Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties,
Speaker 1: the podcast where we talk through some of the big
Speaker 1: life changes and transitions of our twenties and what they
Speaker 1: mean for our psychology. Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. New listeners, old listeners, wherever
Speaker 1: you are in the world, is so great to have
Speaker 1: you here. Back for another episode where we discuss the
Speaker 1: psychology of our twenties. Today, we're talking about procrastination, which
Speaker 1: is basically our tendency to delay a task indefinitely despite
Speaker 1: knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so.
Speaker 1: We delay by doing something to distract us, by preoccupying
Speaker 1: ourselves with less important things, kind of ignoring the impending deadline,
Speaker 1: all the while knowing that we are most likely going
Speaker 1: to regret that decision in the future. The amount of
Speaker 1: literature around this is extensive and fascinating because I think
Speaker 1: for a long time, psychologists and researchers were confused as
Speaker 1: to how someone could have every intention of doing something,
Speaker 1: could be motivated, could have a bigger goal that they
Speaker 1: were working towards, but still actually never do the thing
Speaker 1: and put something off to the last minute. It's what's
Speaker 1: known as this intention behavior gap, having every desire to
Speaker 1: do something and yet finding that despite all of that,
Speaker 1: you can never quite bring yourself to do it. Maybe
Speaker 1: you are listening to this episode whilst you avoid your
Speaker 1: exams or your assignments. Maybe you're putting off studying, you're
Speaker 1: avoiding those dishes. It might feel productive to get a
Speaker 1: better understanding of your procrastination by listening to this episode.
Speaker 1: It might feel important, but that is still procrastination even
Speaker 1: if it looks productive, because what we're engaging in is avoidance,
Speaker 1: and a kind of avoidance that could be stemming from
Speaker 1: a number of factors like academic anxiety and overthinking, perfectionism,
Speaker 1: feeling like you're not good enough, boredom, a lack of
Speaker 1: impulse control, negative coping skills. We all do it. Procrastination
Speaker 1: is a nice kind of guilty pleasure to feel momentarily
Speaker 1: distracted and able to avoid our stress, even if we
Speaker 1: know it's going to come back to bite us later on.
Speaker 1: And I also think it's especially common in our twenties
Speaker 1: when they're always feels like there is like one hundred
Speaker 1: more urgent tasks to be done or more fun things
Speaker 1: to be doing. Friends to be seeing online, shopping to
Speaker 1: be done, But whether we're conscious of it or not
Speaker 1: is another thing. That's the crucial element here. Being aware
Speaker 1: of why our procrastination occurs is important if we want
Speaker 1: to bring it under control. So today we are going
Speaker 1: to break down all of the psychology behind why you
Speaker 1: and I I do it as well why we procrastinate.
Speaker 1: But also much more importantly, I think, how to stop
Speaker 1: kind of getting in your own way, how to stop
Speaker 1: letting the tendency to put things off harm your goals
Speaker 1: and your dreams. We kind of all have shit to do,
Speaker 1: we have stuff we want to work towards, and I
Speaker 1: think wasting your own time isn't going to hurt anyone
Speaker 1: but yourself. So I really want to provide an overview
Speaker 1: of how we can manage when we are chronic procrastinators
Speaker 1: and actually put some practical strategies in place. All right,
Speaker 1: So let's start with the basics here. I think the
Speaker 1: definition of procrastination is a good place to start. We
Speaker 1: all have some sense of what that is, but basically,
Speaker 1: it's allowing ourselves to shift our focus away from things
Speaker 1: that we should be doing by focusing on the things
Speaker 1: that we could be doing or the things that we
Speaker 1: want to do. I think procrastination gets blamed for a
Speaker 1: lot of our time management problems, and it's also often
Speaker 1: used synonymously with laziness, but they are very different. Laziness
Speaker 1: and procrastination are not the same thing because laziness involves
Speaker 1: no intention to do that task at all and real
Speaker 1: minimal effort upon doing it, but procrastination. When we are procrastinating,
Speaker 1: we often want to get that thing done. We are
Speaker 1: very aware of that deadline, We are very aware of
Speaker 1: the things that we are not doing, but we just
Speaker 1: can't bring ourselves to do so because of some other reason.
Speaker 1: And to a certain degree, it's normal to procrastinate, and
Speaker 1: it can be regarded as kind of a useful way
Speaker 1: to prioritize between tasks, mainly because we're less likely to
Speaker 1: procrastinate on taskit are very very important and for which
Speaker 1: failure to do so would be very negative. And also
Speaker 1: just naturally, I think procrastination is part of our stress response.
Speaker 1: We don't like feeling anxious or stressed or overwhelmed, and
Speaker 1: so avoiding those feelings by avoiding the things on our
Speaker 1: to do list that is a great temporary solution, and
Speaker 1: I think temporary is the key word here procrastination. It
Speaker 1: also comes from, you know, just general life stress, being overwhelmed,
Speaker 1: or unfounded negative beliefs we have about ourselves, which we're
Speaker 1: going to speak about more in a second. However, regardless
Speaker 1: of the reasons behind this behavior, it can become a
Speaker 1: problem and it can impede our normal functioning when this happens.
Speaker 1: Procrastination has been found to result in a lot of
Speaker 1: kind of health problems like stress, anxiety, you know, very mentally,
Speaker 1: the sense of guilt or a loss of productivity, or
Speaker 1: even feeling kind of an added pressure or an added
Speaker 1: sense of social disapproval from the people you feel accountable towards.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it actually causes us to procrastinate more. It
Speaker 1: makes this tendency, this behavior more chronic. Typically, as we
Speaker 1: spoke about before, we procrastinate because of aversion, because we
Speaker 1: want to avoid stress, not by facing it head on
Speaker 1: or being aware, but by ignoring it, and so that
Speaker 1: provides momentary relief. We feel that we are safer by
Speaker 1: just completely ignoring what we need to do than we
Speaker 1: would be if we had to really focus and concentrate
Speaker 1: on what may seem quite impossible, So that actually makes
Speaker 1: the cycle especially vicious. So in the immediate present, if
Speaker 1: you're putting off you know, writing that essay or doing
Speaker 1: your taxes, I don't know, you are delaying the oncoming stress.
Speaker 1: And we know from very very basic principles of reinforcement
Speaker 1: that when we're rewarded for something such as avoiding something terrible,
Speaker 1: we tend to do it again. And that is kind
Speaker 1: of precisely why procrastination tends to not be a one
Speaker 1: off behavior but almost a chronic habit. There's an important
Speaker 1: distinction I think between what I would call work or
Speaker 1: task based procrastination. Maybe a better word for it is
Speaker 1: like practical procrastination and then emotional procrastination. So I think
Speaker 1: task based procrastination is what we typically think of, you know,
Speaker 1: putting off paying your parking fines, studying, waiting until the
Speaker 1: last minute to submit that work deadline. And I think
Speaker 1: the area where we talk about practical procrastination the most
Speaker 1: is when it comes to our academics, and that's because
Speaker 1: we have a lot of opportunities to procrastinate with fewer
Speaker 1: overt consequences. You know, if you miss a really important
Speaker 1: word deadline, that's your job on the line, right you
Speaker 1: could be fired. The stakes are super high, but if
Speaker 1: you don't do your laundry, you know, it's not the
Speaker 1: end of the world. Studying is so task based, so repetitive,
Speaker 1: but the consequences are also so individual, and we often
Speaker 1: feel like we will have time to make up for
Speaker 1: it when we're kind of in that studying mentality. So
Speaker 1: it is the area we see it the most. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: for us, though, procrastinators have been found to receive worse
Speaker 1: grades than non procrastinators. In one study they did in
Speaker 1: the late nineties, what they saw when they looked at
Speaker 1: finally exam scores is that amongst people who didn't procrastinate
Speaker 1: or at least didn't say they procrastinate, and the people
Speaker 1: who did, there was this huge variation in the marks
Speaker 1: that they were receiving. So I think that negative association
Speaker 1: between procrastination and academic performance is not just one that
Speaker 1: we see in academic studies and in articles and in research.
Speaker 1: It's also one that we see in our own life lives.
Speaker 1: You know, when we have poor academic grades as well,
Speaker 1: we also report higher levels of stress and poor kind
Speaker 1: of self worth and increasing sense that we are failures.
Speaker 1: Rather than understanding that this behavior is sometimes not always
Speaker 1: in our control, so that is task based procrastination. But
Speaker 1: emotional procrastination is a little bit different, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of usually referred to in the context of emotional avoidance, unavailability, conflict, aversion. Really,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, procrastination is more about
Speaker 1: managing our emotions than it is about managing our time,
Speaker 1: and the area that we experience the biggest emotions is
Speaker 1: generally in our relationships. I always think of the example
Speaker 1: of someone maybe messaging you something really confrontational and you
Speaker 1: put it off for days until you're ready to reply,
Speaker 1: or you completely you know, avoid a friend instead of
Speaker 1: talking about something that you know needs to be addressed.
Speaker 1: That is emotional procrastination. You're putting off an important task indefinitely,
Speaker 1: knowing there might be consequences. Sometimes what we're feeling or
Speaker 1: anticipating can be so intense that sense of someone being
Speaker 1: upset at us, or maybe being mad us being rejected,
Speaker 1: that is so intense that we busy ourselves with anything
Speaker 1: but to prevent having to experience what might be really
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and awkward. We all know that doesn't work, though,
Speaker 1: that's the nature of procrastination. There will always be negative
Speaker 1: consequences down the line. But I think our tendency to
Speaker 1: do this explains why sometimes it doesn't even feel in
Speaker 1: our control, even if we want to reply to that
Speaker 1: text message, even if we're prepared to have hard conversations,
Speaker 1: it still comes from a place of not only emotional
Speaker 1: avoidance of stress, but also kind of the prioritization of
Speaker 1: short term mood repair over the long term pursuit of
Speaker 1: an intended action. So basically, these researchers put it really,
Speaker 1: really well. I'm just gonna copy and paste their words
Speaker 1: here because I think it's the best way to put it.
Speaker 1: Or when we procrastinate, what we're more focused on is
Speaker 1: the immediate urgency of managing our negative mood rather than
Speaker 1: getting on with the task, And a lot of that
Speaker 1: comes from the development and the reliance on pretty negative
Speaker 1: coping skills, and procrastination just tends to elevate those. When
Speaker 1: we know we have something pressing to do, procrastination kind
Speaker 1: of makes us do a few sneaky things, things that
Speaker 1: we might not even realize we're doing, employing these habits
Speaker 1: not just to prevent us from starting or completing a task,
Speaker 1: but also allowing us to ignore any sign or reminder
Speaker 1: of it. So that includes kind of even avoiding the
Speaker 1: location where the task takes place, maybe avoiding your UNI
Speaker 1: campus or avoiding going into the office, denying the consequences
Speaker 1: of not completing the task, and engaging in a bit
Speaker 1: of delusional thinking, the classic one being you know, I'll
Speaker 1: do it on the weekend, I can do it tomorrow, which,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, we rarely actually do that, blaming external
Speaker 1: factors for not doing the task, like I had to
Speaker 1: call my mom, I had to pick up that extra shift,
Speaker 1: my friends really needed to see me. And also something
Speaker 1: called valorization. Now this is an interesting one for us
Speaker 1: in our twenties because although not many of us know
Speaker 1: the word for it, I think we all somewhat do it.
Speaker 1: So valorization involves elevating the satisfaction of doing one task
Speaker 1: as a reason to not do the other, or making
Speaker 1: it seem like the other thing you did is more
Speaker 1: important as an excuse. For example, this is the one
Speaker 1: I see all the time, also the one I use
Speaker 1: all the time, like I'm only going to be young once,
Speaker 1: so it's really important for me to go to that party.
Speaker 1: It's really important for me to go see my friends,
Speaker 1: rather than finish my assignment. Because I'm in my twenties,
Speaker 1: I'm young, that's important to me. We place a higher
Speaker 1: value on the behavior we know we probably shouldn't be
Speaker 1: doing that's not productive, to feel better about not completing
Speaker 1: the thing that we know we needed to do. That
Speaker 1: pattern of avoidance, especially in regards to stress, not wanting
Speaker 1: to actually acknowledge just how much we need to do,
Speaker 1: how overwhelming it's going to be to start, how anxious
Speaker 1: we're going to feel once we confront the actual problem.
Speaker 1: That's one explanation. That's one opinion on procrastination. Boredom is
Speaker 1: obviously another. Sometimes the things we need to do are
Speaker 1: just like they're just not fun. And we know that
Speaker 1: our brains like novelty, they like stimulation, they like doing
Speaker 1: things that it enjoys. So if that pressing task you
Speaker 1: need to do isn't providing that stimulation, we're not going
Speaker 1: to want to do it. No one likes having to
Speaker 1: clean their car or do their taxes, which is often
Speaker 1: why we put those off for so long, for the
Speaker 1: simple fact that they are boring and they are tedious,
Speaker 1: So why not you know, scroll TikTok or Instagram instead?
Speaker 1: Things that will immediately give us that dopamine hit, and
Speaker 1: that links to what is known as the pleasure principle.
Speaker 1: So the pleasure principle is a Freudian idea and it
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with impulse control. What this
Speaker 1: principle argues is that each of us has this inherent
Speaker 1: desire to pursue immediate gratification and reward. We want to
Speaker 1: have fun right now. We want that new item of
Speaker 1: clothing right now without having to save for it. We
Speaker 1: want that sweet treat, we want that nap, and sometimes
Speaker 1: we don't have the cognitive restraint to tell ourselves no
Speaker 1: because it's so appealing and it's so instantaneous. We're kind
Speaker 1: of like little kids in that sense, and so we
Speaker 1: sacrifice long term payoff for short term pleasure and satisfaction.
Speaker 1: It's why we often see that people who are more
Speaker 1: likely to procrastinate have poor impulse control, because a they
Speaker 1: can't ignore the appeal of what's right in front of them,
Speaker 1: and b often the tasks that we most want to
Speaker 1: avoid are the ones that are going to take the
Speaker 1: most effort, time, emotional energy, and all of that investment
Speaker 1: is going to come before we actually get the satisfaction
Speaker 1: or the reward for it being completed. So why wait
Speaker 1: for that bigger payoff when you could have a dozen
Speaker 1: smaller payoffs in the short run. We can't control that impulse,
Speaker 1: so we procrastinate and we put things off, leading to
Speaker 1: that negative cycle whereby inevitably, the more we distract ourselves,
Speaker 1: the worse the situation becomes. The less time you have,
Speaker 1: and so you feel a greater need to procrastinate, your
Speaker 1: impulsive behaviors become stronger, and you're kind of stuck. Some
Speaker 1: people with poor impulse control also have increased risk taking behaviors,
Speaker 1: and so they just enjoy the pressure and the energy
Speaker 1: of leaving things to the last minute. They kind of
Speaker 1: live for that adrenaline. They find it makes them more productive,
Speaker 1: and once they get used to that feeling, the more
Speaker 1: they're gonna do it. The more they can't complete a
Speaker 1: task without that rush and that added risk or possibility
Speaker 1: of maybe I won't get it done in time. That's exciting.
Speaker 1: If you're not getting the motivation externally, that internal anxiety
Speaker 1: will definitely do it. You do not feel like you
Speaker 1: can do the thing. You do not feel like you
Speaker 1: can do the task unless it's like so immediately urgent
Speaker 1: that you just cannot put it off for any longer.
Speaker 1: I know so many people like this. One of my
Speaker 1: friends was actually asking me about this the other day
Speaker 1: and I said, you know, you like the adrenaline, you
Speaker 1: like the stress. Those are the conditions you've told yourself
Speaker 1: you're most productive under, and so now you don't want
Speaker 1: to do anything differently. Okay, so we've covered three unique
Speaker 1: explanations for your procrastination so far, but there's one that
Speaker 1: we haven't covered, and I actually think it's the most important.
Speaker 1: If you are a perfectionist, if you are an overachiever,
Speaker 1: an overthinker, I think this one will definitely apply to you.
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about that and a lot
Speaker 1: more after this shortbreak. You want to know the biggest
Speaker 1: reason people procrastinate. It's to do with perfectionism, a fear
Speaker 1: of failure, of not living up to your potential. This
Speaker 1: seems kind of counterintuitive, surely, if you are a perfectionist,
Speaker 1: someone who sets really high standards for themselves, you know,
Speaker 1: procrastination would not typically be a behavior that you are
Speaker 1: engaging in because you want to be your best and
Speaker 1: procrastination takes away from that. But actually it's that excessive
Speaker 1: focus on being the best, that pickiness, that preoccupation was flawlessness,
Speaker 1: that makes perfectionists more likely to procrastinate. And that's because
Speaker 1: they face this kind of internal dissonance. If it's not
Speaker 1: going to be perfect, why should I try? Or where
Speaker 1: do I even start? The mountain just seems so much
Speaker 1: higher if you have these kind of standards for yourself.
Speaker 1: Perfectionists also become obsessed with really small minute details and
Speaker 1: sometimes a sense of procedure, and we can see how
Speaker 1: that relates to procrastination. Where we go, Okay, I'll start
Speaker 1: this essay, but first I just need to make sure
Speaker 1: that my room is clean, or I need to get
Speaker 1: this one other thing done, or I need to get
Speaker 1: a snack, Otherwise I won't be able to focus. Those
Speaker 1: details for most of us shouldn't be as compelling as
Speaker 1: they are, but when we're a perfectionist, it's really hard
Speaker 1: to ignore them. And so if you find yourself relating
Speaker 1: to that description and struggling with procrastination, you may tend
Speaker 1: to feel really overwhelmed when you think about the amount
Speaker 1: of work that's going to be required to produce the
Speaker 1: results that you want for yourself. I had a friend
Speaker 1: who once said to me, once I start to do something,
Speaker 1: not only does it feel more real, but I know
Speaker 1: it's going to take a lot of trial and error.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing I can't cope with, not the work,
Speaker 1: but the mistakes I know that I'm going to make.
Speaker 1: So why don't I just not try it all? And
Speaker 1: then if I fail, I fail because I didn't try,
Speaker 1: not because I'm lacking some other ability, not because I'm
Speaker 1: not smart, not because I'm not perfect. Obviously, there is
Speaker 1: some very deep irony apparent in that, but that is
Speaker 1: what perfectionism is. It's irrational. So, according to one psychologist,
Speaker 1: over planning is a pretty considerable telltale sign that your
Speaker 1: procrastination is not laziness, is not poor time management, it's
Speaker 1: actually perfectionism in disguise. So her name is doctor Shield,
Speaker 1: and she says that perfectionists often want to control every
Speaker 1: variable and anticipate every potential issue before taking action. The
Speaker 1: problem is that when we overplan, that plan is almost
Speaker 1: never good enough. So you might write essay structure after
Speaker 1: essay structureft after draft, plan your day over and over again,
Speaker 1: and it's going to create this endless cycle of brainstorming
Speaker 1: planning and overthinking, and so we never actually feel confident
Speaker 1: enough to get started until we believe that it's going
Speaker 1: to be perfect with what we have in mind. And
Speaker 1: I think that kind of that aiming for perfection that's
Speaker 1: unrealistic for anybody, no matter how skilled they are, but
Speaker 1: we hold ourselves to such a high standard that we
Speaker 1: can't see that. To expand on that, perfectionists are often
Speaker 1: also overachievers, and so they commit to too many tasks,
Speaker 1: they fail to prioritize properly, They genuinely just do not
Speaker 1: have enough time. They don't have enough time, and maybe
Speaker 1: that over commitment is also subconsciously a way to offer
Speaker 1: themselves a distraction, but it's also because they just can't
Speaker 1: say no. They need to be the best, They need
Speaker 1: to do everything, so that leaves no time to do
Speaker 1: just one thing really well. So this whole group of tendencies,
Speaker 1: this combination of perfectionism, of overthinking, overachieving, a fear of
Speaker 1: failure that shows up a lot in our academic performance. So,
Speaker 1: according to some early researchers on this idea, academic procrastination
Speaker 1: has been correlated to what they call performance avoidance orientation.
Speaker 1: So this is kind of like a personality trait of
Speaker 1: personality orientation is what we would call it. And people
Speaker 1: who have this, they're very much concerned with avoiding failure,
Speaker 1: but mainly avoiding failure in front of others. They're very
Speaker 1: extrinsically motivated by a fear of poor performance, by what
Speaker 1: other people might think of them if they see that,
Speaker 1: and also this innate comparison between themselves and others as
Speaker 1: well that they really struggle with. These students procrastinated as
Speaker 1: a result, because they don't want to look incompetent, they
Speaker 1: don't want to demonstrate any flaws, so they adopt a
Speaker 1: facade of competence, but also really deeply struggle with a
Speaker 1: feeling of lacking self worth, maybe of imposter syndrome, and
Speaker 1: of course chronic procrastination. And we've talked about this briefly
Speaker 1: in terms of people who like to wait till the
Speaker 1: last minute to get that rush, to get that adrenaline,
Speaker 1: but it actually has its own terms, specifically applied for
Speaker 1: people who are studying. For students, it's known as student syndrome.
Speaker 1: This phenomenon where we wait and we wait to apply
Speaker 1: ourselves until we really can't wait any longer to leverage
Speaker 1: that sense of urgency. We know that this behavior hurts us.
Speaker 1: We've seen the outcomes more stress, poor grades, miss deadlines,
Speaker 1: but our anxiety and our perfectionism, it really doesn't care.
Speaker 1: We've trained our brains to respond to pressure in a
Speaker 1: different way, and we kind of cannot bear the prospect
Speaker 1: of not doing our best, and so we engage in
Speaker 1: this kind of negative coping mechanism, this way of avoiding
Speaker 1: that impending sense of stress, of being overwhelmed, of being
Speaker 1: anxious about what this thing could mean for our sense
Speaker 1: of self worth. That's kind of the simplest way of
Speaker 1: putting it. There's also this whole body of research dedicated
Speaker 1: to how we feel after we procrastinate. Spoiler alert, it's
Speaker 1: not great. The thoughts we have about procrastination typically actually
Speaker 1: exacerbate our distress, and that contributes to, as we know,
Speaker 1: further procrastination. So it seems like we're kind of stuck here,
Speaker 1: and maybe that is the place you're in now. You're
Speaker 1: feeling like no matter what you do, no matter how
Speaker 1: motivated you are, no matter how much you tell yourself
Speaker 1: it is going to be different, Suddenly you get to
Speaker 1: the point of not being able to actually, you know,
Speaker 1: go through with that, you get stuck in the loop.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what I'm here to help with.
Speaker 1: What I really want to discuss in this next kind
Speaker 1: of segment of this episode, because it's all great to
Speaker 1: know why, but to know how to fix it is
Speaker 1: probably more important. So let's discuss kind of six practical
Speaker 1: tips to overcome your procrastination. First of all, chunking. So
Speaker 1: chunking is normally used to describe a specific way of
Speaker 1: learning in psychology, where we break down information into smaller
Speaker 1: pieces and order to remember it. But when it comes
Speaker 1: to procrastination, this habit involves breaking down what feels like
Speaker 1: an impossible task into smaller, itty bitty tasks, little activities.
Speaker 1: And the premise of that is super simple. When we
Speaker 1: break something down, a problem, a task, things on our
Speaker 1: to do list, whatever it is, it feels less impossible.
Speaker 1: It feels like there is less pressure on us to
Speaker 1: get it all done right now, as soon as possible,
Speaker 1: all in one go, And so we manage our time better,
Speaker 1: we manage our expectations better, we manage our stress better.
Speaker 1: I used to do this when I was at UNI.
Speaker 1: I would break down writing an essay into writing only
Speaker 1: five smaller paragraphs. So instead of feeling like I had
Speaker 1: to write three thousand words all in one day, I
Speaker 1: would be like, Okay, you just have to write five
Speaker 1: hundred words in the next two hours, and that's your task.
Speaker 1: Don't think about the bigger thing. Don't think about the
Speaker 1: thing that's like kind of the cloud above your head.
Speaker 1: Just think about this one smalltivity that's superdoable. Writing five
Speaker 1: hundred words. Could do that in like an hour, and
Speaker 1: chunk the task down while you're doing that as well.
Speaker 1: Also engage in what we call positive self reinforcement. Often
Speaker 1: the reason we can't get our impulses under control to
Speaker 1: distract ourselves to do something else is because when we
Speaker 1: try and force ourselves to do something, we do so
Speaker 1: in an environment of deprivation. Think about it in this way.
Speaker 1: You have this huge essay. I know I'm using this
Speaker 1: academic example quite a bit, but I think it's most relevant.
Speaker 1: And so you have this essay. You force yourself to
Speaker 1: sit down at a desk and not move until it's done.
Speaker 1: All you keep thinking about the things you need to
Speaker 1: do is really boring or tedious. When we have that mindset,
Speaker 1: it's going to be harder to complete what needs to
Speaker 1: be completed because you're not giving yourself the reward your
Speaker 1: brain needs to keep going, you're not giving it that stimulation.
Speaker 1: And we talked about this when we discussed the pleasure principle.
Speaker 1: Our brains are always going to want to do the
Speaker 1: activity that is more fun. But if you give it
Speaker 1: a little treat, a little variable reward, at different intervals,
Speaker 1: it's going to remain focused because it doesn't feel as deprived.
Speaker 1: And when it feels deprived, it's going to search for
Speaker 1: external stimulation. So by giving it that instead, you are
Speaker 1: able to bring your attention, your focus back into control.
Speaker 1: Phone breaks are a classic one, giving yourself five minutes
Speaker 1: of TikTok or Instagram time every hour. It also kind
Speaker 1: of makes it feel a little bit more special than
Speaker 1: when we're just kind of constantly flooding our brains with
Speaker 1: this like instant gratification. I used to also use gummy
Speaker 1: bears on my textbook, so on each page i'd put
Speaker 1: a gummy bear, and when I finished it, I would
Speaker 1: get the gummy bear. I know it's kind of funny,
Speaker 1: but it really did work because it kept me looking forward,
Speaker 1: It kept me being like, Okay, this isn't just like
Speaker 1: some exhausting, monotonous, never ending task, there is reward built
Speaker 1: into this kind of structure. So this is all about
Speaker 1: getting your mind to not fear moments of hard work,
Speaker 1: to not fear moments of dedicated effort, because you are
Speaker 1: showing your brain that's the sacrifice of doing something tough
Speaker 1: is not going to come without reward. We also cannot
Speaker 1: overestimate the influence of social accountability. According to studies conducted
Speaker 1: and published in the Harvard Business Review, when other people
Speaker 1: are watching us, we feel that what we are doing
Speaker 1: is magnified and that can feel our motivation. It's kind
Speaker 1: of similar to the spotlight effect. Now, obviously this is
Speaker 1: a double sided coin, because friends, co workers' partners can
Speaker 1: sometimes be a distraction if they're in the room with us.
Speaker 1: But also when we feel like we are being watched
Speaker 1: or observed, we are more likely to act in accordance
Speaker 1: with what we want our best selves to be doing,
Speaker 1: what we want ourselves to look like for others. We
Speaker 1: want to look forward. We want to look like we
Speaker 1: have a good work ethic, so that external pressure or
Speaker 1: perhaps kind of implicit expectation keeps us from actively procrastinating.
Speaker 1: Study groups are great for this. Studying in public places
Speaker 1: like at a public library also amazing. There's always onlookers,
Speaker 1: bystanders walking behind you, and even more practically for when
Speaker 1: you maybe need the silence, you want to be alone,
Speaker 1: but you still want that social accountability. There's a series
Speaker 1: on YouTube called study with Me by this account called
Speaker 1: merv Study Corner that is so motivating you. So she
Speaker 1: does these videos where she's like, study with me for
Speaker 1: twelve hours, study with me for six hours. I used
Speaker 1: to love them. You can have it on in the background,
Speaker 1: and seeing this standard that someone else is setting for themselves,
Speaker 1: using them as a model for your own behavior, I
Speaker 1: think keeps you focused and allows you to avoid the
Speaker 1: temptation of distraction. Social accountability. We have social brains, we
Speaker 1: have social creatures. It really does work. So my next
Speaker 1: stip is specifically for my perfectionists and my overthinkers, my
Speaker 1: overachievers out there, and that is to apply the eighty
Speaker 1: twenty rule. Now this was originally used as a phrase
Speaker 1: in a lot of like diet nutritional weight loss communities,
Speaker 1: but I've seen it adapted to workplaces, to personal goals,
Speaker 1: to relationships everything in between. The premise is that when
Speaker 1: we hold ourselves to the standard that we need to
Speaker 1: be one hundred percent perfect, one hundred percent productive, one
Speaker 1: hundred percent free of procrastination all of the time, we
Speaker 1: are rarely going to be successful, and so that inability
Speaker 1: to hold ourselves to that standard is going to create
Speaker 1: a negative cycle or spiral of kind of putting off
Speaker 1: the task again and again in the future because we're
Speaker 1: fearful of not meeting that expectation. Instead, aim for eighty
Speaker 1: twenty eighty percent perfect, twenty percent almost there, twenty percent
Speaker 1: room for error, twenty percent. You know, it's not great,
Speaker 1: but it's done. You know, eighty percent is still exceptional.
Speaker 1: It's still an a it's still a high distinction. It's
Speaker 1: still eighty percent of the task done compared to zero
Speaker 1: percent if we were to get stuck in the overplanning
Speaker 1: procrastination loop. And you've also minimized some of the stress
Speaker 1: of being perfect in the process. So eighty twenty rule,
Speaker 1: if you are a perfectionist, will save you so much time,
Speaker 1: so much anxiety. Chronic procrastinators also benefit from setting false
Speaker 1: deadlines for themselves. If you know something needs to be
Speaker 1: done by the fifth of the month, put it in
Speaker 1: your diary. That the real deadline is the first and
Speaker 1: push forward with that deadline in your mind. So they
Speaker 1: did a study on this in two thousand and two
Speaker 1: and it indicated that students who are aware that they
Speaker 1: have a tendency to procrastinate and they respond by setting
Speaker 1: what we call self binding deadlines, I'm more likely to
Speaker 1: get the task done before it's due. So these heel
Speaker 1: and post deadlines, they are correlated with better performance compared
Speaker 1: to those who just use the external deadline as their
Speaker 1: main marker. I know that that might feel like it's
Speaker 1: adding an additional time commitment, an additional time constraint, but
Speaker 1: what it really does for you is allow you to
Speaker 1: prepare for a date closer in the future and then
Speaker 1: provides you with a buffer for that procrastination you know
Speaker 1: might take place. Obviously, not for everyone, especially if you
Speaker 1: know you're going to ignore that binding deadline anyways, But
Speaker 1: for some people, particularly those who like the rush of
Speaker 1: the last minute urgency and crunch time but want to
Speaker 1: avoid the negative consequences of that, you can kind of
Speaker 1: engage in a little bit of self delusion here that
Speaker 1: might be part of the solution for you. Finally, and
Speaker 1: I feel like this is so obvious that it goes
Speaker 1: without saying, but please remove those distractions. Corporate number one
Speaker 1: is always going to be your phone. And I don't
Speaker 1: mean remove distractions by like just turning your phone off
Speaker 1: and sliding it down the table. I mean we are
Speaker 1: putting on time blocks, we are using stay focused on
Speaker 1: our computers. We are giving our phone to our friend
Speaker 1: to watch it and hold us accountable. If you can't
Speaker 1: self impose boundaries to do with social media or whatever
Speaker 1: it is, adopt tactics that make that boundary or removal
Speaker 1: of distractions external. Remember, if you're going to do something,
Speaker 1: don't do it fifty percent, because that's just going to
Speaker 1: make it feel like you've been doing it for longer.
Speaker 1: It's going to take more time when your effort has
Speaker 1: only been fifty percent. Like when you're multitasking and watching
Speaker 1: TV while you study, or you're scrolling TikTok whilst you're
Speaker 1: trying to pay your bills, or listen to your lecture
Speaker 1: whilst you're listening to a podcast whilst trying to focus
Speaker 1: on a work deadline. You might think that your brain
Speaker 1: can process those two things at once, but it can't.
Speaker 1: We work better when we are and we are more
Speaker 1: productive when we are one hundred percent focused on one thing,
Speaker 1: and it will also make the time go by faster.
Speaker 1: We will get things done quicker and to a higher quality.
Speaker 1: So distractions, remove them. You will thank yourself later, even
Speaker 1: if it means depriving yourself from something you really want
Speaker 1: to do in the moment. So I hope this episode
Speaker 1: has helped you from one procrastinator to another. I use
Speaker 1: all those tips that actually they are really really effective,
Speaker 1: and I think it's all about minimizing the stress response,
Speaker 1: meaning that you get things done, you're not always rushing
Speaker 1: towards that deadline, and you feel less shame, you feel
Speaker 1: less guilt, you feel better about yourself because you're actually
Speaker 1: able to do the things that you know are contributing
Speaker 1: towards your goals and your dreams. So thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening to today's episode. I hope that it
Speaker 1: has given you something to think about. As always, If
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode and you have a friend who
Speaker 1: may also be a fellow chronic procrastinator, please feel free
Speaker 1: to share it with them. If you have an episode suggestion,
Speaker 1: any feedback, any comments, please feel free to follow us
Speaker 1: at that Psychology podcast and shoot me a DM and
Speaker 1: as always, will be back next week with another episode,
Speaker 1: so we'll see you then