Far more than a productivity hack. And how to stop procrastinating. Rooted in psychology, our personalized lessons help you develop strategies to overcome procrastination. Maybe with the exception of form filling and really basic things, but most things that we procrastinate we can approach through the perspective of our strengths. So the evidence, it's a little mixed. So if youre like that, then it is thinking about, Well, I need to this thing because I need to be reliable for somebody else. ALICE BOYES: Yeah, often the emotional intolerance isnt really about just a task being boring or unpleasant. Accept the emotion that is there, have self-compassion and forgiveness for the emotional experience you had. According to some psychologists, the answer is not that people are lazy or have poor time management skills. Since becoming aware of the problem is one of the first ways we are able to change, mindfulness helps us be more aware of our actions in general. Its something that is potentially really harmful. Speaking of Psychology is produced by Lea Winerman. 6 Depression can also lead to self-doubt. But the minutes you take action and start to encounter problems, which we all do, right, it's never a straight direct path from point A to point B when we're trying to reach our goals, there's ups and downs along the way, but people who have these sort of self-critical perfectionism, the minute they hit one of those bumps in the road, so to speak, on the path to their goal, they give up. Gianni Dimacchia '24 brings immersive worlds and inspired characters to life as an artist, storyteller, and video game designer. Alice Boyes, a former clinical psychologist and author, says breaking the habit is more than simply a matter of discipline. Often it is. What purpose does it serve? Theres hope for all of us, even if its plagued us for a long time. CURT NICKISCH: Is it more cognitive or emotional? So why do people procrastinate? So anxiety is both the strength and a weakness for me in that Im good at foreseeing problems. 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. Using science and storytelling, Hidden Brain . Although we may experience discomfort in the final moments before a task is due, we rarely think about the past or future when procrastinating. So people want to do things with certain outcomes and they tend to procrastinate more with things with uncertain outcomes. Sirois: The quick answer is you can't. I just want to ask if perfectionism and procrastination are linked and are perfectionists more or less likely to procrastinate? 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. So the classic example thats always used in any intro psych textbook is driving: that once were not a novice driver anymore, whenever we sit in the driver seat of a car, we go through a sequence of behaviors without really even thinking about what we are doing. Dans ce podcast, j'aborde les deux thmatiques, notamment sous le prisme des troubles du comportement alimentaire. Sirois: Great question. 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. But those things feel worse while we are doing them. This Mindset Change podcast contains powerful subconscious training meditations, interviews with cutting-edge experts, and host Paul Sheppard's unique holistic blend of psychology, hypnosis, neurobiology, NLP, psychotherapy tools and strategies to help you create the life you truly want to live. Planning more than only the first step can be its own form of procrastination. 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. You'll gain practical knowledge you can put into action right away. It can become tired, temporarily, after extensive use. Procrastination is the act of avoiding something through delay or postponement. 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. / 3 Strategies for Dealing with Procrastination. CURT NICKISCH: But thats never addressing the emotion that goes with it. But we all know that a lot of these things with uncertain outcomes are the things that have the higher potential for reward. And so we actually conducted some research a couple years ago where we did this thing called a meta-analysis, which is just basically a review of all the research that's ever been done looking at the associations between perfectionism, both perfectionism dimensions there, and procrastination. It's basically saying, Hey, yeah, I'm struggling with this task. Movies. (Message automatically replaces this text). And we can learn to channel our emotions in service of our values, in service of our goals. Students who forgave themselves for procrastinating on academic work were found two weeks later to actually procrastinate less. Knowing what the strengths of people are or knowing how to discover them from conversation. But there's tolerance for it too. And then back to the psychological flexibility concept of using the difficult emotions that arise. And yet, we still do 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. Mills: So how does chronic procrastination affect people's mental and physical wellbeing? Sirois: Great. She explains the different causes of procrastination and shares three. A couple of names popped up, Margaret Atwood, J.K. Rowling for example, who are also highly productive. ALICE BOYES: Yeah. And we all have personal examples something felt really yucky at the time, but it ended up being really, really fruitful. Before you know it, hours have passed and you're right where you started and more stressed than ever. And there are more steps that are part of my process. 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. ALICE BOYES: Yeah, it absolutely is. 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. So people think a lot about learning from other people and learning from science when it comes to productivity. And we all want to learn from science. Mills: Right. But also it feels like it is approaching the tasks in a way that uses my strengths. If you want a behavior to require less self control, then make it a consistent habit. When youve got that number one task that youre avoiding but youve also got a bunch of other things that normally you would avoid, and its the only time you ever get round to doing those. Just do it and you'll feel a lot better than you think you will. Breaking up large projects into smaller tasks. Its incredibly successful. Or you may just do it from time to time depending on the circumstances. Psychology of Procrastination: 10 Worksheets & Games (PDF) 31 Aug 2021 by Christina R. Wilson, Ph.D. Scientifically reviewed by Jo Nash, Ph.D. Procrastination is an interesting concept in our culture. As we build a habit of procrastinating, we develop false beliefs that worsen the habit. It was engineered by Patrick Murray, and the digital . CURT NICKISCH: Thats interesting. We often dont start the project early enough to know how much time well actually need.Ive planned and organized how I will complete the task, its time for a break!. And this is where some people can get caught in the trap of procrastination as almost a chronic habit or way of dealing with these unpleasant tasks. Identify the emotions behind tasks you felt you didnt excel in, or that didnt turn out the way you wanted them to when you did complete them. If you force yourself to think of three different ways, then you can assess which is the best of those. If we want to address any type of problem, we've got to know what the core cause is. When youre doing work that has more potential to be impactful, its usually more uncertain. 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. Part of it is Ill think about three ways I could approach the task at the outset. We all want to pick up little tips and tricks from people about their morning routines or whatever it is. But it makes sense though too, because if you're stressed all the time and you're not looking after your health, these healthy behaviorsand stress and health behaviors are two key pathways to good health and when you don't engage in them, we know that they are risk factors for poor heart health. Procrastination thrives in secrecy and isolation. In particular, starting new tasks is a problem. She has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, Hannity and Colmes, CSPAN, and the BBC, to name a few of her broadcast engagements. Can you explain what that is? How do you think about separating emotions from tasks? Were you procrastinating in that time? If it was a country where the tolerance for procrastination was quite low, that might certainly have an impact, but I think it's about the acceptability as well. J'aurais pu dvelopper sur la gurison d . 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. Her research also examines the role of positive psychology traits, states, and interventions for supporting self-regulation and enhancing health and well-being. And so this is one of the reasons why, at least with my research anyways, what I've defaulted to is looking at people who have a chronic tendency to procrastinate, because that'sin a sense we're holding that procrastination constant and we're looking at what are the sort of thoughts that they have? I'm having difficulty, but you know what, it's okay. That was one way that it could be helpful. A common but counter-intuitive driver of procrastination is fear of failure. So actually looking at more objective measures using Smart watches to track people's behavior, their physical activity and seeing again, if in fact people who are prone to procrastination are actually being less active than others. So the researchers that have looked at what people do to procrastinate on their bedtimes, it's not just digitally oriented distractions, they engage in a whole bunch of things. 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. CURT NICKISCH: One of the really fascinating things that jumped out at me in your work was this idea of emotional granularity. Most of us are decent humans and its not consistent with our values to be being jerks. Unsubscribe. And this makes some sense if we think about how harmful stress is to our bodies. What are you working on now? I have been researching and writing about procrastination for nearly twenty years. Advancing psychology to benefit society and improve lives. And being able to help the person see ways of approaching tasks from the perspective of their strengths is something thats useful. We think about people procrastinating things that they have to do every month or every week or every day. Self-forgiveness reduces the negative emotions we associate with a task, thus reducing future avoidance and offering ourselves an encouraging approach instead. Mindfulness will help you be able to identify mental patterns, such as cognitive distortions. And there is indeed a connection. 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. We think well drink caffeine, get a mental boost, or find the perfect time to do the task, but it never comes.I did pretty well, considering I waited until the last minute.This is a self-protective belief. So as much, there's not so much as a strong response to procrastination in cultures where things are a little bit more lax in terms of timelines. So doing compassionate self talk is useful about the feelings that youre having. Tackle the high-willpower tasks earlier in the day. So the classic example is the student who the only time they ever clean their dorm room is when they should be studying for exams. Guilt is a useful emotion because it causes us to want to repair things. Why is it so easy to fall into this trap even when we know better? 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. And I think that lays into the final part of the definition, which is that we engage in this type of unnecessary voluntary delay of these intended tasks despite knowing there will be negative consequences for ourselves and others. And we can all do that with everything basically. 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. It would be more accurate to say, "I work under pressure." Yes. But if it were that simple, it wouldnt be a problem anymore. And they should have an explicit system. I just think of one to mitigate against each and that keeps it contained and it satisfies my anxiety. Thank you for joining me today, Dr. Sirois. And then I try and address each of those things that could go wrong in a specific way. Lower conscientiousnesslower drive to be organized and accomplish. What are the sort of consequences that they experience? Then you'll end up being both a procrastinator and very depressed. Or you may be sitting up reading that novel or you may be knitting that sweater. Danny draws on the expertise of clinical psychologists, physicians, psychiatrists and researchers in his new podcast, and he has already taken on a variety of challenging and interesting topics. Episode 210: Why we procrastinate and what to do about it, with Fuschia Sirois, PhD. And so we first think, Oh, well, no one likes doing boring tasks. So the idea is, okay, well, if you have habits of doing your boring tasks, then you wont need as much self-control to get those done. This is good for willpower training. Speaking of Psychology is an audio podcast series highlighting some of the latest, most important, and relevant psychological research being conducted today. Fuschia Sirois, PhD, of Durham University, talks about why procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not one of laziness or poor time management skills; how it can harm our mental and physical health; why it's so tied up with guilt and shame; and how self-compassion can help us overcome it. Theres no pictures. Is there a difference? This episode was produced by Mary Dooe. So yeah, I would say there is some evidence suggest men might procrastinate a little bit more than women, but it's not a huge difference and we may get some evidence in the coming years that that levels out because I think it is really driven also by what's going on. 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. People will say its an emotional thing and its caused by people being intolerant of emotions. You build a lot more skills. It is important to be able to make all of those distinctions. CURT NICKISCH: Well, lets talk about the work setting a little bit in the sense of teams and organizational culture. When we are novice drivers, we have to think carefully about checking the mirrors and all the steps. So thats obviously a huge problem, right? So if you're a student and you're procrastinating on your academic work, then it's likely you're not going to do as well performance-wise. Sometimes doing good for awhile gives us permission to do bad.This is stupid, I don't even care about it.Our fear and insecurities can lead to us devalue the entire project altogether. What do you find your cognitive distortions arewhat are the things you tell yourself to make yourself feel better about putting things off? Starting with thinking of different ways to approach it is probably the most important one for me. Sirois: Yeah. He approaches the platform of Instagram through his strengths and his posts get like 40-50,000 likes each post. You can find her article, How to Stop Procrastinating in the May/June, 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review and at hbr.org. So lots of forms of problem solving benefit from an incubation period where you take a pause between when you hear the problem and when you start working on it. Sometimes its just noticing that relationship. They have a zero tolerance sort of policy for any sort of mistakes or anything not going correctly and so they tap out. Can lead to thoughts such as "I might as well not even try.". Subscribe. Thank you for listening. It's a delay that's voluntary. A lot of the focus on overcoming procrastination has been on habit forming and discipline, and getting the gumption to face the tasks you dont like doing. Practice self-forgiveness when you identify the pattern. And we all know that it helps to identify emotions. They think of it as being about daily habits. Also, take up some form of regular willpower exercise. Does willpower work? How do you do that? And there's multiple layers of doing this. And when we're faced with the temptation to put something off, how can we change our mindset and our environment to help us buckle down and do what needs to be done? Look at the thoughts that come with that emotion. Mills: Given that these famous alleged procrastinators maybe weren't procrastinators at all, I thought it was interesting that there weren't a lot of women on the list that I saw. For best results, make your first step . This Web site provides access to my research group and academic publications, as well as my iProcrastinate Podcasts and "Don't Delay" blog for Psychology Today. Instead, research suggests that procrastination is a problem driven by our emotions, and learning to manage negative emotions effectively can help us overcome it. But we can easily say it's all to do with mood management," Sirois says. It is often based on the lie that we should be able to complete something without assistance. Make those goals realistic so you dont talk yourself out of them. How does procrastination affect others around us? And if somebody is not being productive and procrastinating, we think if we push them harder and get on their case, then they'll actually be more productive, rather than saying, Hey, it's okay and taking more of a compassionate approach. Heres the quick breakdown of how you can look at your thinking patterns when you decide to procrastinate: Recognize when you have the emotion about the task you want to delay. So ambivalent emotion is when youre feeling fearful and exhilarated all at the same time or any combination of intense positive and intense negative emotions. And so because of that, they might sort of not be able to savor their successes when they actually reach those standards. Its the equivalent of the Instagram image of perfection. Show more Download. In this episode, guest Dr. Hayden Finch shares the psychology of procrastination! Fuschia M. Sirois, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Durham University, Durham, England, and heads the Self-Regulation in Health and Well-Being Laboratory.. For more than 20 years, she has researched the causes and consequences of procrastination as well as how emotions play a role in explaining why people procrastinate. So I'm curious to know whether the rates of procrastination over the last couple decades are increasing over time as well. ALICE BOYES: Yeah. There might be some really monumental delayers out there, but they could be sagacious delayers, wise delayers who are doing it with purpose. ALICE BOYES: Yeah. Recent episodes of Hidden Brain podcast can now be found at hiddenbrain.org. And really the name of the game is people changing themselves. Its really been great to have you on the show to talk about it. Thank you for having me. And I guess here we're talking about chronic procrastination as opposed to procrastinating from time to time. Then, merely focus on starting the tasks, not completing them. And the general gist of it is that habits make behaviors more automatic. It can lead to sadness and a lack of self-confidence, which can worsen the pattern of procrastination because negative emotions lead to avoidance. Procrastination is the act of avoiding something through delay or postponement. You can use the same psychology behind that to prepare for even daily tasks. Fuschia Sirois, PhD: Oh, thanks for having me, Kim. This podcast is for those who have creativity bursting within but work hard on other people's dreams they fail to pursue their own. Start strength training, or another disciplined physical task. Putting aside whether these lists are historically accurate, they raise the question, is it possible to be a chronic procrastinator but also extremely productive? I'm so glad that we did not put off this discussion. . So my strategy and my system is kind of tailored to that. And since productivity hacks never go out of style, let me recommend another IdeaCast episode, Boost Your Productivity with Micro Breaks. We wont discover our true potential if we dont give ourselves ample time.I have plenty of time, I'll do it later.We are undervaluing the future self when we think this way. Mills: So a moment ago you mentioned the couch and the screen, being able to get away from those things, and I'm wondering whether does the ubiquity of social media and electronic devices have an impact on procrastination or have procrastinators always been able to find excuses to put things off? Alice Boyes, a former clinical psychologist and author, says breaking the habit is more than simply a matter of discipline. 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? So are we all in some sense a product of our culture when it comes to procrastination? And this is what I'm saying, sort of the tolerance for procrastination, I think, differs across different cultural contexts. He doesnt do pictures. Et la procrastination on peut la trouver aussi chez les personnes qui souhaitent gurir. The trick is to have a lot of less important things on your list, so that by doing the less important things, you can avoid doing . There really is so much that goes on with it psychologically. You might procrastinate in your health, but you may not procrastinate at work, for example. Im Curt Nickisch. Alice Boyes is a former clinical psychologist and the author of the book Stress Free Productivity. So there's short-term health impacts, but there's also some more serious long-term health impacts as well. And so procrastination becomes a way to cope with that negative mood and those negative emotions, especially if you're someone who hasn't had a lot of experience managing your negative emotions effectively, or maybe you've got a lot of other stressors going on in your life that you've sort ofyour resources, your inner resources for coping with a task that might be really unpleasant or stressful or frustrating or creates a lot of worry for you, in those sorts of situations, you might resort to procrastination. ALICE BOYES: Yeah, its actually just what I was talking about before. And I think this happens a lot with procrastination, that we predict that we're going to feel a lot worse when we're doing the task than when we actually get on and just do it. One of the most important things you can do is align your tasks and goals to your values. So depending on how complex this task is, my system can have up to six or seven steps. Sirois: It has a huge impact on it and I think this is a thing a lot of people don't think about when they think about procrastination. This is simply not true. Can you feel a good emotion from that? So you hear a lot of different things. My podcast guest this week, Dr. Jackson Brammer, says he used to be an expert procrastinator. A lot of studies haven't found any difference and sincesome more recent evidence does suggest that men tend to procrastinate a little bit more than women. Scan . And thats kind of useful for everybody, because we all tend to think of one way we could approach something and start down that track. We ask people about how often they procrastinate or if they're putting things off to tomorrow. Because all of those things have bidirectional arrows between them, what it in essence means is that even if you see your procrastination as being primarily emotional or primarily cognitive, or primarily about habits. Its been a popular topic. The variable task or system-based factors are: This can become paralyzing, especially when we are unwilling to ask for help. Have you ever dealt with procrastination? Yeah. Mills is senior director of strategic external communications and public affairs for the American Psychological Association, where she has worked since 2007. If we dont try and we fail, there is less reflection on the self than if we try our hardest and fail. But should we take that to mean, if there's any truth to these lists at all, that women procrastinate less than men? Earlier in the morning, when your cortisol is high, when your brain is fresh, youll be able to take on the tasks youll need to be highly motivated for. For more than 20 years, she has researched the causes and consequences of procrastination as well as how emotions play a role in explaining why people procrastinate. Boredom / Low Interest - Interest can be considered an emotion with motivational properties related to approach. Its probably going to be really expensive. ALICE BOYES: Yeah, Im not sure that its that black and white. But that again, it's an emotion regulation issue. So you've chosen to delay and there's no really good reason to. 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. I have the value of the two of us being in a relationship where we make up for each others weaknesses, that were there to compensate for each others weaknesses. Thanks for listening to the HBR IdeaCast. Sirois is the author of Procrastination: What It Is, Why Its a Problem, and What You Can Do About It, published by APA Books in July 2022. Were all prone to it. She explains the different causes of procrastination and shares three approaches to beat it: through habits, emotions, and thought patterns. 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. Mills: You also study perfectionism, which is a topic that we recently talked about on another episode of this podcast. 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.
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