Joseph Ferrari, the doctor in psychology who had preceded the boom of Marie Kondo: "The disorder leads to postpone the tasks and to increase the stress"

As there is no more room for a pin in their homes, millions of followers find an outlet in the Japanese method Marie Kondowhich consists in clbadifying things by categories and not by piece. As scientific research is already proven: "The more abundance there is, the more disorder there is." The more disorder there is, the more frequent it is that it occurs. a chronic procrastinator, "said one of the pioneers of studies on procrastination. , the doctor in American psychology, Joseph Ferrari, during his interview with Infobae by phone from the United States. "The disorder leads to postponing tasks and the stress increases," said the expert.

Since the late 1980s, Ferrari has been doing research at DePaul University in Chicago and continues to produce books on procrastination, which is defined as the intentional and frequent delay of starting or completing a task to the point of causing discomfort. In other words, it means that the procrastinator defers a task even if it knows that it can have a negative consequence.

In one of his last works, published in the magazine Current psychologyFerrari has shown that chronic procrastinators are the least likely to deal with the problem of disorder at home. They stop organizing their affairs until the situation overwhelms them and the house becomes a chaos, a situation that affects the quality of their lives.

– You are a procrastinator and why did you investigate the question?
-No (laughs), I'm not a procrastinator. I know that some researchers are studying topics that concern them, but that is not my case. I was interested in procrastination while I was studying psychology at Adelphi University in New York in the eighties. In a course on self-destructive behaviors, I asked if anyone had studied procrastination as a self-regulating strategy. The teacher suggested I go to the library to find the answer. When I went, I was surprised: there was nothing published there. I only found a few texts on writers blocking.

He has already published more than 70 books on procrastination and a publicity book in English for all audiences entitled "Always procrastinate? The No Regrets Guide to Success"(Always procrastinate?" The guide not to regret having done so.) Today, procrastination is on the agenda of more researchers.Ferrari has organized the "Biennale of the research on procrastination "in his university at 2017

-Why do people procrastinate?
-Procrastinate comes from Latin, which means "wait for tomorrow". Popularly, people who report are considered vague or stupid. From research into psychology, several hypotheses have been put forward about why he is procrastinating. But it is important to note that everyone procrastinates, that is, postpones tasks, but not all are procrastinators. There is a difference between delaying an action on one occasion and postponing tasks. If you delay to get more information or if a decision is postponed because the person has to do something important before the action, it is not a problem. procrastination.

-So, why are there procrastinators?
These are people who are afraid of failure. They use procrastination as a strategy of "self-handicappingSometimes they also procrastinate as a failure of self-regulation, that is, by procrastination, the person tries to protect his social esteem, what others think. When it never ends something, the procrastinator can never be judged as if, by his lack of ability, others could only speak of their little effort not to do something, but not to judge the result.

– Are there chronic procrastinators in the world or is it simply a Western issue?
In the whole world. Research has been conducted in Austria, Australia, Canada, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Peru, Poland, Venezuela, Spain, United States, Japan, United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. About 20% of the world's inhabitants are chronic procrastinators. Its prevalence is quite high and its consequences are negative, even if it is not considered a health problem. Even though parents are procrastinators, this does not mean that children are also procrastinators. The good news is that as the procrastination trend develops after birth, you can learn how to stop it.

– What is the impact of procrastination on people's lives?

-It affects your social relationships. People tend to stand out from those who postpone work, there are even procrastinators who move away from procrastinators. It has been found that procrastinators have higher levels of stress and poor management of their health problems, with more common colds, stomach problems, headaches, among others.

-What do you recommend to chronic procrastinator?
The first step to recover is the desire to break the cycle of procrastination. After overcoming the initial obstacle, they can begin to live the lives that they wanted to live and that they had delayed for so long. For that, I recommend cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is the most effective way to control procrastination, because it changes the way people think and act.

-What else did you discover from the clutter studies?
-We call it "psychological home" to where the person lives and feel that they define it in their own identity. You can perceive it as a refuge offering protection, security and privacy to the outside world. In this house, people can develop a strong attachment to objects and places.

In the work we publish in the magazine Current psychology We used a disorder-related quality of life scale developed by Catherine Roster of the University of New Mexico.

We sent the questionnaire to three groups of different ages on disorder and life satisfaction: students under 20, adults aged 20 to 30 and over 40s. On the scale, participants had to register if they pay their bills on time or if the disorder of the household irritates them, among other questions. In the three groups studied, a significant badociation was found between problems of procrastination and disorder. Frustration with the disorder tends to increase with age. The older we are, the more order problems at home are related to discontent. I emphasize that the disorder has a negative impact, it can even induce a physiological response, for example by increasing the levels of cortisol hormone released in response to stress.