Professor Piers Steel who calls himself a reformed procrastinator began studying procrastination 10 years ago, before it began a sharp rise. Now he has come up with a unified theory and a mathematical formula to explain it.
Steel's formula, called the Temporal Motivation Theory, calculates procrastination like Albert Einstein's equation for energy, E=MC2. It factors the person's expectancy for succeeding at a given task (E) or self-confidence; the value of completing the task (V); its immediacy or availability (Gamma); and the person's sensitivity to delay (D) to come up with the desirability of the task (Utility).
Utility = E x V / (Gamma) x D
"Essentially, procrastinators have less confidence in themselves, less expectancy that they can actually complete a task," Steel said. "Perfectionism is not the culprit. In fact, perfectionists actually procrastinate less, but they worry about it more."
... in general, human behavior is marked by people's judgment of value and their expectancy--whether or not they expect to get something.
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Most people who procrastinate are impulsive; they value what they can have today more than what they can have tomorrow--and long-term goals don't have motivational force.
There are 3 types of procrastinators
1. Those who have a hard time getting started. These are classic procrastinators.
2. Those who get bogged down in details. These are the classic perfectionists
3. Those who are too distractible. They always find something else to do that's more interesting or gratifying to do be it email, television, the phone or a party. all those tech gadgets that offer immediate gratification.
Technology creates "motivationally toxic environments" by giving people a constant source of putting things off, Steele says.
Boy is that the truth.
If you want to make progress on a long-term project, some part of everyday walling yourself off from such tech temptations else it's like, in the words of Professor Steel
trying to diet with a floating spoon of ice cream following you around.