How often do you put off a decision for weeks or even months?

Is there a difference between procrastinating on actions and on decisions?

What mechanisms keep you from choosing between several alternatives?

Making decisions is a continuous activity that concerns everyone, so habitual that it often goes unnoticed.

Yet some choices stay on hold for days, weeks or even months.

It isn't only complex decisions that cause trouble, but all decisions: what simple and complicated decisions have in common is the tendency to be postponed, avoided or even abandoned, even when they need to be faced.

When you think about why decisions get postponed, you tend to assume the problem is mostly a lack of time or of the information needed to choose.

In most cases, however, the delay is the result of psychological mechanisms that hinder the decision-making process and keep the person stuck.

Understanding how decision making works, that is, the process through which decisions are made, means learning to analyze one of the most widespread and least visible forms of procrastination.

The problem

Procrastination is usually associated with putting off actions. In reality there is an even more widespread and less visible form: procrastinating on decisions.

Between decision and action, the decision comes first, both in time and in hierarchy. Every action, in fact, starts from an earlier decision. If a decision is postponed, the action will inevitably stay on hold too.

It is also harder to spot the problem of putting off a decision than an action: a task left undone can be seen from the outside and often involves other people; a decision not made, on the other hand, is often known only to the person who should have made it.

That is exactly why decision procrastination is sneakier and more frequent.

The etymology of the word "decision" helps clarify its meaning: it comes from the verb to decide (in Latin de-caedere), meaning "to cut off." To decide means, precisely, to cut, to eliminate every alternative but one.

The act of deciding therefore coincides with giving up the possibilities not chosen.

The tendency to put off a decision can show up in many areas of everyday life:

clearing the air after an argument: the decision is postponed out of fear of confrontation, out of pride, or while waiting for the other person to make the first move.
a health problem: a medical checkup is postponed because you fear the result, or because you convince yourself you don't have enough time.
getting rid of what you no longer need: this can concern objects, relationships, habits or situations that are over but were never really let go.
learning a new skill: the start keeps getting pushed back while you wait for the ideal moment.
changing jobs, roles or lifestyle: the choice stays on hold even though the dissatisfaction is already obvious.
planning a vacation or a personal project: even seemingly pleasant decisions can be put off when they require a final choice.

Decision procrastination, then, is anything but rare, and it touches many areas of our lives.

What the research says

The topic has been studied for a long time, and the available surveys measure how widespread procrastination is, not whether it is increasing over time.

Harriott, J., & Ferrari, J. R. (1996) in "Prevalence of Procrastination among Samples of Adults", Ferrari, J. R., Díaz-Morales, J. F., O'Callaghan, J., Díaz, K., & Argumedo, D. (2007) in "Frequent Behavioral Delay Tendencies By Adults: International Prevalence Rates of Chronic Procrastination" and Steel, P. (2007) in "The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure" measured how widespread procrastination is among adults:

out of 211 US adults (122 women and 89 men, average age 47.6) reached at four public meetings, about 20%, or 42 people, described themselves as chronic procrastinators on the decisional, avoidant and arousal procrastination scales (Harriott & Ferrari, 1996)
out of 582 men and 765 women from six countries (Spain, Peru, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States), 13.5% of men and 14.6% of women identified as chronic procrastinators, of the avoidant or arousal type (Ferrari et al., 2007)
in the meta-analytic review of 691 correlations, chronic procrastination affects 15–20% of the adult population; among college students, 80% to 95% procrastinate, about 75% consider themselves procrastinators and almost 50% procrastinate in a persistent and problematic way (Steel, 2007)

The available measures therefore put chronic procrastination at between 13% and 20% of adults, depending on the sample and the scale used.

It remains a very common behavior, with significant effects on personal well-being and professional effectiveness.

The ideal condition

To understand the problem, it helps to picture what the ideal situation would be once decision procrastination is gone.

When you face a problem, you tend to equate the ideal situation with simply getting rid of the problem itself.

Very often, though, the mind builds an unrealistic goal, which ends up keeping the problem alive instead of solving it.

Wrong ideal condition: never making wrong decisions

The implicit goal becomes avoiding any mistake.

You put off the choice because you believe that deciding inevitably exposes you to the possibility of being wrong.

But this ideal condition is unattainable: no one can guarantee in advance that a decision will be perfect.

Looking for that certainty only leads to standing still, both mentally and in your growth: staying put brings no positive change; on the contrary, it makes things worse.

Right ideal condition: not standing still, not being stuck

The realistic goal is not to eliminate the risk of error, but to avoid decision paralysis.

Standing still means interrupting change, rigidifying your thinking and giving up on growth. Even a small step in the chosen direction produces more growth than lingering in decision limbo.

There is also a second belief, just as widespread, common but wrong.

Wrong ideal condition: making every decision immediately

The opposite of procrastination is not frenzy. Deciding anything as soon as the problem comes up leads to impulsive, poorly analyzed choices, often driven only by the urge to get rid of the discomfort.

Right ideal condition: for every decision block, apply the right unblocking action

When a block comes up, you don't need to decide faster; you need to follow a process that lets you analyze the available alternatives clearly.

A decision made after weighing the options also gradually strengthens your confidence in your own decision-making skills, because the mind records an effective method rather than a random choice.

Detecting the problem

Like any problem, decision procrastination first has to be recognized.

Some recurring signs clearly point to its presence.

low autonomy: you struggle to make decisions and end up constantly depending on other people's approval or intervention;
many open issues: numerous decisions stay on hold, creating the feeling that there is always something left to resolve;
dissatisfaction, frustration and low self-esteem: constant postponing leads to a gradual loss of confidence in your decision-making skills;
stress and mental overload: accumulated decisions create growing pressure, much like a pressure cooker;
low assertiveness: you tend to wait for situations to resolve themselves instead of stepping in;
compulsive decisions: some people, instead of procrastinating, decide everything immediately, driven by urgency and the need of the moment.

Once you have identified the symptoms, it is useful to ask questions about the context in which the problem shows up:

where is the problem really?
does it concern a person, a relationship, a department or an entire organization?
who does the problem affect?
why is the problem perceived only by some people?

How it works (wrong idea / right idea)

Every problem tends to be interpreted through a very widespread wrong idea. Decision procrastination is no exception.

To truly understand a problem, it is essential to analyze the beliefs through which it is interpreted.

Separating the most common ideas, which aren't necessarily right, from those that describe how the phenomenon really works lets you identify its causes and move toward an effective solution.

The wrong idea

We put off decisions because we are insecure or undisciplined. The most common interpretation blames procrastination on a character flaw: lack of confidence, weak willpower or poor discipline.

In reality, insecurity is far more often a consequence than a cause.

The mind records every postponed decision as confirmation that you are unable to decide. Over time, this repeated experience feeds the belief that you are an insecure person, making it even more likely that you will put off the next decisions.

The right idea

We put off decisions because we are confused. The real cause of decision procrastination is confusion.

Not a generic confusion, but a lack of clarity about the available alternatives.

When the alternatives are defined precisely, compared and bounded, the confusion fades and the decision becomes much simpler.

Confusion arises mainly because the alternatives:

are not written down, so they remain blurry in your mind;
are not all defined, because at least one option to consider is often missing;
have not been weighed, so advantages and disadvantages are not compared objectively.

Decision making consists precisely in meeting these three requirements: writing down, defining and weighing the alternatives.

As a result, decision procrastination stems mainly from three causes:

Not having clearly defined all the alternatives
Not having compared and weighed the consequences of each alternative
Not having accepted the inevitable loss of the discarded alternatives

Every decision, in fact, involves giving something up. Consciously accepting what you leave behind is an integral part of the decision-making process.

The decision-making process can therefore be summarized in the following steps:

identify the fork in the road: define precisely which choice needs to be made
identify all the alternatives: list them completely, without keeping them in your head
weigh the consequences: write down the advantages, disadvantages and possible effects of each option
accept the losses: consciously acknowledge what you give up by choosing one alternative over another
define the first resulting action: every decision must immediately turn into a concrete action
decide: act right away or schedule the action by putting it on your calendar

One fundamental principle runs through the whole process: decision making doesn't happen in your head, but on paper.

Writing turns confusion into clarity and makes the comparison between alternatives much more objective.

It is also very important to remember that deciding is an individual act: each person reaches a decision alone and thereby takes responsibility for it; each role has decision-making autonomy and moves within predefined but valid boundaries.

Even in shared decisions there is always an individual decision maker.

Several people can discuss, advise each other and reach the same conclusion, but each one always makes their own decision.

Clearly defining who decides, within which decision boundaries and with which responsibilities avoids confusion, delays and mismatched expectations.

Finally, it is worth remembering that choosing not to act is also a decision.

Consciously establishing that an activity is not a priority is very different from leaving it on hold indefinitely.

Deciding means avoiding the block, not necessarily taking action.

Practical tips

Write down every decision that needs to be made: making the forks in the road visible reduces mental overload and keeps them from staying undefined.
Write down all the alternatives and their consequences: comparing them in writing makes it easier to assess the costs, benefits and impact of each choice, including those of not deciding.
Always define a first action: every decision must translate into a simple, single, clearly defined action. If it isn't done right away, put it on your calendar so the decision produces concrete effects.

Decision procrastination, then, isn't overcome simply by forcing yourself to be more determined or faster at deciding.

Like any problem, it first needs to be understood: only by identifying its real causes can you act on the factors that generate it, instead of merely containing its effects.

This principle is at the core of the approach Prodability has developed for learning to observe problems more clearly, define them correctly and organize them according to a method.

The "Problem Noting" course was designed precisely to build this skill: to provide a structured process for identifying the priority problem, analyzing its causes and building effective, lasting solutions.

Being able to recognize, describe and organize a problem is, in fact, the first step toward solving it for good.

Because every concrete improvement starts with the ability to understand the problem before even looking for its solution.

Sources and references

Harriott, J., & Ferrari, J. R. (1996). Prevalence of Procrastination among Samples of Adults. Psychological Reports, 78(2), 611–616 — https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1996.78.2.611

Ferrari, J. R., Díaz-Morales, J. F., O'Callaghan, J., Díaz, K., & Argumedo, D. (2007). Frequent Behavioral Delay Tendencies By Adults: International Prevalence Rates of Chronic Procrastination. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(4), 458–464 — https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022107302314

Steel, P. (2007). The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65–94 — https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.65