An officially sponsored Educational Teleclass
Why Don't We Just Do It? –
Managing Procrastination
(SLS-220)
September 24 2014
(Originally aired on April 6, 2010)
Course Developer and Presenter:
Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D.
Carleton University, Ottawa
procrastination.ca
[email protected]
Copyright © 2010 Timothy A. Pychyl. Permission is granted to ICD to publish and distribute this document
as an accompaniment to a teleclass. ALL OTHER RIGHTS RESERVED. Any other use of materials,
including reproduction, modification, distribution or re-publication, in print or electronic format, without the
express written consent of the copyright holder, is strictly prohibited.
Teleclass Description and Objectives
In this teleclass, we will explore the psychology of procrastination. Our purpose will be
to summarize the main explanations for chronic procrastination as one form of selfregulation failure. In particular, we will discuss the role of personality and situation, the
effects of short-term emotional regulation (giving in to feel good), the biases in human
nature that affect our planning, as well as potential intervention techniques that help us
to be more successful in our goal pursuit. Pre- and post-class resources can be found at
procrastination.ca (see the iProcrastinate Podcasts and psychology Today blog).
Participants will learn:
•
•
•
•
•
Key personality attributes related to chronic procrastination.
The role of emotional regulation and willpower of self-regulation failure.
Features of a task that make them aversive.
How we are biased in our planning and perceptions that affect goal
pursuit.
Intervention strategies such as implementation intentions that enhance
success.
Certificates Available: CD, LS
Presenter Information
Dr. Tim Pychyl is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Carleton
University (Ottawa, Canada). He has established an international reputation with his
research on procrastination (procrastination.ca). In addition to numerous journal articles,
Tim has co-edited a book on Counseling the Procrastinator in Academic Settings
published by the American Psychological Association, and he has co-edited special
issues of two journals focused specifically on procrastination. Tim produces a weekly
iProcrastinate podcast as well as a blog for Psychology Today (see the resources for
links).
Tim’s research on procrastination complements his passion for teaching with a clear
focus on students and their learning. He has won numerous teaching awards including
a 3M National Teaching Fellowship from the Society for Teaching and Learning Higher
Education. Most recently he became the inaugural recipient of the University Medal for
Distinguished Teaching at Carleton University.
When not on campus, Tim enjoys family life on his hobby farm with his wife Beth,
daughter Laurel (almost 5 years old) and son Alex (2.5 years old). As time, children and
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energy permit, you will find Tim and Beth on the local trails with their team of sled dogs
or riding the family horses.
Why Don’t We Just Do It? - Managing Procrastination
Procrastination – what is it?
It’s important to have a shared definition of the construct. Procrastination is the
voluntary delay of an intended action despite knowing that this delay will most likely
undermine task performance and/or create psychological stress.
All procrastination is delay, but not all delay is procrastination. We all delay things in our
lives to juggle the tasks we face daily. Many of these are necessary delays. Some are
even sagacious delays as know the delay will benefit us. It’s important not to confuse
every other form of delay with procrastination.
Procrastination has no benefits. It is self-regulation failure.
The costs of procrastination
• Performance
• Relationships
• Well-being
• Health
• The regrets of the dying
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Procrastination is NOT simply a time management problem
Strategies for change and more successful goal pursuit
Goal representation and planning
Make it concrete
Phrased as an approach goal (not avoidance)
Increase meaning & interest in the task
Time traveling (affective forecasting, planning fallacy, TMT)
Reduce uncertainty
Implementation intentions
Self-regulation, volitional skills, motivation
Just get started
Reduce distractions (shut off Facebook, email, Twitter)
Creative commitment devices
“Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing” (WILB)
Will power & Self-affirmation – meaning/values
Recognizing intention updates (other forms of delay)
Self forgiveness
Meditate
Personality
Change your personality?
Emotional intelligence – “giving in to feel good”
Stop the self-deception
Harness your liabilities – structured procrastination
Use upward counterfactuals
Examine & challenge your irrational beliefs (perfectionism)
Work from your ideal not ought self
Self-consciousness and flow
Goal representation and planning
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Make it concrete
• “Construal-level theory holds that greater psychological distance is associated
with more abstract, higher-level construals [of objects or tasks], such that more
distal objects are represented on a higher level, and also that objects
represented on a higher level seem more distant" (p. 1308)
• ". . . the way the task is represented influences when individuals complete it.
Across a variety of manipulations of construal level, we observed that
procrastination was reduced when participants were induced to construe the task
more concretely. . . we think that the effect of construal level on completion times
reflected an association between concrete construal and sooner time" (p. 1313).
• OTHER RESEARCH - chronic procrastinators actually construe their tasks less
abstractly than non-procrastinators
Phrased as an approach goal (not avoidance)
• Approach-oriented goals involve reaching or maintaining desired outcomes.
• Avoidance goals focus on avoiding or eliminating undesired outcomes.
• Pursuit of a greater number of avoidance goals is related to:
o less satisfaction with progress and more negative feelings about progress
with personal goals,
o decreased self-esteem, personal control and vitality,
o less satisfaction with life, and
o feeling less competent
• Two-hundred toe nails
Increase meaning & interest in the task
• Task aversiveness
• Interest – an emotion
• "If an activity is boring, I can usually find a way to make it fun again"
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Goal representation and planning, continued
Time traveling (affective forecasting, planning fallacy, TMT)
• Affective forecasting
o Tenure, lottery, shopping, drugs
o Focalism, presentism
• The planning fallacy
o Singular events vs distributional information
• Temporal Motivation Theory
o Discounting future rewards (behavioural economics)
Reduce uncertainty
I may have fear, but I need not be my fear (Palmer, 1999).
Implementation intentions
• In situation X, I will do behaviour Y to achieve subgoal Z.
• External cue for behaviour
• 40% increase in attendance on second experiment
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Self-regulation, volitional skills, motivation
Just get started
• Experience sampling
• Doing & “should be doing”
• Appraisals, emotions, thoughts
• Follow-up interviews
“I’ll feel more like it tomorrow”
“I work better under pressure”
Reduce distractions (shut off Facebook, email, Twitter)
•
•
•
Autonomy vs. external control (SDT)
State- vs. action-orientations in the condition of external control vs. autonomy
Over-reliance on external control to maintain self-control actually alienates us
from our sense of self, our emotional preferences and self-generated goals.
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Self-regulation, volitional skills, motivation, continued
Creative commitment devices
• Intransitive preference structures
Acting on Monday would be less preferable to acting on Tuesday ("I'll feel more
like it tomorrow"), which would be less preferable to acting on Wednesday which
would be less preferable to acting on Thursday, which would be less preferable
to acting on the previous Monday" (because we're now too late to get the report
done!). This is a common feeling among procrastinators as they make that lastminute effort in the wee hours of Thursday morning.
• Retirement savings
“Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing” (WILB)
• Taking breaks
• Brent Coker (Department of Management and Marketing, University of
Mebourne) “Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing”
• Moderation is key
• Internet Addiction 14% of Australian Internet users
Will power
• Will power is like a muscle
• Self-regulatory depletion
• Implications?
o Strategic investment of a limited resource
o Strengthening will power – self-affirmation
 Expressing one’s core values
 Puts focus on volition as opposed to habit
 Bolster’s self-regulation
Recognizing intention updates (other forms of delay)
• Procrastination or sagacious delay?
• Giving in to feel good or new information?
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Self-regulation, volitional skills, motivation, continued
Self forgiveness
Meditate
•
•
Attention
Transcendence
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Personality
Change your personality?
• Conscientiousness
• Impulsivity
• Sensation seeking
• Neuroticism
• Extraversion
• Optimism
• Perfectionism
Emotional intelligence – “giving in to feel good”
• Recognizing and using emotions
• Element of self-control
An issue of development?
• Do you know who you are? Does it matter?
• Four Identity Statuses: Achieved, Moratorium, Diffuse, Foreclosed
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Personality, continued
Stop the self-deception
• "I'll feel more like doing it tomorrow." Self-deception.
• "There's plenty of time yet, it can wait." Self-deception.
• Sartre identified how very weird these lies to self are writing ". . . the one to whom
the lie is told and the one who lies are one and the same person." Why do we tell
these lies? Who believes them?
Harness your liabilities – structured procrastination
1. Procrastinators all have excellent self-deceptive skills. (I agree. See my blog on
"Bad Faith.")
2. They need to put this skill to work for them in a subtle way to actually make their
procrastination work for them. As Perry puts it, "what could be more noble than
using one character flaw to offset the bad effects of another?" (In this case, using
self-deception to offset the sins of procrastination.)
3. Given that we each always have a long list of tasks on our to-do lists with various
levels of importance, urgency and aversiveness, we need to keep what appears
to be an important task at the top of our list (one we also don't want to do) which
really isn't that important or urgent (this is the slight self-deception part). Perry
argues that this is quite easy. Our lives are full of these tasks. They seem
important and appear to have fixed, urgent deadlines, but don't really.
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Personality, continued
4. With this task at the top of our list that we want to avoid, we will now engage in
other tasks instead, because, as Perry notes, "Procrastinators seldom do
absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening
pencils or making a diagram of how they reorganize their files when they get
around to it." (Did I say how much like this philosopher? He's funny too.)
5. The consequence of this careful strategizing with our to-do lists, is that in order to
avoid that task at the top of our list, we now engage in other worthwhile tasks
lower down on our list. Doing these things is the way we avoid doing the top
thing, and Perry adds, "the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a
reputation for getting a lot done."
Use upward counterfactuals
• Upward counterfactuals are mental simulations of better possible outcomes.
• Downward counterfactuals have the focus on how things might have been much
worse. Both forms have emotional and behavioral consequences.
Examine & challenge your irrational beliefs (perfectionism)
The ABC's of REBT (Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy)
Neenan notes that all procrastinators suffer one similarity - a clear-cut emotional
problem. In order to release this emotion, clients need to identify the irrational beliefs
that sustain it through the ABCs of REBT. In Neenan's words:
A = activating event - imagining giving a presentation to a group of colleagues
Critical A = what the client is most troubled/disturbed about e.g., ‘Not being able to
answer all of the questions at a presentation.'
B = irrational beliefs: e.g., ‘I must be perfect.'
C = consequences
emotional: rising anxiety
behavioural: highly agitated
cognitive: dwells on irrational beliefs about a perfect performance
"By exposing herself in imagination to giving the presentation (A), the client's critical A is
located which triggers her irrational beliefs (B) which then largely determines her
reactions at C. By delaying the presentation, the client remains ‘safe' from being
exposed as a ‘phoney' but, at the same time, she sees herself as a ‘phoney' for avoiding
doing something she knows she is good at: ‘Phoney if I do and phoney if I don't.'" (pp.
56-57, emphasis added)
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Personality: Examine & challenge your irrational beliefs (perfectionism), continued
The REBT point of intervention
Neenan argues that it's best to treat procrastination as the "C" - the consequence of an
Activating event and Belief. The key thing is to discover what the individual said to himor herself at the time in order to justify the procrastination. In the example above, these
justifying irrational thoughts were about having to give a perfect presentation.
Some Pitfalls in Tackling Procrastination
Neenan's advice to coaches about some of the pitfalls involved in coaching a
procrastinator are particularly revealing. For example, although a client might say it
would feel great if he or she got going on a task, no action results. Why? The
anticipated discomfort of starting the task preempts the anticipated feeling "great." In
other words, emotional disturbance still blocks the way to action.
The key thing here, Neenan emphasizes, is that focusing on the practical problem
before the emotional problems may result in the individual neglecting to work on the
emotional issues that caused the procrastination in the first place. So, this one task may
get done, but the next task may not, as the emotional disturbance continues to block the
way to action.
Tackling Procrastination: Awareness, Goals, Commitment & Persistence
The approach that Neenan summarizes is based on four stages set out by Windy
Dryden in the book Overcoming Procrastination. These are: 1) becoming aware of one's
procrastination, 2) developing goal-directed behavior to carry out the tasks on which
one is currently procrastinating, 3) making a commitment to tolerate the anticipated
short-term discomfort to achieve the longer-term goal, and 4) persisting in this antiprocrastinating outlook or approach. Using a client from his own coaching practice,
Neenan discusses each in turn. I summarize key points for each briefly below.
Awareness
While we may not be consciously aware of how procrastination is troubling us, our
emotions might provide a clue that something is wrong, particularly agitation (recall that
agitation is an emotion associated with the gap between the actual and ought self). In
any case, awareness is the first step. We have to acknowledge that we're
procrastinating and that there may be irrational beliefs at the root of our delay.
However, Neenan reiterates the point that I made in my blog entry about wisdom, ". . .
awareness does not necessarily lead to action . . ." (p. 58).
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Personality: Examine & challenge your irrational beliefs (perfectionism), continued
Goals
Once we have developed the awareness for the need for change, we have to set a goal
that is reasonable, concrete and manageable. Too often, our goals are expressed as
distant, abstract constructs such as "I want to succeed at this task." Instead, we need to
construct a concrete, specific statement of what we can do in the present to achieve our
long-term goals. In short, we need to articulate an implementation intention.
Commitment
A goal statement in itself doesn't mean that you're committed to carrying out the hard
work necessary to achieve your goal. As Neenan notes, self change can feel like a 24/7
proposition. "If clients want to make gains, they need to embrace the discomfort of
working on their problem now in order to feel relatively comfortable later about
continuing the work of change . . ." (p. 59).
This work includes disputing irrational beliefs and developing a rational alternative
statement in its place. This rational statement should become the individual's mantra to
keep the focus on change. What's particularly important here, Neenan argues, is that
your statement is not a "I'll try to . . ." type of statement. It's not what you'll try to do, it's
what you'll actually do!
I like the example he gives his own clients. He notes, "A way to teach clients the
difference between trying and doing is to ask them if at the end of the session they will
try to leave the room or actually leave it. Trying will keep them in the room indefinitely
while doing means they will have left it in seconds" (p. 59).
Persistence
Self change requires strong determination as well as persistent work and practice to
carry out this determination. Such persistence is enabled with the development of a
"maintenance message" about your responsibility to protect your progress from
unconscious habits.
I like the example Neenan provides with his client. His maintenance message was "My
time is precious. Don't waste it!" I think that this could apply to anyone. It's simply an
existential fact of life.
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Personality: Examine & challenge your irrational beliefs (perfectionism), continued
Concluding thoughts . . .
In his own conclusion to the paper, Neenan draws on the work of Bill Knaus writing, "To
change a behavioural pattern like procrastination ‘requires work, and typically lots of it.
Ironic as it may seem, the problem of avoiding work can only be solved by doing more
work' (Knaus, 1993, Sect. II, p. 37)" (p. 61). This work includes the process of REBT:
uncovering the irrational beliefs that initiate and sustain the procrastination, disputing
these beliefs, developing goals, and persisting in the hard work of self change.
All of this is true. As my father would often tell me, "Anything worth having requires hard
work." That said, it's always one step at a time, so at any given time, my mantra as you
know is "just get started." It's so simple, yet so important, as each moment requires that
commitment to move ahead - just get started.
Work from your ideal not ought self
Our ideal self is the person we want to be. Our ought self is our understanding of what
others want us to be - what we ought to be and do. Then there is our actual self. What
happens when our actual self doesn't match the ideal or ought selves?
Self-consciousness and flow
• "Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away.
Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the
previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using
your skills to the utmost.”
• Lack of clear goals and self-consciousness
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Resources for More Information
BOOKS
Baumeister , R. F., Heatherton, T.F., Tice, H.D. (1994) Losing control: How and why people fail at
self-regulation. San Diego : Academic Press.
I think this is an excellent book that explains self-regulation failure and introduces key concepts for
Baumeister’s later work on willpower.
Knaus, W. (2010). End Procrastination Now: Get it done with a proven psychological approach.
New York: McGraw Hill.
This book has just been published (I received my copy just before I wrote these notes). Dr. Bill Knaus has
years of experience from a clinical perspective.
Andreou, C., & Whitie, M.D. (2010). The thief of time: Philosophical essays on procrastination. New
York, Oxford.
This is another book that is new for 2010. I think it provides a very comprehensive perspective on key
issues in understanding procrastination.
WEBSITES
Procrastination Research Group http://www.procrastination.ca
This Web site was established in 1995. It provides access to many resources related to procrastination
research.
“Don’t Delay” blog for Psychology Today http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay
This is Dr. Pychyl’s blog. It is a comprehensive review of the latest research in the area. It provides free
access to just about everything that has been published in the area in relatively short blog postings.
iProcrastinate Podcasts http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/
This is Dr. Pychyl’s podcast. It is the most popular podcast about procrastination listed on iTunes with
approximately 30,000 downloads per month.
Carpe Diem cartoons http://http-server.carleton.ca/%7Etpychyl/carpe_diem/cartoons.html
These cartoons were developed by Dr. Pychyl and Paul Mason (an Ottawa-Valley artist). The cartoons
capture key concepts from procrastination research.
JOURNAL PAPERS DISCUSSED
Baumann, N., & Kuhl, J. (2005). How to resist temptation: The effects of external control versus autonomy
support on self-regulatory dynamics. Journal of Personality, 73, 443-470.
Baumeister, R.F., & Heatherton, T.F. (1996). Self-regulation failure: An overview. Psychological Inquiry, 7,
1-15.
Blunt, A., & Pychyl, T. A. (2005). Project systems of procrastinators: a personal project-analytic and action
control perspective. Personality and Individual Differences, 1771-1780.
Blunt, A., & Pychyl, T.A. (1998). Volitional action and inaction in the lives of undergraduate students:
State orientation, boredom and procrastination. Personality and Individual Differences, 24,837846.
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Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1988). Optimal Experience Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness.
Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Elliot, A. J. & Friedman, R. (2007). Approach-avoidance: A central characteristic of personal goals. In B.
R. Little, K. Salmela-Aro, & S. D. Phillips (Eds.), Personal project pursuit: Goals, actions, and
human flourishing (pp. 97-118). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Ferrari, J.R., Driscoll, M., & Diaz-Morales J. F. (2007). Examining the self of chronic procrastinators:
Actual, ought and undesired attributes. Individual Differences Research, 5, 115-123.
Ferrari, J. R., & Pychyl, T. A. (2007). Regulating speed, accuracy and judgments by Indecisives: Effects
of frequent choices on self-regulation depletion. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 777787.
Ferrari, J.R., & Tice, D.M. (2000). Procrastination as a self-handicap for men and women: A taskavoidance strategy in a laboratory setting. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 73-83.
Gropel, P., & Steel, P. (2008). A mega-trial investigation of goal setting, interest enhancement, and
energy on procrastination. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 406-411.
Kilbert, J.J., Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., & Saito, M. (2005). Adaptive and maladaptive aspects of selforiented versus socially prescribed perfectionism. Journal of College Student Development, 46,
141-156.
Kruger, J., & Evans, M. (2004). If you don't want to be late, enumerate: Unpacking reduces the planning
Fallacy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 586-598.
Lavoie, J., & Pychyl, T.A. (2001). Cyber-slacking and the Procrastination Super Highway: A Web-based
Survey of On-line Procrastination, Attitudes and Emotion. Social Science Computer Review, 19,
431-444.
Lay, C.H. (1995). Trait procrastination, agitation, dejection, and self-discrepancy. In J.R. Ferrari, J.A.
Johnson & W.C. McCown, Procrastination and task avoidance: Theory, research and treatment.
New York: Plenum Press.
Lay, C.H., Knish, S., & Zanatta, R. (1992). Self-handicappers and procrastinators: A comparison of their
practice behavior prior to an evaluation. Journal of Research in Personality, 26, 242-257.
Lee, E. (2005). The relationship of motivation and flow experience to academic procrastination in
university students. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 166, 5-14.
McCrea, S.M., Liberman, N., Trope, Y., & Sherman, S.J. (2008). Construal level and procrastination.
Psychological Science, 19, 1308-1314.
Nelis, D., Quoidbach, J., Mikolajczak, M., & Hansenne, M. (2009). Increasing emotional intelligence:
(How) is it possible? Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 36-41.
Neenan, M. (2008). Tackling procrastination: A REBT perspective for coaches. Journal of RationalEmotive Behavioural Therapy, 26, 53-62.
Owens, S., Bowman, C., & Dill, C. (2008). Overcoming Procrastination: The Effect of Implementation
Intentions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 38, 366-384
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Pychyl, T.A., Lee, J., Thibodeau, R., & Blunt, A. (2000). Five Days of Emotion: An experience-sampling
study of undergraduate student procrastination. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality,
15(5), 239-254.
Pychyl, T.A., & Little, B.R. (1998). Dimensional specificity in the prediction of subjective well-being:
Personal Projects in pursuit of the Ph.D. Social Indicators Research, 45, 423-473.
Pychyl, T. A., Morin, R.W., & Salmon, B. R. (2000) Procrastination and planning fallacy: An examination
of the study habits of university students. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 15, 135150.
Schmeichel, Brandon J.; Vohs, Kathleen (2009). Self-affirmation and self-control: Affirming core values
counteracts ego depletion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(4), 770-782.
Shanahan, M., & Pychyl, T.A. (2007). An ego identity perspective on volitional action: Identity status,
agency, and procrastination . Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 901-911.
Shapiro, S.L., Carlson, L.E., Astin, J.A., & Freedman, B. (2006). Mechanisms of mindfulness. Journal of
Clinical Psychology, 62, 373-386.
Sirois, F.M. (2004). Procrastination and counterfactual thinking: Avoiding what might have been. British
Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 269-286.
Sirois, F. M., Melia-Gordon, M.L., & Pychyl, T. A. (2003). "I'll look after my health, later": An investigation
of procrastination and health. Personality and Individual Differences, 35 (5),1167-1184.
Spada, M.M., Hiou, K., & Nikcevic, A.V. (2006). Metacognitions, emotions and procrastination. Journal of
Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly, 20, 319-326.
Tice, D.M., & Bratslavsky, E. (2000). Giving to feel good: The place of emotion regulation in the context of
general self-control. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 149-159.
Wohl, M., Pychyl, T.A., & Bennett, S. (2010). I forgive myself, now I can study: How self-forgiveness for
procrastinating can reduce future procrastination. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 803808.
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