A study found that people with strong procrastination tendencies may be more likely to avoid taking action because anxiety about failure is greater, not because they cannot set goals or imagine themselves succeeding. On April 9 local time, Japan's ITmedia reported on a paper released by researchers at York St John University in Britain.

The researchers asked 111 British university students to present short-term goals within 1 month and long-term goals of 6 months or longer. They then assessed, for each goal, the likelihood of avoiding action, how vividly participants could imagine achieving the goal, and anticipated anxiety felt when thinking about failure.

The analysis showed that, as expected, people with higher procrastination tendencies rated themselves as more likely to deliberately avoid actions toward their goals, regardless of whether the goals were short- or long-term.

But there was no difference at all by procrastination tendency in how vivid the imagery was when imagining achieving goals. In other words, people with procrastination habits could imagine a successful future in as much detail and as vividly as those without such habits. There was also no difference between the two groups in how important they viewed their goals or in their expectations of happiness from achieving them.

The difference emerged more clearly when imagining failure. People with higher procrastination tendencies felt greater anxiety the more they pictured failing to achieve their goals. This tendency appeared more strongly for short-term goals than for long-term goals. The researchers said that even if short-term goals are perceived as objectively less important than long-term goals, they can pose a greater emotional threat.

These results suggest it is hard to view the cause of delaying behavior only as a lack of ability to set goals, as has been done. The researchers explained that people with procrastination tendencies, like others, consider goals important and vividly dream of success. They said such people may view their chances of success as lower and, especially for tasks at hand, feel strong anxiety about failing, which can ultimately delay action.

The study also shows that the way procrastination is addressed could change. It suggests approaches focused only on setting more specific goals or boosting motivation may not be enough. The researchers saw the key as how to reduce the fear of failure that grows when short-term tasks approach. As threat perception was greater for short-term goals, they suggested follow-up research to reduce delaying behavior should examine more precisely the link between fear of failure and avoidance behavior.

Ultimately, procrastination may not simply be a problem of weak willpower or lacking goals. Even if someone knows what to do and can picture success, action can be pushed back if anxiety about failure weighs more. The study shows that solutions to reduce delaying behavior could start with managing fear of failure rather than motivating people.