psychology of procrastination podcast

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 . But I dont always do those six or seven steps. So its also using that strength. Its not necessarily just about thought processes and habits, but it is such an emotional process too. Sirois: Yeah. 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 its so tied up with guilt and shame; and how self-compassion can help us overcome it. And I think it makes sense though too, because if you are really driven and your whole sense of self-worth is focused on how well you do this task and you're so worried about that task, that's enough, that fear of failing, that fear of it not being good enough or not pleasing others can be enough to put you off ever even starting it. Its probably going to be really expensive. Thank you for having me. So these mainly are personal strategies. And they showed the data suggesting that their program worked and they showed the mean scores on this measure of chronic procrastination at the beginning of them coming to the clinic and at the end so they could say, Oh look, there's some improvement. And I remember standing there with a colleague of mine and we both were looking at the scores on this measure of procrastination at time one, and the level of procrastination that they found troubling was well below the average national mean for the procrastination in the U.S. and Canada, but this was troubling in Germany. Just do it and you'll feel a lot better than you think you will. We ask people about how often they procrastinate or if they're putting things off to tomorrow. 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. 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. 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. 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? So anywhere along that spectrum of a task that makes us feel that, these negative emotions in one form or another, those are the tasks that we're more likely to procrastinate on. Save the MP3 file linked above to listen to it on your computer or mobile device. 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. He answers difficult questions about anxiety, depression, relationships, OCD, PTSD, eating disorders and more, breaking things down so they're easier for the average person to understand. They called it a procrastination ambulance, which was I think their way of translating saying it was like a clinic for procrastination at a university, for students who were really troubled by their procrastination. Also, take up some form of regular willpower exercise. And there's multiple layers of doing this. 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. Rooted in psychology, our personalized lessons help you develop strategies to overcome procrastination. But after some research into why people procrastinate, he found a few tricks and tips to help him on his journey to live a more balanced life. She explains the different causes of procrastination and shares three. 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. CURT NICKISCH: But thats never addressing the emotion that goes with it. Mills: You can find previous episodes of Speaking of Psychology on our website at www.speakingofpsychology.org or on Apple, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. So if you put those two things together, higher stress and poor health behaviors, and you tie that in with somebody who's got this pattern of dealing with unpleasant tasks in this very avoidant manner by procrastinating, over time, there's going to be some cumulative damage. And I think the people that I've spoken to who really struggle with procrastination, they are in a bad way. And we also think that it's going to last longer, we're going to be stuck in this state of frustration or stress or what have you as we're struggling with this task. Lower conscientiousnesslower drive to be organized and accomplish. Mills: So last question. She has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, Hannity and Colmes, CSPAN, and the BBC, to name a few of her broadcast engagements. And uncertainty is one of those emotions that people really do avoid. And then the other thing would be self-compassion. 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. This content is disabled due to your privacy settings. 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. There are no conflicts of interest for this episode. Start strength training, or another disciplined physical task. 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. It's really about the emotions that are associated with the task and not necessarily the unpleasantness of the task. Being unwilling to ask for help can relate to Impostor Syndrome, and can fuel procrastination. In Canada or U.S., it would've been That's not an issue.. ALICE BOYES: Yeah. But also it feels like it is approaching the tasks in a way that uses my strengths. It's not like procrastinators are sitting around lazy, they're doing other things. 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. In addition to studying procrastination, she also researches perfectionism, self-compassion, gratitude, time and loneliness. Can you feel a good emotion from that? We get technical help from Rob Eckhardt. Mindfulness is another way to help fix procrastination. So it is really complicated, but theres always times where people need to get on to doing something. Far more than a productivity hack. Theres no pictures. 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. And actually the research suggests that both those approaches can be very beneficial. 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. Boredom / Low Interest - Interest can be considered an emotion with motivational properties related to approach. 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. Hidden Brain : NPR And really the name of the game is people changing themselves. Great game design + finding friends over time | News at Miami University And obviously creativity comes from noticing unusual associations between things or noticing things that we dont usually notice. Speaking of Psychology: Why we procrastinate and what to do about it It is important to be able to make all of those distinctions. What's the difference between procrastinating and simply deferring something for another time? ALICE BOYES: Yeah. So we tend to think of the productivity side of it. And the problem with that is it's immediately reinforcing. 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. And yet we still do it. 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 a lot of what my research is focused on over the last couple of decades is exactly what you said, that there's these real health consequences. But we all know that a lot of these things with uncertain outcomes are the things that have the higher potential for reward. Sirois: That is a really good question. The variable task or system-based factors are: This can become paralyzing, especially when we are unwilling to ask for help. 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. So you've chosen to delay and there's no really good reason to. The psychology of motivation and procrastination - BBC And that we can come to each other with things that we feel vulnerable about. Gamers Gene's Procrastination Podcast is your source for everything Video Games info/news. 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. And I think first thing I have to say is that perfectionism isn't sort of a single entity. Fear of failure, fear of . How to stop procrastinating : Life Kit : NPR Identify the emotions you feel that are associated with past tasks you havent completed. 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. I mean it's really bizarre. For good! But it still creates a bit of a problem of not having a habit of getting on and doing that other thing. CURT NICKISCH: Well, lets talk about the work setting a little bit in the sense of teams and organizational culture. The presence of ambivalent emotions tends to put us on alert. 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. There are fixed factors related to procrastination, things that are innate to each of our different psychological experiences. You can find her article, How to Stop Procrastinating in the May/June, 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review and at hbr.org. We procrastinate because our brains receive a reward for avoidance. How do you do that? Making things easier on people, like finding out if theres some sort of basis to the procrastination, learning how to support people. ALICE BOYES: Yeah, so its quite complicated. Does willpower work? Our audio product manager is Ian Fox. According to some psychologists, the answer is not that people are lazy or have poor time management skills. Students who forgave themselves for procrastinating on academic work were found two weeks later to actually procrastinate less. 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. 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 decision-making can feel paralyzing, how to trust your own abilities, and most importantly -- what So we think about having systems for tasks we do all the time, but we often dont think about having a system for novel tasks. Then you need a snack. 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. Sirois: Well, I think that's really key. 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. The way its helpful for me is that because Im a worrier or I get wrapped up thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong, and it just helps me streamline that so that I think of just the three major things. If we want to address any type of problem, we've got to know what the core cause is. 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. 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? I think that its often part of the creative process that sometimes we procrastinate because were doing something hard. Ive found that with strength training, even if I dont want to begin, and even if the whole workout is miserable, it teaches me that I can will my body to do what the program requires. What purpose does it serve? 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. And we all want to think, Oh, well, I dont know anything about air conditioners. Speaking of Psychology is an audio podcast series highlighting some of the latest, most important, and relevant psychological research being conducted today. Sirois: The best way to answer that, and I do agree there's different cultural norms, if you like, and just unspoken standards about what is and isn't acceptable across different countries and different parts of the world. 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. So we have an intention to make, to do that task. If you talk yourself into believing you dont care about it, it wont hurt as much if you fail. And I remember there was one journalist I spoke to and he said, Yeah, I remember when I was a student at university and I hate cleaning, I hate housework, but whenever I had a big paper or exam coming, boy, was my house ever clean. And so instead of doing studying, he was running around getting the house perfectly clean. But again, these very much are self-regulation strategies. Then you'll end up being both a procrastinator and very depressed. How does procrastination affect people's lives and their mental and physical health? It would be more accurate to say, "I work under pressure." Fuschia Sirois, PhD, is a professor in the department of psychology at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Mills: So what are some strategies or techniques to combat procrastination and just get things done, and how does thinking of it as an emotion regulation problem change how we approach the situation? So things like compassionate self-talk can be really useful for 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. And then you've got this other flavor of perfectionism, which is this perfectionist strivers, which is more someone who's driven by their own internal standards, but these standards are still quite high. So I'm curious to know whether the rates of procrastination over the last couple decades are increasing over time as well. In her 30+-year career in communications, Mills has extensive media experience, including being interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and other top-tier print media. Where can you place it? And yes, there is such a group. 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. Mais si cette procrastination tait en fait tout simplement de la rsistance au changement ? We think about people procrastinating things that they have to do every month or every week or every day. So when an emotion comes up, like when someones feeling doubt or someones feeling embarrassment, thats what people who function well do. She explains the different causes of procrastination and shares three approaches to beat it: through habits, emotions, and thought patterns. I'm so glad that we did not put off this discussion. 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 then also, cut yourself a little bit of slack about some of the creative procrastination, like recognizing that weve got this image of a productive person being this person who is never distracted, whos always focused, who never procrastinates, whos just hustling all the time. Et la procrastination on peut la trouver aussi chez les personnes qui souhaitent gurir. Be honest with yourself in your answer. 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 often what we procrastinate and the type of procrastination that causes problems in our lives is things that we dont have to do every day. Recent episodes of Hidden Brain podcast can now be found at hiddenbrain.org. Weekly "Speaking of Psychology" is an audio podcast series highlighting some of the latest, most important and relevant psychological research being . That actually wasn't very hard at all and it was a lot faster to get through than what I expected. But there isn't a lot of research on that. So people want to do things with certain outcomes and they tend to procrastinate more with things with uncertain outcomes. 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. 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. People often come to therapy wanting to change somebody else. So the evidence, it's a little mixed. And this comes from a lot of the research that suggests that the type of tasks that we procrastinate on are ones that we don't enjoy. Emotions all have an evolutionary purpose. Dr. Brammer started this path by investigating Impostor Syndrome. 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. How do you think about separating emotions from tasks? Sometimes its just noticing that relationship. 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. For a lot of tasks, Ill just do one or two of them. They call procrastination the grave where opportunity is buried. 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. 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. It's a delay that's voluntary. Why is procrastination so tied up with guilt and shame, even though it's something nearly everyone does? 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. It's basically saying, Hey, yeah, I'm struggling with this task. 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.
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