Welcome to the first podcast of 2010! Today, I summarize a study completed as part of an M.A. thesis by Matt Dann. Matt explored the relation of approach and avoidance goals, as well as approach and avoidance personality with procrastination. His findings provide some insight into how we might more successfully re-frame our tasks to be approach rather than avoidance goals. You can learn more about our research and access other resources at procrastination.ca ....
Jan 04, 2010•30 min
Are you indecisive? Would you rather that someone else choose the movie you'll watch together or the food from a menu? If so, I think you'll enjoy this interview with Dr. Joseph Ferrari (DePaul University, Chicago). Dr. Ferrari is one of the world's foremost experts on the topic of procrastination, and he summarizes some interesting studies about decisional procrastination as well as what we might do to reduce this indecision in our own lives. If you want to learn more about procrastination, che...
Dec 28, 2009•30 min
The new year looms ahead, and one of the expectations for this time of year is to set a new year's resolution. Do you have one? Do you expect to successfully act on this intention? In this podcast, I share some thoughts about why these resolutions often fail and what we can do to be more successful with change in the year ahead.
Dec 21, 2009•30 min
Here's the second part of my interview with Dr. Gordon Flett (York University, Toronto). In this podcast, we discuss the relation between procrastination and perfectionism, with a specific focus on the perfectionistic procrastinator. If you want to learn more about procrastination, check out procrastination.ca .
Dec 17, 2009•44 min
This is the first of a two-part podcast on perfectionism and procrastination. In this first part, Dr. Gordon Flett (York University, Toronto) explains what perfectionism is, why it's problematic and what can be done to help those who are troubled by perfectionism. I thoroughly enjoyed this interview, and I'm sure you will too. If you want to learn more about our research or procrastination, check out procrastination.ca .
Dec 16, 2009•30 min
This week, I talk about some research related to impulsivity and anxiety. Interestingly, both are related to chronic preoccupation with the evaluation of self, goals and plans. Impulsivity and anxiety are also related to procrastination, so we need to think about how chronic self-appraisal and criticism may affect self-regulation. I wrote about this study on my Psychology Today blog. You can check out this entry for the reference to the study. If you want to learn more about our research and pro...
Dec 14, 2009•23 min
Although I usually note that procrastination is not a time-management problem, it doesn't mean that more effective planning for our goal pursuit won't help. So, this week I present one of my own favourite planning strategies, the "un-schedule." I explain what it is and, using examples from my own life, I explore how it works to create more accurate and honest implementation intentions for our goals. If you want to learn more about procrastination or my research, check out procrastination.ca ....
Dec 08, 2009•39 min
This week, after discussing some very important listener feedback, I summarize a study about evaluation threat and its effects on procrastination. The results may surprise you. Whether or not high evaluation threat makes you procrastinate more (which is what we typically might think) depends on whether you're high or low on trait procrastination. You can find my original blog posting about this topic on my Psychology Today "Don't Delay" blog (including the reference for the study if you're inter...
Nov 27, 2009•35 min
When we procrastinate, the most common emotion is guilt. It's an uncomfortable feeling caused, at least in part, by the dissonance between what we intended to do and what we're doing (not what we intended). This dissonance is uncomfortable, and we do a number of things to reduce it including distraction, denial, and trivialization to name a few. This week, I discuss the nature of cognitive dissonance in relation to procrastination as well as the various strategies we use to make ourselves feel b...
Nov 23, 2009•44 min
A recent study indicates that both behavioural and decisional procrastination are related to maladaptive beliefs known as metacognitions. In this podcast, I relate two listeners' comments to this study and discuss how our thinking can create problems for us in terms of procrastination.
Nov 16, 2009•29 min
Hey, a second podcast for November 10th. Yes, I'm trying to make up for my absence last week :-) In this short podcast, I discuss some summary statements related to neuroscience that describe what David Rock calls "quirks of our brains." I think these quirks of our stone-age brain in the modern world help explain why we're vulnerable to self-regulation failure. If you want to read David Rock's original posting on this topic, check out his posting on Psychology Today for August 30, 2009. Here's m...
Nov 10, 2009•17 min
In this, the first podcast for November, I reflect on a listener's questions about advice to new faculty members by Robert Boice, and I answer a few short questions about why we procrastinate and what we can do about it. The emphasis is on practical knowledge related to self-change. I hope it's useful to you.
Nov 10, 2009•42 min
This week I discuss three things: 1) a listener's comments about meaning and decisional procrastination, 2) a useful "mantra" in life - Not Helpful, and 3) some research on irrational beliefs (where I draw on the "not helpful" mantra as a strategy for change). You can learn more about Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) in my Psychology Today blog posting . If you want to know more about our research, check out procrastination.ca Finally, if you want to think more about Jai Pausch's "not h...
Oct 26, 2009•32 min
This week, I'm sharing a letter from a reader of my Psychology Today blog, Don't Delay . It's an insightful, well-written (at times painful) first-hand account of coming to grips with procrastination. I comment on this story in relation to other listeners' notes to me, as I discuss the process of change for chronic procrastinators. Want to learn more about procrastination? Check out our Procrastination Research Group Web site ....
Oct 16, 2009•49 min
Every procrastinator knows the stress associated with that needless delay. The question is, does this relate to increased illness as well? In fact, it's not just the stress associated with procrastination that may affect your health. Treatment delay and fewer wellness behaviors have been implicated in the procrastination-illness relation. In this podcast, I discuss the research of Dr. Fuschia Sirois (University of Windsor) who has been exploring the relation between procrastination and health. N...
Oct 05, 2009•30 min
Avoidance goals create a focus on avoiding or eliminating undesired outcomes. For example, avoid failing my exam. Approach-oriented goals involve reaching or maintaining desired outcomes; get an "A" on my exam. Although approach-oriented goals are related to more happiness and goal success overall, we all have avoidance goals in our lives. In this podcast, I discuss one of my avoidance goals and some strategies I use to help me get going on the task that is ripe for procrastination. By popular r...
Oct 01, 2009•23 min
In his autobiography published (in German) in March of 1995 to coincide with his 90th birthday, Dr. Viktor Frankl reflected on the "Manner of my Work." His reflections are simple and clear, speaking directly to two habits that defeat procrastination. His advice is the focus of this week's podcast. The image of Dr. Frankl that appears in this podcast was taken from the Official Web site of the Viktor Frankl Institute Vienna . If you're interested in Frankl's well-known book, "Man's Search for Mea...
Sep 28, 2009•32 min
While we all desire to reach or release our full potential, we often face deep internal struggles with perfectionism, excessive self-doubt, lack of persistence, self-depreciation and procrastination. This week, I discuss a REBT therapy approach that you may find useful. If you want to access the references to the research I discuss, see my Psychology Today blog on the topic . Want to know more about procrastination? Check out procrastination.ca Finally, if you listen to this podcast and get inte...
Sep 21, 2009•53 min
Procrastinators rarely engage in their lives in a way that creates the experience of "flow." They're rarely "in the zone" or "find their groove." What's flow? Why are the optimal conditions for flow just the opposite of what promotes task delay? In this episode, I discuss flow and some recent research that addresses these questions. For more information about this research and the concept of flow, see my Psychology Today blog posting . You can learn more about procrastination at procrastination....
Sep 14, 2009•44 min
This week I discuss three things. First, I address the notion of "intention updates" and the difference between changing our intentions and procrastination. Second, I read listeners' comments and reply to their questions. Finally, the topic for this week is how self-conscious awareness works both to strengthen and undermine self-regulation. There are different types of self-awareness, and we live with the internal dialogue that these can create.
Sep 09, 2009•41 min
Perhaps the most frequently read essay on the Internet about procrastination, is Professor John Perry's (Stanford University) piece entitled, "Structured Procrastination." In this podcast I summarize Prof. Perry's argument and reflect on its strengths and the limitation of this approach. I know you'll like it, as Prof. Perry writes about how we can harness our task avoidance to actually get things done! In Perry's words, "what could be more noble than using one character flaw to offset the bad e...
Aug 31, 2009•37 min
When I'm asked for strategies for more successful goal pursuit, I usually begin with the notion of implementation intentions. In this podcast, I explain the difference between goal intentions and implementation intentions, with a particular focus on the what, why and when of implementation intentions. This explanation is followed by a summary and discussion of two recent studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of implementation intentions. I know each of us can make use of implementation inte...
Aug 24, 2009•38 min
This is the last in the three-part series on willpower. Today, I discuss research that shows how we might bolster our willpower when we feel depleted. I end the discussion by providing 8 concrete strategies or "tips" to enhance your willpower and self-regulatory strength. You can find the references for this research at my Psychology Today blog . If you haven't yet, check out procrastination.ca for more information....
Aug 17, 2009•34 min
Willpower is a limited resource that we can exhaust quite quickly. In this podcast, I summarize the approach taken to this research and some key findings. The implications of this limited resource approach is important for understanding self-regulation failure with procrastination (as well as problems with smoking, drinking, junk food consumption, impulsive spending, even whether you'll likely to leave the dirty dishes in the sink). This is the second in a three-part series on willpower. I'll fi...
Aug 10, 2009•31 min
In order to understand procrastination, a form of self-regulation failure, we need to consider successful self-regulation. This podcast provides a beginning to this discussion. I review two key elements in successful self-regulation: goal setting and paying attention to the goal we set. This discussion includes tips to more effective goal setting as well as some thoughts on why attention plays such an important role in self-regulation. If you get interested in attention in self-regulation, you m...
Aug 03, 2009•29 min
I work better under pressure. . . Really? I don't believe you, and one of our latest studies casts doubt on the construct of the arousal procrastinator. This week, I discuss arousal-based personality traits, procrastination and working at the last minute because you enjoy the rush. Like the podcast? Want to learn more? You can at procrastination.ca .
Jul 28, 2009•22 min
This week, I'm discussing a very interesting finding in some of our research. We studied how self-forgiveness affected procrastination. The reasoning was that procrastination can be viewed as a transgression against the self. Like other transgressions in our lives, if we don't forgive, we experience negative emotions and tend to avoid. Self-forgiveness is a route to healing and moving ahead. You can always learn more at procrastination.ca (check out the blog at Psychology Today )....
Jul 20, 2009•11 min
A second podcast for Monday, July 13th as I try to sort out a technical issue with my recording. The topic is guilt, the most common emotion associated with procrastination. I'll follow up on this next week with a podcast about some of our latest research on self-forgiveness and procrastination.
Jul 13, 2009•4 min
iProcrastinate Podcasts are back! I'm on sabbatical, and I'll be making a weekly post for the next year as I do my research and writing on, what else, procrastination. Nothing like a sabbatical to give me the extra time needed to get to these podcasts. This week, I'm speaking about emotional regulation. In particular, I discuss research that shows how our short-term strategy of feeling good now, undermines our goal pursuit and causes problems in many areas of our lives. For references related to...
Jul 13, 2009•14 min
What am I? Who am I? Not surprisingly, if you can't answer these questions, you're more likely to procrastinate. In this podcast, I review a recent study that explores how identity development is related to procrastination.
Jun 20, 2008•11 min
