Started studying late again? Asked for an extension for your homework? Sent off your tax return at the last minute?
You are not alone! Almost everyone is familiar with the everyday phenomenon of procrastination. What for many is just an annoying habit can become a serious problem for some people. This is procrastination - excessive procrastination.
Procrastination is the scientific term for pathological postponing behavior. In contrast to everyday procrastination, this is a serious work disorder and can affect both private and school, academic and professional activities.
Depending on the study and definition of procrastination, around 7-14% of the general population are affected. This means that there are many people who suffer so much from their procrastination behavior that treatment would make sense.
The causes are very diverse and should always be clarified individually. Difficulties in realistically planning tasks can be just as conducive to procrastination as certain individual characteristics (e.g. lack of concentration, fear of failure, perfectionism) or situational factors (e.g. missing deadlines, complex or open tasks, distractions caused by noise or smartphones).
Procrastination can also occur as part of a diagnosable mental disorder, e.g. as part of depression or ADHD. In such cases, treatment of the primary mental disorder is a prerequisite for eliminating procrastination.
However, chronic procrastination also impairs mental well-being and can itself become the cause of psychological stress and symptoms.
There is no universal threshold for this. Procrastination always becomes a problem requiring treatment when procrastination leads to suffering and impairment in studies, work or other areas of life. This can include failing to achieve important goals, e.g. poor grades or dropping out of university, as well as physical or psychological symptoms such as gastrointestinal problems, headaches, depression, reduced self-esteem, anxiety or restlessness.
If you experience these or other negative consequences as a result of procrastination, it is worth seeking clarification of the symptoms at a psychological counseling center or psychotherapeutic practice.
Important to know: Procrastination is not a mental disorder that appears in common diagnostic systems. However, as described above, it can be both a cause and a consequence of another mental illness and can also cause serious symptoms in itself that require treatment. In order to be able to adequately assess the symptoms, a thorough diagnosis is therefore necessary. This can be carried out by psychological psychotherapists, among others, who use standardized questionnaires for this purpose. For initial indications of the presence of pathological procrastination, you are welcome to complete our German self-test, which contains some of these questionnaires.
Depending on the cause and severity of procrastination, different treatment options are useful. We generally recommend treatment approaches from cognitive behavioral therapy. In addition to the possibility of working on the problem independently with guides (see literature & links), it can be helpful to seek professional psychological or psychotherapeutic help in counseling centers or psychotherapy practices, especially if the symptoms are more pronounced.
Our services are aimed at students and employees of the University of Münster. We offer professional help in the form of individual and group treatments, with the aim of improving self-control, for example by learning and systematically practicing new work habits. The following components have proven effective:
You can find out more about our treatment services here.