Thank you for having me. 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 there are more steps that are part of my process. And since productivity hacks never go out of style, let me recommend another IdeaCast episode, Boost Your Productivity with Micro Breaks. And so when we look at procrastination then in terms of emotion regulation, what one way to think about is that we're not avoiding the task per se, what we're avoiding is the negative emotions associated with that task. Scan . What are you working on now? Its been a popular topic. They take a negative emotion and they use it as fuel for their goals. He felt that someday he would be caught and everyone would know that he had faked competence. We feel guilty about it. Alice, thanks for being here. Im Curt Nickisch. 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. 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 . Mastering Procrastination: Understanding the Psychology Behind It Mills: So last question. So that's one project that I'll be working on and looking at sort of existing research out there to see if the mean levels of procrastination, chronic procrastination that is, have gone up, especially in student samples over the last couple of decades. She has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, Hannity and Colmes, CSPAN, and the BBC, to name a few of her broadcast engagements. What are the next things that you're looking at in the realm of procrastination or even the other areas where you're doing research? Sometimes its a much deeper seated thing than 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. 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. Sirois: Myself as well. In Canada or U.S., it would've been That's not an issue.. Sirois: Yeah. Sometimes we need that incubation period. You build a lot more resilience. Lower conscientiousnesslower drive to be organized and accomplish. I mean it's really bizarre. WorkLife with Adam Grant: A TED original podcast So we tend to think of the productivity side of it. And I think, yeahI mean, I would go back to, well, were they really procrastinating or were they engaging in some other form of delay? 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. So you take that task that's really stressing you out, you've got that report you've got to write, you're worried about what your manager's going to think because maybe a promotion rides on it, or you're worried if you're going to be doing it correctly, or if you're going to do it as perfectly as what you want, and you take that task, you put it aside and you get busy with other things and you've now have this immediate sense of relief. 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. And there's been some research on that. If you want to pursue therapy for your procrastination, cognitive behavioral therapy can help. Look at the thoughts that come with that emotion. Psychology of Procrastination: 10 Worksheets & Games (PDF) It's just not that thing that they should be doing right now that's looming and important and will have negative consequences if they don't get it done. And recognizing that actually if youre doing things that are creative, if youre doing things that are hard, youre going to need more recovery time. YANSS 253 - The psychology behind the world's greatest cons, . Procrastination thrives in secrecy and isolation. My podcast guest this week, Dr. Jackson Brammer, says he used to be an expert procrastinator. For best results, make your first step . Mills: So how does chronic procrastination affect people's mental and physical wellbeing? 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. There are a lot ofthere's some procrastination research that did just that, just looked at the sort of social media and digital distractions, and that's a whole research program is in that area. I have been researching and writing about procrastination for nearly twenty years. Episode 210: Why we procrastinate and what to do about it, with Fuschia Sirois, PhD. Produced by the American Psychological Association, these podcasts will help listeners apply the science of psychology to their everyday lives. 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. So people want to do things with certain outcomes and they tend to procrastinate more with things with uncertain outcomes. 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? J'aurais pu dvelopper sur la gurison d . Doer is the science -based guide to overcoming procrastination. And we all have personal examples something felt really yucky at the time, but it ended up being really, really fruitful. It's also for the one that has a friend, loved one, or coworker that would benefit from this tool. Because what procrastination does is it gives you immediate relief. Mindfulness will help you be able to identify mental patterns, such as cognitive distortions. According to some psychologists, the answer is not that people are lazy or have poor time management skills. 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. You build new relationships, for example, by working with a new collaborator versus with someone youve already worked with 20 times before. Or you may be sitting up reading that novel or you may be knitting that sweater. So a really good way to find a system for you for approaching double tasks is when you successfully do a novel task, look at the system that you used to get it done. But I think this was the first time I really understood how identifying emotions could lead to something in the article you call psychological flexibility. 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 yet, we still do it. 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. Sometimes the emotion will disguise itself as a physical sensation, such as anxiousness, nausea, or a rapid heartbeat. 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. You'll gain practical knowledge you can put into action right away. And what they have figured out through habits research is that when a behavior becomes more automatic, it starts to require less self-control to do that thing. Can you explain what that is? And this is whatas you mentioned, emotions are at the core of procrastination. whose new podcast explores the world's greatest con artists and con jobs from World War II to modern game shows. 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. Or can you get to a good emotion from that? 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 . It was engineered by Patrick Murray, and the digital . You can find her article, How to Stop Procrastinating in the May/June, 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review and at hbr.org. 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. We'll also talk about being involved in eSports, balancing academic life and leisure, avoiding the pitfalls of procrastination, and about overcoming the fear of putting yourself out there to make new friends. Adding your daily task unlocks deep insights about your psychology. So for me, my system is quite tailored to my personality. 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. 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. CURT NICKISCH: We talked about emotions previously, emotions clearly have a big role in procrastination. So you've chosen to delay and there's no really good reason to. Sirois: So that's a great question. What do you find your cognitive distortions arewhat are the things you tell yourself to make yourself feel better about putting things off? 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. So rather than frame it in terms of productivity, which I think feeds into a lot of our social norms about what we should and shouldn't be doing and how much we should and shouldn't be doing, I'd rather frame it around whether you're reaching your goals or not or do you have all these things you started and never finished, do you have all these unfulfilled goals that you just never got round to doing because of fear of failure or just worried it wasn't going to be good enough or worried whether you could manage maybe some of the challenges that you might face when you engage with that task? In the Hardcore Self-Help Podcast, psychologist Robert Duff discusses what its like to live with and effectively treat mental health conditions. Rooted in psychology, our personalized lessons help you develop strategies to overcome procrastination. And then also studying it naturalistically, so recording behavior. 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. (Message automatically replaces this text). 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. Download a good meditation, or use the app Headspace, and practice it daily to develop a habit of mindfulness. And uncertainty is one of those emotions that people really do avoid. 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. The podcast version of this story was produced by Audrey Nguyen. 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. 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. It has an impact on our immune system, makes us more vulnerable to catching bugs and flus and colds and all kinds of other stress-related illnesses. Its a really false image. For good! It's a delay that's voluntary. Adding your daily task unlocks deep insights about your psychology. Speaking of Psychology is produced by Lea Winerman. Be honest with yourself in your answer. People will say its an emotional thing and its caused by people being intolerant of emotions. He doesnt do video. Far more than a productivity hack. And again, its coming back to this idea that it really isnt about stopping procrastination. One of the findings I really like is about ambivalent emotions. Most of us are decent humans and its not consistent with our values to be being jerks. How does this play out interpersonally? Claudia explores the psychology of motivation and procrastination with an audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival. Why is it so easy to fall into this trap even when we know better? Tackle the high-willpower tasks earlier in the day. Advancing psychology to benefit society and improve lives. When procrastination is a problem, thats when you want to have some strategies so that you can feel confident that you can get out of the weeds whenever you really need to.