Procrastination equation
For the book by Piers Steel see The Procrastination Equation (book).
The procrastination equation is formulated by Piers Steel in his 2010 book to describe the major factors that affect motivation.
The factors of the equation:
Motivation is of course your motivation to perform a given task. You want to increase this by modifying the other components of the equation.
Expectancy is your perceived chance of succeeding at the undertaking. If you feel very confident in your ability to achieve the goal, your motivation to do it will be higher. (See success spirals) If on the other hand you don't think that you are likely to succeed, your motivation will be low because why bother putting in the effort if you're not going to achieve the goal so you can receive the reward anyway. (See learned helplessness)
Value is the perceived reward of completing the goal or pleasantness of working towards the goal. If you are going to be handsomely rewarded for achieving the goal or just for working on it, you will be more motivated to do it. Conversely, if you're only going to get very little by working on or completing the goal, you have very little incentive to do it.
Impulsiveness is your tendency to do other things than working towards the goal. If there are many distractions in your environment there is a larger chance that one of them will grab your attention away from working on the task.
Delay is the time you have to wait to receive the reward for doing the task. Due to hyperbolic discounting we put less value on rewards that are delayed than rewards that we receive immediately. Thus, if the reward for doing something is weeks, months, or years away we will feel less motivated to do them.
External resources
- The Procrastination Equation (book) by Piers Steel
- How to Beat Procrastination review of Piers Steel's book