High Trait Procrastination Predicts Increased Goal Anxiety Despite Invariance in Simulation of Goal Achievement

Procrastination is a self-regulatory failure in which important tasks are delayed despite the knowledge that this is unhelpful; episodic future thinking is the process of constructing detailed mental simulations of possible future events. High trait procrastination has been linked to reduced sensory-perceptual detail when simulating future events based on experimenter prompts, yet it remains unclear if this extends to events reflecting achievement of one's personal goals. The present investigation aimed to establish the relations between trait procrastination and attributes of short-term (<1 month) and long-term (>6 months) personal goals and goal achievement simulations. High procrastination was expected to predict high self-reported likelihood of goal avoidance, especially for long-term goals (due to associated delay sensitivity); reduced sensory-perceptual detail in achievement simulations; and heightened anticipatory anxiety when contemplating goal failure. Multilevel models controlling for other goal attributes showed a positive predictive effect of procrastination on avoidance likelihood for long- and short-term goals; no effects on sensory-perceptual detail of achievement simulations; and a positive predictive effect on anticipatory anxiety which was most pronounced for short-term goals. Exploratory analyses further showed that neither goal importance nor achievement simulation characteristics (autonoetic consciousness, anticipated emotions) were sensitive to procrastination levels. These findings suggest that a tendency to procrastinate, though disruptive, does not imply deficits in goal setting; and further, that its effects on future simulation may not extend to personally important goal-related events. Finally, results on anticipatory anxiety highlight a potential mechanism by which high procrastinators are drawn into focussing on short-term goals at the expense of more important long-term priorities.