How does procrastination affect others around us? That frustration is a sign we are trying to change, but it isnt helpful in the actual change. Mills: So last question. So people who are prone to procrastination do tend to use more social media, tend to be engaged with their digital distractions. When you can't figure out how to tackle a project or feel insecure about your abilities, you might find it easier to put it off. And then yeah, what we see that as 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. How does this play out interpersonally? Im not advocating anyone adopt my system. The research psychologist, author and DePaul University professor sits down for a truly delightful exploration of why we procrastinate, how prevalent it is, when it becomes harmful, some myths about procrastination, why it's similar to gambling, how . 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. Our guest today offers three strategic paths to beat procrastination in a comprehensive way. Being unwilling to ask for help can relate to Impostor Syndrome, and can fuel procrastination. Save the MP3 file linked above to listen to it on your computer or mobile device. Far more than a productivity hack. So I sort of lay that out there because it's slightly different there. They tend to also have more insecure job status, in other words, they're jumping from job to job and they never really advance much, and they actually make less money than people who don't chronically procrastinate. ALICE BOYES: It can be both. So some of my students have looked at getting people to answers and questionnaires at one time point, and then following up with them and getting them to fill in with grids based on 30-minute or 15-minute segments of the day. That's why we say it's sort of a short-term mood repair. 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. Procrastination is a common problem among people of all ages and backgrounds. Register for the early bird rate. Sirois: That's a great question. I think about what I think could go wrong with the task. Or you may just do it from time to time depending on the circumstances. If we dont try and we fail, there is less reflection on the self than if we try our hardest and fail. 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. 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 . Then you need a snack. Then, merely focus on starting the tasks, not completing them. Why we procrastinate and what to do about it, with Fuschia Sirois, PhD, Procrastination: What It Is, Why Its a Problem, and What You Can Do About It. According to some psychologists, the answer is not that people are lazy or have poor time management skills. What can you do, either as a manager or a colleague? So there's this task, we may not have enough information about it, and we start imagining how difficult it's going to be and how complex it's going to be and how we're going to fail or struggle. My podcast guest this week, Dr. Jackson Brammer, says he used to be an expert procrastinator. Produced by the American Psychological Association, these podcasts will help listeners apply the science of psychology to their everyday lives. And there is indeed a connection. 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. 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. But I dont always do those six or seven steps. Show more Download. So if I frame it like that, Im a lot more willing to do it. Boredom / Low Interest - Interest can be considered an emotion with motivational properties related to approach. And how can we be more conscious of that? Why is it so easy to fall into this trap even when we know better? But we can easily say it's all to do with mood management," Sirois says. It is important to be able to make all of those distinctions. Thank you for having me. Some of them bake, even. It's a habit of putting off tasks that we know we need to complete, and it often leads to stress, anxiety, and missed deadlines. Theres hope for all of us, even if its plagued us for a long time. Sirois: Great. So there are some sort of useful forms of it but obviously it can also tie people in knots and lead to lots of self-criticism. And obviously creativity comes from noticing unusual associations between things or noticing things that we dont usually notice. So the evidence, it's a little mixed. Do you know what percentage of people are chronic procrastinators to the point where it's really affecting their health? And again, we think of Germany is being highly efficient, trains running on time and everything sort of very precise, and the tolerance there for procrastination is quite low. This is called procrastination. People will say its an emotional thing and its caused by people being intolerant of emotions. The second episode of the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy podcast deals with cognitive distortions. So for me, my system is quite tailored to my personality. However, we can strengthen our willpower through routine exercise. Procrastination is the act of avoiding something through delay or postponement. I just think of one to mitigate against each and that keeps it contained and it satisfies my anxiety. Were you procrastinating in that time? Mills: Right. Alice Boyes, a former clinical psychologist and author, says breaking the habit is more than simply a matter of discipline. Sirois: Myself as well. And you see this a lot. Doer is the science -based guide to overcoming procrastination. That's Germany. But what we actually know about people who are healthy, happy, and productive is that they dont go around spending a lot of time trying to reduce their emotions. / 3 Strategies for Dealing with Procrastination. Other areas I'm looking at is trying to get a handle on some of what's happening with respect to the emotion regulation and specifically this idea that we tend to often not get started on a task because we make emotional mountains out of molehills. 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. He approaches the platform of Instagram through his strengths and his posts get like 40-50,000 likes each post. Menu. 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. But also it feels like it is approaching the tasks in a way that uses my strengths. So it's not like there's an emergency, it's not like somebody pulled you off of what you were doing. 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. Im thinking of putting something off until Friday afternoon and then writing an email to kick it into somebody elses pile of work at the end of the week. 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. What Im saying is that people should personalize their systems to them. Start strength training, or another disciplined physical task. Speaking of Psychology is an audio podcast series highlighting some of the latest, most important, and relevant psychological research being conducted today. This is another self-protective belief.There must be some way I can just not do this.There isn't an easy fix for procrastinationwe usually still have to complete the task. Because being on alert, partly were alert for our usual associations between things. It gives you that quick fix. So what does that mean? 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. CURT NICKISCH: Whats your understanding of procrastination? Mills holds a bachelors degree in biology from Barnard College and a masters in journalism from New York University. Knowing what the strengths of people are or knowing how to discover them from conversation. Starting with thinking of different ways to approach it is probably the most important one for me. What are you working on now? And so thats useful. 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. Scan . 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. 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. There might be some really monumental delayers out there, but they could be sagacious delayers, wise delayers who are doing it with purpose. There's nothing special about my struggle. APA 2023 registration is now open! 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. A couple of names popped up, Margaret Atwood, J.K. Rowling for example, who are also highly productive. CURT NICKISCH: Is it more cognitive or emotional? Mais si cette procrastination tait en fait tout simplement de la rsistance au changement ? There really is so much that goes on with it psychologically. That if you notice a funny mole or you notice a funny lump or something, or change in your bowel habit of it or whatever it is, that is an area where procrastination can be deadly. 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. To re-enable, please adjust your cookie preferences. Weekly "Speaking of Psychology" is an audio podcast series highlighting some of the latest, most important and relevant psychological research being . I have been researching and writing about procrastination for nearly twenty years. Habits, emotions, and thought patterns. Sirois: Yeah, it's a great question, and indeed, a lot of us can procrastinate just occasionally, which we would call sort of more of a situationally based procrastination. It doesn't have to be objectively an unpleasant task, but it's what our interaction with that task, the emotions that arise from that interaction and how it makes us feel and if it's something unpleasant and we can't quite work through those feelings, procrastination becomes a way to solve that, at least in the short run. 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. 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. 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. So they could come in, engage in this program over a few weeks, it would help reduce their procrastination. I'm really thrilled to be here. Ill just put that off and hope that it goes away.. And some very simple ways that the research has borne out and that takes the edge off them is forgiveness and self-compassion. You might procrastinate in your health, but you may not procrastinate at work, for example. ALICE BOYES: Yeah, so its quite complicated. 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. Humans are terrible at predicting the future. We procrastinate because our brains receive a reward for avoidance. Sirois: Yeah. Adding your daily task unlocks deep insights about your psychology. They have a zero tolerance sort of policy for any sort of mistakes or anything not going correctly and so they tap out. And the general gist of it is that habits make behaviors more automatic. 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. Just do it and you'll feel a lot better than you think you will. Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life. Emotions all have an evolutionary purpose. Et la procrastination on peut la trouver aussi chez les personnes qui souhaitent gurir. Avoidance brings immediate relief from the distress associated with the task. This episode was produced by Mary Dooe. So people think a lot about learning from other people and learning from science when it comes to productivity. CURT NICKISCH: So lets start down the line here and go through three different areas where we can really make a difference when it comes to changing how we work. Sirois: The quick answer is you can't. Boyes wrote the book Stress-Free Productivityand the HBR article How to Stop Procrastinating.. 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. So if we tell people to recall a time that they're procrastinating and then give them this sort of script that re-frames that experience in a self-compassionate manner, basically You're not the first person to procrastinate, nor will you be the last. Then you go to other parts of the world and one part of the world where there's actually quite a booming research or culture of researchers looking into procrastination. Procrastination can also be a result of depression. Gianni Dimacchia '24 brings immersive worlds and inspired characters to life as an artist, storyteller, and video game designer. Sometimes the emotion will disguise itself as a physical sensation, such as anxiousness, nausea, or a rapid heartbeat. Tackle the high-willpower tasks earlier in the day. You can find her article, How to Stop Procrastinating in the May/June, 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review and at hbr.org. Sometimes its just making sure you dont make that cognitive error, or catching the cognitive error when youre making it, as recognizing that its almost like theres an inverse correlation there between how awkward and yucky things feel. Rooted in psychology, our personalized lessons help you develop strategies to overcome procrastination. Alice Boyes is a former clinical psychologist and the author of the book Stress Free Productivity. Its a really false image. If you force yourself to think of three different ways, then you can assess which is the best of those. But sometimes we end up being jerks because weve got ourselves into a procrastination pickle, because weve left something. CURT NICKISCH: One of the really fascinating things that jumped out at me in your work was this idea of emotional granularity. We are both aware that we feel frustrated with ourselves when we know weve been procrastinating. CURT NICKISCH: You mentioned earlier that when people do the tasks they know, those are often the easiest to do, and they put off the harder ones. Your four chunks might be: (1) write out your feedback, (2) schedule the conversation, (3) deliver the feedback, and (4) schedule a follow-up conversation. And how to stop procrastinating. In fact, anecdotally a lot of the people I've talked to when I say I do procrastination research, I get a lot of people telling me about their procrastination story. But then you do still need those other little skills to soothe yourself a little bit. 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. So sort of drilling down into understanding better that emotional side. So it is really complicated, but theres always times where people need to get on to doing something. But I remember some years back at one of our conferences, we had some students presenting posters about their research on procrastination and there was this, what did they call it? ALICE BOYES: Yeah. And there is some research, there's some procrastination researchers down in Peru, and we do these conferences every couple of years, just sort international conference on procrastination and we hear about the different research that's going on different in parts of the world on the topic of procrastination. Like if you feel guilt. So I think that's kind of the extreme case over several decades. And there are more steps that are part of my process. And that we can come to each other with things that we feel vulnerable about. And it can have very real physical health effects. So when you learn that actually strong emotions and tense emotions, diverse emotions are incredibly healthy, you can just fear them a lot less and have a more open attitude toward them. Repeat. I'm going to clean out the garage this weekend. More specifically, cognitive behavioral therapy will help you identify your cognitive distortions. But that again, it's an emotion regulation issue. For example, someone with ADHD is more likely to procrastinate. You're going to hand in things late or you're not going to do your best work. 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. 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. They're ones that we find unpleasant, aversive and that can range the full spectrum from just simply boring to gut wrenching, nerve wracking and anxiety provoking. And they should have an explicit system. 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. And yet, we still do it. But we all know that a lot of these things with uncertain outcomes are the things that have the higher potential for reward. Recognizing this link led to the revelation that fighting procrastination might help him stop feeling like he didnt deserve to be in his position. When we pay attention to ourselves through the gentle observation of mindfulness, we arent striving to fix or self-judge. Before you know it, hours have passed and you're right where you started and more stressed than ever. Where can you place it? 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. How do you think about separating emotions from tasks? But what about that culture of procrastination at a place or in a team? If you have comments or ideas for future podcasts, you can email us at speakingofpsychology@apa.org. 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. Look at the cognitive distortions that came with the thought. Most of us are decent humans and its not consistent with our values to be being jerks. You build a lot more skills. She is a social, health and personality psychologist who is broadly interested in how self-regulationhow we manage our thoughts, emotions and behaviorsaffect our health and wellbeing. Its something that is potentially really harmful. ALICE BOYES: Yeah, so people will have heard a lot about habits in recent years. And so it's not surprising that we find that people chronically procrastinate also tend to put off engaging in those health promoting behaviors that would really help their health overall. So I dont think about a hundred different solutions to mitigate against each problem. And it's usually on a task that we said we're going to do. In Canada or U.S., it would've been That's not an issue.. Procrastination is the act of avoiding something through delay or postponement. Be honest with yourself in your answer. She believes in the importance of communicating psychological science to the public to improve people's lives and has been interviewed about procrastination for news outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times and the BBC. Identifying the role of procrastination in your life. And any strategy that you can use, whether it targets behavior or emotions or thoughts is probably going to work no matter what you see the primary root of it as being, because those things are so interlinked. And we can all do that with everything basically. 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. So whats a good way to overcome that, to accept that this friction-filled work, as you put it, is good for you and may help you? If you want to pursue therapy for your procrastination, cognitive behavioral therapy can help. The Psychology of Procrastination (Podcast Episode 2018) Quotes on IMDb: Memorable quotes and exchanges from movies, TV series and more. 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. I think especially if it's a task that's really creating a lot of stress and really frustration or anxiety or anticipated anxiety, sometimes that's not how we feel right now, but we're anticipating that as soon as we start working on those tasks, we're going to get frustrated and that's enough to keep us from going with it.