Procrastination

Now, a formula tells us why we put off tasks

London: Can’t get round to finishing a job in one go? Well, don’t worry, for researchers have devised a formula for procrastinators to help them know how much chance they have of overcoming their flaws. According to a new book, which contains the mathematical equation, procrastination is becoming a problem, courtesy computer games and personal organisers which provide endless opportunities for distraction and rescheduling.

Piers Steel, the author of the book and a business professor at Calgary University in Canada, has pulled together hundreds of studies on the art of delay. He believes that the two contradictory views commonly held about procrastinators — that they are either extra-careful or bone idle — are both wrong. Instead, they have a vice all their own. According to Steel, chronic procrastinators are more impulsive and erratic than other people and less conscientious about attention to detail and obligations to others.

According to Steel, procrastinators believe they can complete a task and also care about it. Lazy people, by contrast, are not bothered whether they can finish the job — they just do not want to do it. Both can come up with excuses such as a dog eating the homework. Steel subsequently formed an equation for why people procrastinate.

The equation is U=EV/ID.
The ‘U’ stands for utility, or the desire to complete a given task.
It is equal to the product of E, the expectation of success, and V the value of completion, divided by the product of I, the immediacy of the task, and D, the personal sensitivity to delay.

The researcher says procrastination is becoming a bigger issue because many more jobs are “self-structured”, with people setting their own schedules. AGENCIES