Psychologieforscher identifizieren ein zentrales emotionales Muster bei Zauderern. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass es beim Aufschieben weniger um die Unfähigkeit geht, sich die Zukunft vorzustellen, als vielmehr darum, mit den negativen Emotionen umzugehen, die mit der Verfolgung von Zielen verbunden sind.

>A recent study published in Psychological Reports has found that people who frequently procrastinate set meaningful personal goals and can vividly imagine achieving them, just like those who do not procrastinate. However, frequent procrastinators tend to experience higher anxiety about failing, particularly when it comes to short-term objectives. These findings suggest that procrastination is less about an inability to envision the future and more about managing the negative emotions associated with pursuing goals.

>Procrastination is commonly viewed as a failure of self-regulation. It occurs when individuals delay important tasks even when they know the delay will bring negative consequences. Past studies link this behavioral trait to impulsivity and a preference for immediate rewards over distant payoffs.

>This behavior relates to a concept known as temporal discounting, where the value of a reward decreases the further away it is in time. Because of this, people who procrastinate often choose a quick, easy activity over a difficult task with a delayed benefit.

>Some researchers have proposed that people who procrastinate might struggle with episodic future thinking. This psychological concept refers to the mental process of creating detailed simulations of possible future events. Previous research indicated that heavy procrastinators might have trouble picturing generic future scenarios with clear sensory details.

Whenever one of these articles says something like „procrastination is this, not that“ you have to take it with a grain of salt. Resist the temptation to believe that there can be only one driver of procrastination, because not everyone is doing it for the same reason.