Steel, from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, has identified four main factors that lead to procrastination. He uses a comprehensive array of information from hundreds of previous studies to come to his conclusions.

Many of the author’s conclusions concentrated on such things as sex, the task itself, age, rewards, and many different types of personality traits. Steel thought these factors, however, were only minor explanations to the bigger problem of procrastination.

Beginning in the late 1990s, Steel researched 553 previous studies on procrastination. He gave greater credence to those studies that used more subjects and to those studies that had the more formidable research. Steel kept track inside a computer database a statistical account of all of these studies and what they found out.

His conclusion is now published within the Psychological Bulletion, volume 133, page 65.

Steel generally found that men postpone more than women, and younger people procrastinate more than older people. Perfectionists procrastinate less, but worry more, than those without that perfection trait.

Overall, though, Steel found four factors that determine procrastination, or its opposite (the desire (U) to complete the task):

(1) Expectation (E) of Success (how confident a person is at completing a task successfully);

(2) Personal Sensitivity to Delay (D) (how easily a person is distracted by the task);

(3) Value (V) of Completion (how undesirable, unpleasant, boring, menial, agonizing the task is viewed by the person); and

(4) Immediacy (I) of Task (how quickly or delayed is the reward for performing the task).

As quoted within the New Scientist article “Procrastination: The thief of time,” Steel stated, "We prize the now so much more than the later. So if a task can be realized now and we can have the pleasure now, we value that a lot more than something that will have a larger reward with greater certainty later." [New Scientist, subscription required]

Basically, Steel concludes that procrastination is not due to one factor. Instead, it comes about from many differences in personality from each individual and, equally as important, from each particular situation confronted by each individual.

Steel is confident that he can even predict the amount of procrastination. He states, from the same New Scientist article,, "Procrastination can be understood, or summarized at least, by a mathematical equation."

He takes into account the four factors stated earlier and quantifies (measures) each of them: Expectation, how confident a person is at succeeding in the task (E); Value, how pleasant the person perceives the task to be (V); Distraction how easily distracted or sensitive the person is (D); and Immediacy, how much time will elapse before the reward for completing the task arrives (I).

The formula is U = (E x V) / (I x D), where U is the desire to complete the task.

What do scientists think of his conclusions? Please, read on ....

Reactions to Steel’s conclusion and formula have been varied within the scientific community.(Some probably have failed to respond, or delayed their responses so we don’t know what their opinions are, yet.)

Some are critical of his remarks, saying procrastination is more complicated that what he concludes, and that he can’t predict it with a basic formula.

Others are intrigued by the formula that might actually predict the degree of procrastination in an individual and in specific tasks. The ability for employers, for instance, to predict procrastination in employees is an interesting concept, to say the least.

Steel considers himself a moderate procrastinator. His desire to finish his research, for example, was influenced on how confident he was in writing it well and the prospect of getting paid for it as his deadline approached. Steel states, “You're more likely to put something off if you're a very impulsive individual.” [Scientific American “Why Do Today What You Can Put Off Until Tomorrow”

Piers Steel has a website called "Procrastination Central." Visit it at: https://webapps2.ucalgary.ca/~steel//Procrastinus/.