Author: Timothy A. Pychyl
The Book in 3 Sentences;
When we procrastinate, we choose immediate, short-term mood repair at the expense of our long term goals - we fail to get on with life itself. This problem with self-regulation can be compared to disorders like gambling, over-eating, or alcoholism, and can seriously impair an individuals ability to get things done. We need to find a way to cope with the negative feelings we have about a task so that we can continue to pursue our intended goal - this book explains how.
Top Quotes
- Procrastination is failing to get on with life itself.
- When we procrastinate on our goals, we are basically putting off our lives.
- When we learn to stop needless, voluntary delay in our lives, we live more fully.
- I won’t give in to feel good. Feeling good now comes at a cost.
- The first step at the moment of procrastination is to stay put. If you turn away in an effort to make yourself feel better, it’s over.
- Expect to be wrong and deal with it
- My current motivational state does not need to match my intention in order to act
- We are not very good at predicting how we will feel in the future. We are overly optimistic, and our optimism comes crashing down when tomorrow comes.
- Tomorrow is not always as preferred as we once thought.
- It’s about just getting started. The “doing it” will take care of itself once we get going.
- Exhaustion of will-power can be overridden by motivation.
- Self-change is a journey I take daily, and I will persevere patiently as I take two steps forward and one step back.
- If we “prime the pump” by making some progress on our goals, the resulting increase in our subjective well-being enhances further action and progress.
Actionable Info
An important point highlighted in this book is that we have human tendencies which encourage us to procrastinate. These tendencies are;
Discounting Future Rewards over Short-Term Rewards
Future rewards, particularly those in the more distant future, seem smaller in size. It is as if we are looking at a picture of a distant mountain and assuming that it is actually small. We do not seem to have perspective for size when time is involved. This is the notion of discounting future rewards, also known as temporal discounting. The problem is that future rewards seem less attractive to us than immediately available ones. I guess this should not surprise us too much. From an evolutionary perspective, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Our brains seem programmed to prefer immediate rewards. This stone-age brain is not so adaptive in our modern world, where we need to meet distant deadlines by doing things today.
The Planning Fallacy
Self-handicapping to Protect Self-esteem
Preferring Tomorrow over Today
Our Irrational Thoughts
Manufacturing Our Own Happiness and Resolving Internal Conflict
The follow up here is that
Knowledge is Power
Once we are aware of our human tendencies and biases, we can use these flags as signals for change.
As soon as we say something like "There's lots of time, I can do this later" it can act as a stimulus for a new response. Once you see the flag, stop and remind yourself of the forms of self-deception, and just get started on the task instead.
This form of implementation intention puts a cue in the situation (even in our thinking) to help us break a habit. The thought becomes the stimulus for a different response. We break our habitual way of responding. We begin to break that pernicious procrastination habit.
You must catch yourself in the deception. IF I say something to myself like ‘Oh, I’ll feel more like doing this tomorrow,’ I will catch myself in this self-deception and add “THEN I will just get started on the task” instead.
I won't give in to 'feel good.' Feeling good now comes at a cost
You should adopt this mantra.
This tough strategy is immediately effective as a first step. We have to “suck it up,” as they say. Yes, we are feeling awful about the task at hand. We would rather run away, give in to feel good. However, the first step at the moment of procrastination is to stay put. If you turn away in an effort to make yourself feel better, it’s over.
Expect to be wrong and go from there
1. Know that your forecasting is likely to be wrong. We are not good at predicting the future. There is a good chance you won't feel more like it tomorrow. and it is important to know that "My current motivational state does not need to match my intention in order to act."
This is a common misconception about goal pursuit: We believe that we have to actually feel like it. We don’t.
Similarly, acknowledging that our motivational state is neither necessary nor sufficient to ensure action, we can simply remind ourselves of our personal goals (a form of self-affirmation) and “just get started.” Progress will fuel well-being and enhance goal attainment.
Just Get Started
Note that this is not the same as "Just do it." Once we start a task, it is rarely as bad as we think. Our research shows us that getting started changes our perceptions of a task. It can also change our perception of ourselves in important ways.
Study showed; On Monday, the dreaded, avoided task was perceived as very stressful, difficult, and unpleasant. On Thursday (or the wee hours of Friday morning), once they had actually engaged in the task they had avoided all week, their perceptions changed. The ratings of task stressfulness, difficulty, and unpleasantness decreased significantly.
Once we start a task, it is rarely as bad as we think.
If we “prime the pump” by making some progress on our goals, the resulting increase in our subjective well-being enhances further action and progress.
The issue here really is one of a predecision. We are trying to delegate the control over the initiation of our behavior to a specified situation without requiring conscious decision.
It’s about just getting started. The “doing it” will take care of itself once we get going.
As a strategy, you may find that you have to just get started many times throughout the day, even on the same task. This is common. Even in meditation, we have to gently bring our attention back to our focal point, whatever that may be (e.g., our breath, a mantra). The thing to remember is that just getting started may happen many times in a day.
The trick is to find something that you can get started on.
Be prepared to deal with distractions, obstacles and setbacks
We have to recognize other points at which we typically abandon our goal pursuit. We have to be prepared to address each of these as they arise; otherwise we will fall back into habitual ways of responding. If you tend to procrastinate more often than you like, then your habitual response will be to find some way to avoid the task at hand.
Procrastination is not just a failure to get started. We can face a variety of problems and needlessly delay action at many stages of goal pursuit. Our feelings may still threaten to derail us. Distractions abound, and it is easy to replace one intention with another, even if just for a minute. And in all of this we can find ways to justify this to ourselves.
Internet technologies in particular are potent distracters, as “it will only take a minute to check my email,” and then hours later you find you are still off task.
What this means is that we cannot simply depend on our goal intentions, no matter how deeply committed we might be, to keep our volitional actions on track. We have to be prepared to deal with changes in our mood related to setbacks and disappointments. We have to be prepared to deal with distractions. We have to be prepared to overcome obstacles.
There are two main approaches to predecisions regarding potential distractions. The first involves reducing the number of distractions before we begin to work. The second approach takes us back to implementation intentions to help us decide ahead of time what we will do when distractions, obstacles, or setbacks arise.
Willpower is a limited resource that needs to be used strategically
Willpower here is concerned with self-regulation. Using willpower is required to regulate yourself.
The self-regulatory impairments discussed in the research are eliminated or reduced when participants are highly motivated to self-regulate on the second task. For example, when participants are paid for doing well on the second task or they are convinced that their performance will have social benefits, they perform well despite the apparent self-regulatory exhaustion from the first task.
In the case of procrastination, we find resisting the urge to do something else (an alternative intention) impossible to resist, so we give up and give in.
We all feel depleted throughout the day. We all have moments where we think, “I’m exhausted and I just can’t do any more” or “I’ll feel more like this tomorrow.” This is true; this is how we are feeling at the moment. However, successful goal pursuit often depends on our moving past these momentary feelings of depletion.
Given the role of motivation in self-regulatory failure, it is crucial to acknowledge the role of higher-order thought in this process, particularly the ability to transcend the feelings at the moment in order to focus on our overall goals and values. In the absence of cues to signal the need for self-regulation, we may give in to feel good, and stop trying.
It is exactly when we say to ourselves “I’ll feel more like it tomorrow” that we have to stop, take a breath, and think about why we intended to do the task today. Why is it important to us? What benefit is there in making the effort now? How will this help us achieve our goal? From there, if we can muster the volitional strength for one more step, that is, to “just get started,” we will find that we had more self-regulatory strength in reserve than we realized.
- Willpower is a limited resource that needs to be used strategically.
- Self-regulation (Willpower) later in the day is less effective. Be as strategic as possible and don't look to exercise feats of willpower later in the day.
- A boost of positive emotion (or motivation) has been shown to eliminate exhaustion of willpower. Find things, people or events that make you feel good to replenish your willpower.
- An implementation intention (if x, then y - after dinner, I exercise) may well be the thing that gets you to exercise in the evening, even though you usually feel much too tired to begin.
- Low blood sugar contributes to willpower/self-regulation depletion. Be aware of this. (perhaps supporting evidence for fasting early in day, when willpower is replenished from nights sleep - and then eating later, to top up blood sugar when it's harder to get things done.)
- Social situations can require more self-regulation and effort than you may think. If you are typically introverted but have to act extroverted for example, it can exhaust your ability to self-regulate. Getting along with others requires self-regulation.
- Focus on values and goals that keep perspective on more than just the present moment. In doing this, we can transcend the immediate and temporary feelings we are having to keep from giving in to feel good.
Your personality might put you at risk, but you can adapt
When the situation is not pushing us to act in a certain way (for example, a supervisor actually monitoring our actions), our personality will have a great deal of influence on our behavior.
conscientiousness —that is, people who are typically organized, planful, and dutiful—is a trait that is highly negatively related to procrastination. The more we are conscientious, the less we typically procrastinate.
Perfectionists on the other hand are likely to experience procrastination.
Conscientiousness and Neuroticism (which is also known as Emotional Instability) are the 2 traits with an effect on Procrastination
By definition, we consider personality as the relatively enduring characteristics of the individual. They are not easily changed.
However, we do not have to change our personalities to succeed. We can act counter to our dispositions or traits.
It is important to acknowledge that some psychologists believe that acting out of character, counter to our traits and disposition, can deplete our self-regulatory strength or willpower. As we discussed previously, willpower is a limited resource, so this is important to recognize.
You may find implementation intentions useful again in terms of counteracting a habitual response that is part of who you are as defined by these personality traits. For example, if you are rather impulsive, your predecision with an implementation intention might be “If an alternative intention arises, such as an invitation to go out, I will say that I will make my decision in ten minutes.” This built-in predecisional delay may help to counteract the typical impulsive response to just get going.
Perhaps most important to understand is that personality should not be an excuse. In fact, acknowledging and addressing our limitations can develop some of our greatest strengths
for more information visit www.procrastination.ca
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