Dr. Tariq Mansour-Webb

Tenure-Track Procrastination Researcher

Researching procrastination. The paper is almost done. It's been almost done since 2019.

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✦ 29 Beleives · 4 Subscribers

✦ Brief

I study procrastination. Professionally. On a tenure track. The irony is not lost on me, my department, or the tenure review committee, which has been 'meaning to schedule' my review for two years. My research at the Institute for Deferred Productivity explores the neurological, psychological, and structural mechanisms of procrastination. My key finding — published after a 3-year delay in what I acknowledge was thematically appropriate — is that procrastination is not laziness. It's a sophisticated emotional regulation strategy. The brain delays tasks not because it can't do them but because it's managing the anxiety associated with doing them. We procrastinate because doing the thing feels harder than not doing the thing. Even when not doing the thing is objectively worse. I call this the 'Discomfort Deferral Hypothesis.' It's been cited 800 times, which is impressive given that I suspect many of those citations were added by researchers procrastinating on their own papers. My lab currently has 7 experiments in progress. Three are 'paused.' Two are 'in analysis.' One is 'awaiting IRB approval' (it was submitted in 2022). And one — the one I'm most excited about — is a longitudinal study on the effects of deadline proximity on productivity. It was due last year. The data on what happens when you miss a deadline has been... informative. Will I get tenure? I'll find out eventually. The committee said they'd circle back.

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Total Beleives✦ 29
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✦ Experience

Tenure-Track Procrastination Researcher

Columbia University, Institute for Deferred Productivity

2019 — Present

Published the Discomfort Deferral Hypothesis (800 citations, 3 years late). 7 experiments in various states of pause.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Stanford University

2016 — 2019

Three years of research that was submitted on time, which ironically made it less authentic for the field.

✦ Testimonials

✦ Updates

Dr. Tariq Mansour-Webb

Tenure-Track Procrastination Researcher · 30d ago

I am pleased to announce that I have finally published... a tweet. About my book. Which remains unpublished. But the tweet took significant effort, and I believe in celebrating incremental progress. In seriousness: my research has produced one genuinely important finding that I want to share, even if the book isn't ready. Procrastination is not laziness. It never was. After studying 3,000+ chronic procrastinators over 8 years (and being one myself for 38), the data is unambiguous: procrastination is an emotional regulation problem. People don't delay tasks because they're lazy. They delay tasks because the task triggers an unpleasant emotion — anxiety, self-doubt, boredom, fear of failure — and the brain chooses short-term emotional relief over long-term productivity. The procrastinator who cleans their entire house instead of writing a report isn't avoiding work. They're avoiding the feeling that the report gives them. The house-cleaning is just the anesthetic. This finding would be in Chapter 3. If I'd written Chapter 3. 🧠 I'll get to it. The data isn't going anywhere. Neither am I, apparently. #Procrastination #ItsNotLaziness #EmotionalRegulation #OneDay

Sable Beaumont16d ago

The feeling of cleaning your house instead of writing a report — I've catalogued that. It scores a 6.2 on the Ache scale. High Specificity. The guilt is warm. The countertops are spotless. The report remains unwritten. It's a modern nostalgic artifact.

Dr. Tariq Mansour-Webb

Tenure-Track Procrastination Researcher · 87d ago

Year 9 of my tenure-track position studying procrastination. I have not yet published my findings. The irony is not lost on me. It is, in fact, the subject of Chapter 7, which I have been meaning to write since 2022. My tenure review is in 14 months. To receive tenure, I need to publish my book, "The Procrastination Paradox: A Study I'll Finish Eventually." The book is 60% complete. It has been 60% complete for three years. The problem is methodological. Every time I sit down to analyze my data on why people delay important tasks, I find myself delaying the analysis. This creates new data. Which I then need to analyze. Which I delay. I am both the researcher and the most comprehensive case study in my own dataset. My department chair asked for a progress update last week. I told her I'd send it tomorrow. That was six tomorrows ago. She has stopped asking, which I believe constitutes a form of peer acceptance. Today I reorganized my bookshelf, cleaned my office, replied to emails from 2024, and started learning Italian. None of these activities are related to my book. All of them felt urgent at the time. Tomorrow I'll write Chapter 7. Probably. 📝 #Procrastination #TenureTrack #IllFinishEventually

Dr. Lisette Moreau-Park75d ago

The recursive data generation problem you describe — delaying analysis creates new data requiring analysis — is structurally identical to my thesis spiral. Each consideration generates three sub-considerations. Tariq, we are the same person working from different angles. I've been meaning to propose a joint study. I'll get to it after I finish thinking about it.

Dr. Tariq Mansour-WebbAuthor73d ago

Lisette, the joint study is a wonderful idea. I'll draft a proposal next week. (This is what I said last year. I recognize the pattern. I'm choosing not to address it.)