I procrastinated writing this blog post. A lot. If you would ask me why, I would not have a proper answer. It might have something to do with a lack of inspiration, but perhaps technology also has something do to with it. The other night I was procrastinating preparing a workshop about effective learning I had to give the day after, when I came across a TED talk about procrastinating. After this, I started looking into what technology means for procrastination, and man did I find a good excuse for it.
Procrastination is not an unfamiliar phenomenon, especially for students. After a three-hour lecture, the last thing we want to do when we come home is to continue studying. As a result, we often find ourselves spending time on less useful activities like eating, napping or using some sort of technology to avoid doing the inevitable. Maybe you’re unfamiliar with the issue of procrastinating, and I applaud you for it. I would, however, blame it on the fact that there is some scientific research that proves that the tendency to postpone e.g. studying is somewhat heritable [1]. Just like how some of us are right-handed and some of us are left-handed, and how some of us love cilantro and some of us think it tastes like soap.
In this decade, technology seems to surround us everywhere. The world is moving at a rapid pace, and we expect no less of it. Odds are, you can’t get through a single day without a couple of texts or calls. This has led to an increasing belief that technology is to blame for the increasing procrastinating behavior among students. Oakton High school conducted a study lately, in which they found that 80% of all students identify themselves as ‘procrastinators’ [2]. These students have all mentioned that they have used phones, laptops or watched television to procrastinate.
It is due to the technological advancements that we all end up procrastinating more than ever, even though part of the goal of these advancements is to make certain tasks and activities easier and give us more time to do other things during the day. Professor Gazalley has explained that technology is improving so much that it is challenging our cognitive abilities [3]. These abilities are necessary for focussing on accomplishing certain tasks. The more challenging the task, the more difficult it is to focus on doing the task. And then, when you see your mobile phone lighting up because of a text, an email or a new Facebook message, it gets even more challenging to focus. He recommends that when we do something that requires a lot of attention and focus, we need to reduce the distractions around us. Turn of our notifications, put our phones in flight mode and only use the internet when necessary.
I think it’s safe to conclude that procrastination and the ability to maintain focus are all tied up, but that technology shouldn’t be blamed for all the distractions that they possibly bring to us. Because in the end, it’s still up to us to make sure we don’t get distracted. What do you think about the effects of technology on procrastinating?
Maybe this will inspire you to switch off your phone and start reading some articles for Information Strategy today. Or well, maybe not today… But soon?
Hi Patricia,
With the other blog post about whether your telephone is listening to you, it looks like your computer knew you were procrastinating and therefore suggested the TED talk on this topic …. ;).
I agree, it is mostly our human decision to procrastinate, only that our options to do so have been expanded widely. Now we have distractions all around us, we only have to pick up our phone and find 20+ apps that will keep us busy for the next 30 minutes.
What I try, is to do one task at a time. For instance, when I am with a friend, I focus on being with the friend and not being on my phone (it does not work too well yet). When I am eating; I am eating, and not reading something or wathcing netflix.
Thank you for your interesting contribution!
Hi Sudevi, haha maybe my phone did.. Who knows. That should be one hell of a system then, as I’m not sure I actually mentioned out lout that I was procrastinating ;). I like the way you try to do things! I have a similar approach as well (that, as you have read, doesn’t always work). Whenever there’s something I’m going to do, which is often work or study-related, I either switch my phone off or turn it into flight mode. I think the biggest danger for me right now is the fact that if I don’t, I can easily use my Whatsapp for example on my laptop. Maybe someday both of our approaches will work for us hahah. Thanks for your comment!
Interesting post! I believe that technology has indeed, indirectly, made us more prone to procrastination. Many social media pages (for example Facebook), is designed to make us more addicted. The interface of facebook is designed to give us a dopamine rush, and immediate and constant stimuli when we use it. I believe that when we use technology like this a lot (which many of us young people do), we get more used to (and even addicted to) the constant feedback and stimuli. Because of this, we get restless quicker and when we work on a task that is more complicated we tend to reach out for our technology tools that will give us some instant stimuli and that dopamine rush – which is distracting us from the real task and is a very common way to procrastinate.
Hi Hedda. Oh wow, I actually had no idea it was designed to give us a dopamine rush! That’s so interesting. I have noticed that if I use a lot of social media on a particular day, I get a lot more restless and have more struggles focusing on the tasks I need to do. I had no idea this was the reason, thanks for sharing!
Hi Patricia,
I like the fact that you chose this topic, since I think it is a bigger problem than people might think. I was reading a book about effective time management and it said that technologies were made to save time and conduct things faster. However, we as human beings, clearly struggle how to use these technologies. For instance Powerpoints were introduced to present things in a clear way, however we spend a lot of time searching for the most beautiful icons, that the benefit of reducing time fades away. Also while studying, I tend to look at my smartphone way too much, therefore I switch of my phone, because I am too distracted otherwise. I completely agree that it is not the fault of technologies, but we have to find a good balance of using our technology for the right purposes.
*switch off
Hi Nienke, thank you for your comment! I do actually believe that technology was created to make simple tasks easier, however as mentioned during one of the DBA lectures by Mohammad Ansarin, the problem is that software is infinitely malleable. The classic dilemma in software is that people continually want more and more stuff. Now there is so much that we can do and use that it goes beyond the necessities. I like your example of using PowerPoint, as I really recognize the struggle of wanting to make it look as nice as possible. That’s not per se the flaw of PowerPoint, it’s just that there are so many options. During the workshop I was procrastinating working on, I also learned that when there’s a lot of options people can choose from, it’s less likely that they are satisfied with their final choice. Therefore, you spend a long time contemplating what to do and how to do it. If only we would have a few choices, the decision-making process would go quicker and we would more likely be satisfied with our choices. Thanks again for your opinion!