Emphasis Research Centre

White paper April 2011

Forgiveness: the scientific

cure for procrastination
Youve been putting off
finishing that dreaded report
until Friday afternoon. Its
now three oclock and it
needs to be done by the
end of the day, so what do
you do? You should forgive
yourself, according to
research.
A recent study by Michael
Wohl and colleagues from
Carleton University in
Ottawa, Canada has found
that if you forgive yourself for
previously procrastinating,
you are less likely to put off
doing that task again.

Forgiveness allows
the individual to move
past their maladaptive
behaviour

first and second test (after

they received their mid-term
grade), the researchers
asked the students to rate
how much they thought
their procrastination had
influenced their performance
on the first exam. Finally,
the students were given the
questionnaires again to see
if their studying habits had
changed before their second
assessment.

The results

Students who continually

procrastinate when studying
received a lower mark in the
Michael Wohl, associate professor first paper. The researchers
The study in detail
at Carleton University
noticed a relationship
Researchers recruited
between self-forgiveness
119 students and used
and performance after the second exam; as selfquestionnaires to measure both procrastination
forgiveness increased, procrastination before the
and self-forgiveness immediately before their first
second test decreased. Students who forgave
and second mid-term exams.
themselves for shirking revision achieved a
higher mark in the second assessment.
For procrastination, they were asked to rate their
studying habits in relation to how likely they were
To understand this phenomenon, the researchers
to indulge in delaying tasks (eg I put off studying
looked into the positive and negative affect
until the last minute). Students were given
(emotion) associated with procrastination.
another questionnaire to measure the extent to
So, when the students put off revising, the
which they forgave themselves for their studying
negative affect was the associated feeling of
habits (eg I dislike myself for procrastinating).
guilt or upset for not having performed as well
as desired, and the positive affect was a feeling
The students were given the questionnaires
of pride for succeeding.
before their first exam. Halfway between the

Copyright 2011 Emphasis Training Limited. All rights reserved.

Emphasis Research Centre

White paper April 2011

Cure for procrastination

To measure for positive and negative affect, the
students were given a 20-item questionnaire
comprising ten proud statements (positive
affect) and ten upset statements (negative
affect). They were then asked to rate how well
they thought they did in the second exam.
After further analysis of the data, the
researchers found that as self-forgiveness
increased, the levels of negative affect the
students associated with the test decreased.
Students felt proud (positive affect) of their
exam performance because they displayed
evidence of self-forgiveness.
Students who did not forgive themselves did
not experience a reduction in negative affect
(how upset they were) and continued to put off
finishing tasks.
So how does forgiving yourself change your
tendency to procrastinate?

Conclusions
The researchers identified that just saying
sorry to yourself isnt always enough to make
a difference it is the way in which we forgive
ourselves that changes the likelihood of
procrastination. The researchers suggest that
self-forgiveness works best in turning things
around when its a three-step process.
The first stage is to acknowledge the amount
of harm you have caused yourself by
postponing the task, and accept responsibility
for those actions. The second is to experience
feelings of guilt and regret as a consequence.
The third involves you overcoming these
feelings. By doing so, the researchers suggest
you will experience a motivational change
in which you move away from punishing
yourself (procrastination) and move towards
self-acceptance (forgiveness).

Copyright 2011 Emphasis Training Limited. All rights reserved.

But why does guilt affect how well we do?

Guilt is a negative self-evaluation in which we
blame ourselves. When stalling completion,
we have feelings of guilt because we know our
performance could have been better if we had
not procrastinated. When we feel guilty as a
result, we are often motivated to repair the harm
caused. In this study, students took reparative
action by reducing or getting rid of study-relevant
procrastination, thereby absolving themselves by
achieving higher grades in the second exam.
But moving from guilt to self-forgiveness
is important too. By reducing the levels
of emotional distress that result from
procrastination through self-forgiveness, the
students were less likely to avoid the task
(exam revision) that was associated with
negative affect.

How does this apply to business writing?

The research shows that you can prevent putting
off finishing a task if you forgive yourself for
stalling. So next time you see yourself begin
to procrastinate before writing that report, ask
yourself whether writing is something you often
defer. If so, then forgive yourself.
Make sure you realise why the procrastination
was harmful behaviour, by observing the
negative consequences of your actions. How
is it affecting your work? What about your
colleagues? If you feel guilty, use reparative
action to absolve yourself, and then motivate
yourself by vowing to change your approach next
time around.
Reference: I forgive myself, now I can study:
How self-forgiveness for procrastination can
reduce future procrastination by Michael Wohl
and colleagues was originally published in the
journal Personality and Individual Differences Vol
48 Issue 7 (May 2010).
02