham Bell created a technology (the phone) so we could “telephone” that friend and get a reply within minutes, instead of days.

Technology has always been available to help us, to engage us to apply less effort, to save us time. But it is not technology that promotes procrastination—it is how we use or abuse it. We cannot say our smartphone makes it easier to procrastinate (that would be using “technology” as a fraudulent excuse, aka a lie). Do we need all those apps? Or do we want those apps? We are told we must have these tech toys as soon as they become available for sale.

Myth #2: “Our Lives Are Busier Today—More to Do, More Demands on Our Time . . .”

Do the math: There are 24 hours a day x 7 days a week = 168 hours a week . . . no more, no less. Our daily calendar goes back to 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII created it, based on the months created by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, borrowed from the Egyptians, noting 365 days a year.

What is the point? Our lives today are not busier than our ancestors’ (that is a fraudulent excuse or lie). They were restricted to the same 168 hours. Our farming ancestors got up early in the morning to fix the fence, feed the animals, adjust the well, repair the roof, mend the clothes, can the foods, plant the crops, reap the crops, etc. They had busy lives, yet they managed within 168 hours. They got it done.

True, we are busy today—absolutely. But do not claim “busier” than those from the past. It is different; it is a matter of kind—not amount. We have different things that demand our time. Do not make it an excuse to say life is busier today. Instead, consider how you can adjust your life to address those demands.

There is a saying to ponder: “We can’t control the wind, but we can adjust our sails.” In fact, the Japanese like to say, “if there is no wind, row.” We cannot control all that life throws at us, but we can manage how we handle those challenges. Moreover, do—act when it seems there is inertia. Studies show time management programs will not work with chronic procrastinators because they will generate excuses for not meeting those deadlines. Right. We cannot manage time; we can only manage how we address the events of our lives happening now. Ferrari, Still Procrastinating?, supra. We must be able to manage what we can in life because there is only one shot at this journey. It is all we get. Do not focus on potential failure but possible success. We are designed to move forward; we cannot return to the past.

Myth #3: “Procrastination Is Not a Problem for Me—See, I Work Best Under Pressure.”

People say, “I need that last-minute deadline pressure to get me going, to get me excited, to get me ‘charged.’ And I do so well under that time pressure.”

Sorry, that statement is not true (it is another fraudulent excuse). In two separate experiments (see Joseph R. Ferrari, Getting Things Done on Time: Conquering Procrastination, in Coping and Copers: Adaptive Processes and People 30 (Charles R. Snyder ed., 2001), procrastinators and nonprocrastinators worked on tasks under time limits; we recorded the number of errors and task completion times. Procrastinators made more errors than nonprocrastinators. But they believed they did better—that they made fewer errors.

Some readers (maybe those focusing on academic procrastination) will say this claim must be wrong. They recall times when waiting until the last minute paid off with performing well. But we can ask them to recall times when last-minute bingeing did not pay off; if examined closely, they made more errors, more often.

Suggestions for Changing Chronic Procrastination

The information above provides a general context for understanding the causes and consequences of chronic procrastination. If readers seek additional advice on “curing” a maladaptive lifestyle as a procrastinator, they may want to consult Ferrari, Still Procrastinating?, supra.

If your client or colleague procrastinates in one context, they might consider the varied self-help books and approaches for learning to manage their life. Time management is a misnomer and poor labeling. We cannot manage time (remember, each week has 168 hours for each of us). Instead, we manage our lives. A meta-analysis of varied interventions found the least-effective approach to deal with procrastination is training in time management. Of course, it never hurts to acquire skills to be more efficient. But teaching time management skills to procrastinators is likely not to be effective.

Procrastinators are great excuse makers (often giving us fraudulent excuses), and after a time management program, they will engage in the “but/however process.” They will tell you, “that was nice, but, in my case, it will not work because . . . .” Or they will tell you, “I enjoyed that; however, in my case, it will not work because . . . .” Excuses, again.

Chronic procrastinators, sorry to say, need professional assistance by a psychologist trained in cognitive behavior therapy to change effectively. Procrastinators need someone to work to change the way they think about situations (cognitive) and to learn new skills and actions (behavior). See id.

Working within the legal world provides additional challenges. In a cutthroat business where reputations are built over a lifetime and lost in a matter of minutes, and where the stakes are sky high and mistakes can cost millions, the drive to be perfect is stronger than ever before. However, current social science research reported that we need failure with success. In fact, 15 percent failure and 85 percent success make the “healthiest personality,” the most adjusted individual. Contrary to popular belief, we do not have a most fulfilling life with 100 percent success. We need failure to grow, and that often begins with a mindset that embraces failure as a learning experience rather than as an experience to be avoided at all costs, even in the all-or-nothing legal world. This does not provide an excuse for unnecessary failure—say, 50 percent failure—but some failure is necessary to assess our strengths and our growth; otherwise, that would be mediocrity. Success needs to outweigh failure, but failure needs to be present with success. Seeking the easy life or the path of least resistance often brings more failure then if we had embraced growth and proportionate failure as two sides of the same coin. It is challenges that enable us to grow. Native Americans say, “Walk through the muddy water, not the clear water.” We want the clear water, the easy way to journey. Instead, we should focus on the muddy water, which takes more energy and makes us stronger over time.

Consider this: If we only had sunny days, all the time, the earth would burn; we need rain on occasion to help things grow. In other words, we need success, but we need a little failure as well—to help us grow, to learn how to navigate life. Our star candidate, partner, client, and counselor, whom we met at the start of this article, all had fears. They wanted to be perfect, or they felt they would not be successful. Instead, they needed to realize that life is filled with opportunities both pleasant and not so pleasant. We are not designed to be perfect, but we should try to use our time and talents toward improving the lives of others. Go forth, and just do it—NOW.

ADDITIONAL READING:

Joseph R. Ferrari, Chronic Procrastination: Life Beyond Ineffective Time Management, in Time Management 83–91 (Anna Varga ed., 2011).

Joseph R. Ferrari, Getting Things Done on Time: Conquering Procrastination, in Coping and Copers: Adaptive Processes and People 30 (Charles R. Snyder ed., 2001).

Joseph R. Ferrari, Procrastination: Dispositional and Situational Forms, in Translating Research into Practice: A Desk Reference for Practicing Mental Health Professionals 275 (Lisa Grosman & Steven Walfish, eds., 2014).

Joseph R. Ferrari, Still Procrastinating? The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done (2010).

Joseph R. Ferrari, Judith L. Johnson & William G. McCown, Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research, and Treatment (1995).

Joseph R. Ferrari & Timothy A. Psychl, eds., Procrastination: Current Issues and New Directions (2000).

Joseph R. Ferrari & Thomas P. Tibbett, Procrastination, in Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences 1–8 (Virgil Zeigler-Hill & Todd K Shackelford eds., 2017).

Henri C. Shouenberg, Clarry Lay, Timothy A. Psychl & Joseph R. Ferrari, eds., Counseling the Procrastinator in Academic Settings (2004).