psychology of procrastination podcast
I've done some preliminary work looking at using self-compassion to address procrastination and it does suggest that it at least increases people's intentions to get on with the task and not procrastinate, but I want to follow up with some research to actually track that. Can lead to thoughts such as "I might as well not even try.". And how to stop procrastinating. Et la procrastination on peut la trouver aussi chez les personnes qui souhaitent gurir. It's basically saying, Hey, yeah, I'm struggling with this task. Procrastinators may find themselves unable to start something because they dont know how to start, but they dont want to show weakness by needing to ask for clarification. And there is indeed a connection. So we have an intention to make, to do that task. And in the workplace as well. Lets start with better habits. Mills: Well, the crux of your research is that procrastination is not, as so many of us think it is, a problem of laziness or poor time management. We protect the self temporarily by avoiding the task that threatens it. So get over it, get on with it and move forward. Does that actually have an impact on their ability to stop procrastinating and get things done? Especially if it was something that you either felt really intimidated by or you had put off for a long time and finally got around to doing it. I'm going to start with a quote that a colleague and friend of mine who got me into this area of research, Tim Pychyl at Carleton University in Canada, one that he often uses to make the distinction between procrastination and delay. How do you think about separating emotions from tasks? 6 Depression can also lead to self-doubt. She has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, Hannity and Colmes, CSPAN, and the BBC, to name a few of her broadcast engagements. It's not like procrastinators are sitting around lazy, they're doing other things. And that we can come to each other with things that we feel vulnerable about. Or you may be sitting up reading that novel or you may be knitting that sweater. Gianni Dimacchia '24 brings immersive worlds and inspired characters to life as an artist, storyteller, and video game designer. CURT NICKISCH: For me personally, the idea of a pre-mortem and testing your assumptions is kind of attractive because I expect that could help a lot with things that always seem to take longer than you thought they were going to. And this comes from a lot of the research that suggests that the type of tasks that we procrastinate on are ones that we don't enjoy. CURT NICKISCH: Lets say its not an organizational culture issue or a team culture issue, but you do notice that theres procrastination as an issue within your team, among team members. Theyre the same thing he does everywhere else, but he puts them on Instagram. Sirois: The best way to answer that, and I do agree there's different cultural norms, if you like, and just unspoken standards about what is and isn't acceptable across different countries and different parts of the world. You build a lot more skills. There might be some really monumental delayers out there, but they could be sagacious delayers, wise delayers who are doing it with purpose. And they showed the data suggesting that their program worked and they showed the mean scores on this measure of chronic procrastination at the beginning of them coming to the clinic and at the end so they could say, Oh look, there's some improvement. And I remember standing there with a colleague of mine and we both were looking at the scores on this measure of procrastination at time one, and the level of procrastination that they found troubling was well below the average national mean for the procrastination in the U.S. and Canada, but this was troubling in Germany. How do you define procrastination in your research? Another will power builder is to choose a difficult book, decide to read it in let us say 60 days, and then divide the book up into 60 parts to read every day. And again, its coming back to this idea that it really isnt about stopping procrastination. No one feels good about it, but most of us do it at least occasionally. Doer is the science -based guide to overcoming procrastination. Other people have struggled with this task too. Then, merely focus on starting the tasks, not completing them. Humans are terrible at predicting the future. They think of it as being about daily habits. They call procrastination the grave where opportunity is buried. That's Germany. I'm going to write that report by Friday. And that's the other thing too, it's usually a task that held some importance. And some very simple ways that the research has borne out and that takes the edge off them is forgiveness and self-compassion. Sometimes we need that incubation period. We always think of there being bidirectional arrows between all of those things. For good! It can also serve as a form of willpower training. It was engineered by Patrick Murray, and the digital . Save the MP3 file linked above to listen to it on your computer or mobile device. It can become tired, temporarily, after extensive use. Gamers Gene's Procrastination Podcast is your source for everything Video Games info/news. So I dont think about a hundred different solutions to mitigate against each problem. They dont think, Oh, I need to reduce all these negative emotions or theyre going to cause me to go off track with my goals. They associate strong emotions with propelling them to their goals, not with them taking them away from their goals. And yes, there is such a group. For good! Potentially youre going to need more reflection after youve done something. Putting aside whether these lists are historically accurate, they raise the question, is it possible to be a chronic procrastinator but also extremely productive? Rooted in psychology, our personalized lessons help you develop strategies to overcome procrastination. And the other thing that happens too, when you don't start a task, you can still live in that wonderful space where you can imagine how great it's going to be and you can picture how perfect the ending's going to be when you finish writing that report or redecorating your house or whatever it is, that task that you're dealing with at that time. CURT NICKISCH: Yeah. How does this play out interpersonally? In the show you'll learn about the physiological origins of procrastination - the inner brake pedal and gas pedal - and what to do to escape the two . Mills: All right, well, let's not put it off any longer. So one of the projects I want to look at, I know there was this type of work that was done with perfectionism showing that perfectionism is increasing over time. To even begin to change, we have to become aware of the problem, then accept it. You get rewarded for doing that. 135 episodes Dr. Timothy A. Pychyl, associate professor of psychology and director of the Procrastination Research Group (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada), provides a series of short talks, interviews and question/answer podcasts that explain why we procrastinate and what we can do about it. I think one of the big misconceptions in all of this is that people think a lot about reducing emotions as a way of combating procrastination. So its also using that strength. I would think that it's more aboutit's not necessarily that you would procrastinate more or less necessarily depending on what the restraints were. She explains the different causes of procrastination and shares three approaches to beat it: through habits, emotions, and thought patterns. Mills: Right. And things like with healthcare, that would be an example. Sometimes its just theres so much opportunity, we want to be doing all of these things and we sort of bite off more than we can chew in terms of the energy and focus that weve got. Part of it is Ill think about three ways I could approach the task at the outset. Alice Boyes, a former clinical psychologist and author, says breaking the habit is more than simply a matter of discipline. CURT NICKISCH: Thats interesting. ALICE BOYES: Yeah, so its quite complicated. Start strength training, or another disciplined physical task. And the problem with that is it's immediately reinforcing. And then there are other countries where efficiency and productivity are highly valued. I think it worked out to the extent that they had a one point increase on this measure, so it was a self-report measure that we use. YANSS 253 - The psychology behind the world's greatest cons, . It also causes us to keep up a steady stream of I should be in our subconscious minds. Get a pour-over, trendy coffee, plan a reward for when you complete the task, figure out what makes you want to follow through, and do it. And then back to the psychological flexibility concept of using the difficult emotions that arise. One is quickly testing assumptions. Recent episodes of Hidden Brain podcast can now be found at hiddenbrain.org. So what does that mean? And there's multiple layers of doing this. But that's the closest we can get to it. You'll gain practical knowledge you can put into action right away. On a level, thats useful. But really just the more you learn about emotions, the more your psychological knowledge is, the easier this it is to work around all this and not be scared of negative emotions. ALICE BOYES: Yeah, so people will have heard a lot about habits in recent years. In particular, starting new tasks is a problem. From exploring the different types of procrastination to decoding the fascinating neuroscience behind it, we'll equip you with the knowledge and tools to help your clients (or yourself!) And obviously creativity comes from noticing unusual associations between things or noticing things that we dont usually notice. Thank you for joining me today, Dr. Sirois. However, we can strengthen our willpower through routine exercise. Its the idea that you can use your emotions as fuel for your goals, that you dont need to reduce your negative emotions. Its really been great to have you on the show to talk about it. I think that would kind of level the playing field for many people as well in terms of whether they were able to be productive or whether they found themselves falling into a trap of procrastination. And I'll mention one final thing too. More specifically, cognitive behavioral therapy will help you identify your cognitive distortions. CURT NICKISCH: That was one of the things that I really learned from reading what you wrote, is just how much emotion is wrapped up in procrastination. And since productivity hacks never go out of style, let me recommend another IdeaCast episode, Boost Your Productivity with Micro Breaks. Its about identifying the forms of procrastination that cause problems for you, like where youve got a sense of a possible problem in your mind, and you just keep putting off thinking about it, putting off dealing with it. "Everyone procrastinates, but not everyone is a procrastinator," quoth Dr. Joe Ferrari, a charming, hilarious expert on the subject. CURT NICKISCH: Thats Alice Boyes, a trained clinical psychologist and the author of the book Stress Free Productivity. Procrastination is a common problem among people of all ages and backgrounds. Why is that? Can you feel a good emotion from that? And this makes some sense if we think about how harmful stress is to our bodies. There is a gap between your intention and action, You feel overwhelmed by tasks at the last minute, You always feel rushed to complete a project, Youre hesitant to truthfully update someone on your progress. We procrastinate because our brains receive a reward for avoidance. Sirois: Myself as well. So if you put those two things together, higher stress and poor health behaviors, and you tie that in with somebody who's got this pattern of dealing with unpleasant tasks in this very avoidant manner by procrastinating, over time, there's going to be some cumulative damage. Dr. Brammer started this path by investigating Impostor Syndrome. I mean, that being said, there has been some experimental research done where they gave students a range of tasks easy and more difficult and looked at the time on task and what things they did otherwise. How can we create better habits to avoid procrastinating? ALICE BOYES: Yeah so some level of emotional education around this is good so that people do have strategies. And this is something that I've found in my own research too, that students who chronically procrastinate tend to report more of these sort of stress-related mild health complaints, but they also can impact engaging in health behaviors. What theyre much better at is actually using their emotions as fuel for their goals. ALICE BOYES: Yeah. So yeah, that's how the emotions are involved. And I think, yeah the digital media makes it easier for certain generations and I think that other generations might equally find other types of distractions and activities to engage in. Procrastination can also be a result of depression. Ill just put that off and hope that it goes away.. The presence of ambivalent emotions tends to put us on alert. The way its helpful for me is that because Im a worrier or I get wrapped up thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong, and it just helps me streamline that so that I think of just the three major things. You actually can't because if we look at the definition, it's got to be something they intended to do. According to some psychologists, the answer is not that people are lazy or have poor time management skills. And so I think we really do have to make that distinction between delay and procrastination. They take a negative emotion and they use it as fuel for their goals. And so we label our downtime as procrastination. The other thing I do is a pre-mortem. What purpose does it serve? And often it depends on the measures that you're using as well. My guest today is Dr. Fuschia Sirois, a professor of psychology at Durham University in the United Kingdom, and author of the book Procrastination: What It Is, Why It's a Problem and What You Can Do About It, published in July by APA Books. It will also help to be able to clarify your goalsdaily, weekly, monthly. One of the strategies that I often use myself is this idea of a task that youre avoiding, thinking about it in terms of your values. Why is it so easy to fall into this trap even when we know better? About the expert: Fuschia Sirois, PhD And yet, we still do it. And being able to help the person see ways of approaching tasks from the perspective of their strengths is something thats useful. For many of us, its a hard habit to break. He felt that someday he would be caught and everyone would know that he had faked competence. And coming at it from this mood regulation or emotion regulation perspective then, what that suggests is that we need to find ways to manage those emotions first and foremost. Instead, it's a problem, as you say, of emotion regulation. People who deal with Impostor Syndrome take negative statements and magnify them, adding them to the pile of proof that they arent as capable as people believe them to be. When we shift over and we look at adults who are now out in the workforce, they've got their degrees and they're out there just getting on with their lives, it's still fairly high in terms of the chronic procrastination. In this episode, Marc and Mo discuss two recent articles that caught their eye, including (1) an OE article on the psychology of procrastination (also known as the "intention-to-action gap"), including its role in stress and health-related issues, and (2) a JBJS article on perioperative nutrition and its effect on muscle strength and volume following TKA. Its the equivalent of the Instagram image of perfection. Bottom line is that we value patient care, so even we dont necessarily feel like doing small tasks throughout the day, we still do them because we link them to our deeper values. Planning more than only the first step can be its own form of procrastination. The adrenaline spike and stress of the situation make us think we are better off waiting, but in reality, its unlikely that our delay will make the final product any better.Ill feel more like it later.We deceive ourselves into thinking that we'll feel like completing the task later. The variable task or system-based factors are: This can become paralyzing, especially when we are unwilling to ask for help. Weekly "Speaking of Psychology" is an audio podcast series highlighting some of the latest, most important and relevant psychological research being . Because what procrastination does is it gives you immediate relief. People who chronically procrastinate or procrastinate regularly don't progress through their company as well. People have a comfort level with tasks that they do all the time. So anywhere along that spectrum of a task that makes us feel that, these negative emotions in one form or another, those are the tasks that we're more likely to procrastinate on. And if you look at something like bedtime procrastination, which is a particular form of procrastination where you say, Hey, I've got an important meeting tomorrow morning, I'm going to go to bed at 11 o'clock, and here we are 1:00 AM in the morning and you're still on your social media. Adam Grant posted this interesting thing on Instagram a few weeks ago where he said, I wouldve started on Instagram a long, long time ago if I had realized I could just repost my words, if I could just post pictures of my words rather than having to post pictures and videos that we more associate with Instagram. And obviously he does these, theyre essentially like tweets, theyre just these little quotes. So there's short-term health impacts, but there's also some more serious long-term health impacts as well. So often what we put off is stuff thats novel. This is called procrastination. I have been researching and writing about procrastination for nearly twenty years. And then some of the other work I'm doing is just, again, trying to maybe get some more hard indicators of the health effects. When youre doing work that has more potential to be impactful, its usually more uncertain. Well, I want to thank you for joining me today, Dr. Sirois. But then you do still need those other little skills to soothe yourself a little bit. And one of the researchers there, she mentioned that especially in the workplace in Peru, it's like people procrastinate quite regularly because they see their managers and their bosses procrastinating so it sets the standard and everyone thinks it's okay. Self-forgiveness reduces the negative emotions we associate with a task, thus reducing future avoidance and offering ourselves an encouraging approach instead. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Just coming out of the situation we're coming out of now, many more people working from home and having to deal with a lot of distractions they didn't have to deal with before. Then maybe a quick walk to clear your head. For a lot of tasks, Ill just do one or two of them. Our sound editor is Chris Condayan. I find I do some of my best work when Im procrastinating doing something else. And although I've only done one study in this area, one study that I did do looking at people with hearttheir heart health, so in terms of having hypertension or cardiovascular disease, I found that those who scored higher on a measure of chronic procrastination, when you controlled for all kinds of other factors that might account for poor heart health, they were more likely to be in the group that had poor heart health. Is there a difference? So we talk about sagacious delay where on the surface when somebody puts something off, we might look at them and say, Hey, they're procrastinating, or we might even look at our own behavior and just because it's a delay and we're not doing what we know we should be doing, we might say, Well, I'm procrastinating. But if you sort of look below the surface, it may be that maybe you haven't started that report because you're waiting to hear back with some key information that's essential for you to get going on this and if you started without that information, you actually would be wasting a lot of time. And I think the people that I've spoken to who really struggle with procrastination, they are in a bad way. And this sort of fits in with an area of research that's called affective forecasting, which basically says that as human beings, we're not very good at predicting our future emotional states. It can lead to sadness and a lack of self-confidence, which can worsen the pattern of procrastination because negative emotions lead to avoidance. And this is what I'm saying, sort of the tolerance for procrastination, I think, differs across different cultural contexts. So when an emotion comes up, like when someones feeling doubt or someones feeling embarrassment, thats what people who function well do. The psychology of procrastination is complex, and there are several factors that contribute to this behaviour. Feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and a lack of energy can make it difficult to start (and finish) the simplest task. It's a delay that's voluntary. We get technical help from Rob Eckhardt. You can extrapolate out a little bit. Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life. / 3 Strategies for Dealing with Procrastination. Register for the early bird rate. But that again, it's an emotion regulation issue. There was actually a really interesting study that I just read in the last few days that said that doing mindfulness meditation reduces peoples feelings of guilt, but it also causes them to be less willing to do reparative behaviors. They have a zero tolerance sort of policy for any sort of mistakes or anything not going correctly and so they tap out. And there's been some research on that. Once we accept it, we can often find the courage to change our patterns. Procrastination is the act of avoiding something through delay or postponement. So there's this thing called perfectionistic concerns, which is of a self-critical type of perfectionism where the person has really high standards for themselves and is really driven to try and please other people. Practice self-forgiveness when you identify the pattern. So you've chosen to delay and there's no really good reason to. Sometimes we just overestimate how much we can focus in the day. Whatever the causes, those other causes will be mixed in. But should we take that to mean, if there's any truth to these lists at all, that women procrastinate less than men? Avoidance brings immediate relief from the distress associated with the task. In this podcast, we will explore moving from procrastination to your destiny. Mills: So last question. Doer is the science -based guide to overcoming procrastination. Sometimes its just people have more things that they want to do and theyre having trouble settling on one.
