Solving the Procrastination Puzzle
A Concise Guide to Strategies for Change
EVERYBODY procrastinates. And this "concise guide" by Timothy Pychl, Ph.D.--one of the world's leading procrastination experts--helps us solve the procrastination puzzle. Big Ideas we explore include IF ... THEN (<-- huge!), Just getting started (vs. Just doing it), the horror of "It will just take a minute," why multitasking is a myth, and why it's best to be nice to yourself when you stumble.
Big Ideas
- What’s the Puzzle?Procrastination defined.
- MotivationNot required.
- Implementation IntentionsPredecisins + IF ... THEN.
- Just Get Started!vs. Just do it!
- ‘It Will Only Take a Minute’Yah, right.
- MultitaskingIs a myth. Period.
- DisconnectTo connect.
- Expect to Stumble+ Be nice to yourself when you do.
“If you are reading this, it is probably because you are bothered by procrastination.
You may even be reading this because you are procrastinating right now. You are avoiding some other task. I want to make the time you spend off task, right now, worthwhile.
That is the purpose of my writing. An hour from now, you will be prepared to act differently. You will be prepared to be more successful in your goal pursuit.
Are you ready to get started? That is one of my most basic strategies: just get started. In this book, I explain why this works and summarize the research evidence for such a simple, practical strategy.”
~ Timothy Pychyl from Solving the Procrastination Puzzle
Timothy Pychyl is a professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa and is one of the world’s leading experts on procrastination. He’s been researching and writing about procrastination for 20 years and distills the absolute best ideas in this great little book.
It’s a fun, practical, super quick read. No excuse to procrastinate on it. :)
If you struggle with procrastination I think you’ll dig it.
Get a copy of the book here, learn more about his research at procrastination.ca and check out his Psychology Today Don’t Delay blog on procrastination.
I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!
Download MP3
Download PDFThis book provides a concise summary of key strategies to reduce procrastination in your life.
Get the Book
Listen to the PodcastWhat Is the Puzzle of Procrastination?
“Procrastination is the voluntary delay of an intended action despite the knowledge that this delay may harm the individual in terms of the task performance or even just how the individual feels about the task or him- or herself. Procrastination is a needless voluntary delay…
Procrastination, in contrast to other forms of delay, is that voluntary and quite deliberate turning away from an intended action even when we know we could act on our intention right now. There is nothing preventing us from acting in a timely manner except our own reluctance to act.
This is the puzzling aspect of procrastination. Why are we reluctant to act? Why is it we become our own worst enemy?
We undermine our goal pursuit needlessly. Why? How can we solve this procrastination puzzle?
To understand the procrastination puzzle—that voluntary but needless delay in our lives that undermines our goal pursuit—we need to understand this reluctance to act when it is in our best interest to act. We also need to have strategies to overcome this reluctance.”
<— Why do we fail to act when it is in our best interest to act?
Answering that puzzling question is, of course, what the book is all about. Let’s take a quick look at some practical strategies to rock it!
Motivation Doesn’t Need to be There
“The problem is pretty obvious, as is the solution: Let go of the misconception that our motivational state must match the task at hand. In fact, social psychologists have demonstrated that attitudes follow behaviors more than (or at least as much as) behaviors follow attitudes. When you start to act on your intention as intended, you will see your attitude and motivation change.”
Love it.
We talk about this a LOT.
For a very simple reason: Great teachers come back to it again and again. It’s time to “let go of the misconceptions that our motivational state must match the task at hand.”
Remember that you don’t need to FEEL like doing it to do it. And, research shows that our attitude follows our behavior way more than we think. So: Just get started. :)
P.S. One of the greatest pitfalls of procrastination Timothy comes back to throughout the book is our desire to feel good right.this.moment. Because of this, we avoid the pain we feel in anticipation of doing our work and distract ourselves with something that immediately gratifies. Time to stop doing that and just get started—knowing that we’ll actually feel much better than we think!
Implementation Intentions: If, Then + Predecisions
“In short, implementation intentions are a powerful tool to move from a goal intention to an action.
As I have outlined in earlier chapters, these implementation intentions take the form of ‘if . . . then’ statements. The ‘if’ part of the statement sets out some stimulus for action. The ‘then’ portion describes the action itself. The issue here really is one of predecision. We are trying to delegate the control over the initiation of our behavior to a specified situation without requiring conscious decision.
IF I say to myself things like ‘I’ll feel more like doing this later’ or ‘I don’t feel like doing this now,’ THEN I will just get started on some aspect of the task.’”
That’s awesome.
We need to have clear implementation intentions and precommit ourselves to a desired course of action. We need to PREDECIDE. It’s all about IF … THEN.
IF you say to yourself, “I don’t really feel like doing this right now” THEN you just get started.
IF you say to yourself, “I think I’ll check my email/Facebook/Twitter/whatever and do this later” THEN you just get started.
IF you say to yourself, “Insert-whatever-it-is-you-say-to-yourself-when-you-start-procrastinating” THEN you just get started.
Get the idea? :)
Let’s get specific. What do you tend to say to yourself?
I say stuff like this when I’m about to procrastinate:
_____________________________________________________.
And stuff like this:
_____________________________________________________.
Fantastic. So, IF you say that, THEN what?
Exactly. You’ll just get started. :)
#procrastinationbegone!
Just Get Started vs. Just Do It
“Notice we are not using the famous Nike slogan of ‘Just do it!’ It’s about just getting started. The ‘doing it’ will take care of itself once we get going. If we think about ‘just doing it,’ we risk getting overwhelmed with all there is to do. If we just take a first step, that is much easier.
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.”
No need to stress yourself out with the prospect of finishing something.
Rather than “Just do it!” try “Just get started!!!”
And, remember that we may need to “Just get started!!” many times on any project and throughout any given day.
IF we find our attention wandering in meditation, THEN we bring it back our anchor.
IF we find our attention wandering during our workday, THEN we bring it back to what needs to get started on again.
Again and again.
As many times as it takes.
No big deal.
“Just get started!!”
“It Will Only Take a Minute”
“‘It will only take a minute’ puts me on a slippery slope toward procrastination.
It’s approaching midnight and Ari still hasn’t started to work on his report, even though he sat down at his computer at 7 p.m. When he got to his desk earlier that evening, his intention had been to get to work, but he thought, ‘I’ll just update my Facebook status—it will only take a minute.’ Now, hours later, he’s still there.”
“It will only take a minute.”
Um, yah. Right.
You hop in to check your email and a few hours later you realize your day is gone and you didn’t do what you planned to do. Hah.
How many times have you experienced that?!
Timothy shares this hilarious anonymous comment to one of his blog posts that perfectly captures the trap that is the One-minute Internet:
“im procrastinating … that’s why im here … i just google things im thinking about, like this … or like i hear someone hum a familiar tune, so i look up the song to know who sang it … i mean that LITERALLY takes a minute, but then that makes me google a couple other things and then it ends up lasting a lot more than a few minutes … and i honestly dont realize when i end up reading the wikipedia page of some random disease that some singer had that was related to the singer i was looking up. wait, why was i looking him up? oh right, cos someone at my school was humming a song by him … oh right, school … essay due tomorrow, i haven’t started.
like right now, i just realized … im commenting on an article. … i wish i could read those articles about my essay and try to get 2000 words on paper in a day.”
Laughing.
Let’s not do that.
I think it’s time to create a new Getting Stuff Done 101 productivity rule.
We have the Two-Minute Rule.
In Roy Baumeister’s words (see Notes on Willpower): “The Two-Minute Rule: If something will take less than two minutes, don’t put it on a list. Get it out of the way immediately.”
Now we need the One-Minute Rule. :)
IF you’re working on something and feel called to complete something that will “only take a minute” THEN you will ignore it and continue rockin’ whatever you’re working on. :)
Yah? Sweet.
P.S. In my recent interview with Tim Sanders (see Notes on Today We Are Rich), he went off on “click bait”—the ridiculously enticing links peppering the Internet with one purpose: Say whatever it takes to get you to click.
WARNING: Very smart people are spending a ton of time and money to try to grab (and destroy) your attention. Random web surfing is hazardous to your health!
Multitasking is a Myth
“On top of all of this is the myth of multitasking. I say myth because despite popular beliefs, research indicates that only a very small percentage of people can actually multitask effectively. Humans have a very limited attentional channel. We are better off focused on one thing at a time. Tragic traffic accidents are only one example of how potentially dangerous the myth of multitasking can be as texting drivers lose their focus on the road. The more mundane tragedy of multitasking is how we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are actually doing our work when in fact we are attending sporadically to our tasks in between email, social-networking updates, Internet searches, ecommerce, and gaming.”
Barbara Oakley echoes this wisdom in A Mind for Numbers (see Notes).
Here’s how she puts it: “Multitasking is like constantly pulling up a plant. This kind of constant shifting of your attention means that new ideas and concepts have no chance to take root and flourish.”
In The ONE Thing (see Notes), Gary Keller puts it directly: “Multitasking doesn’t save time—it wastes time.”
Let’s focus.
P.S. Did you know simply talking on your phone while driving leads to a fourfold increase in accidents?
And, get this: According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, texting while driving is six times more likely to cause an auto crash than driving when intoxicated.
<— Wow.
P.P.S. The myth of multitasking applies to not only our creative/professional work but also to our personal lives. The greatest gift we can give our loved ones is our full attention. Turn off your smart phones and be present.
Check out Relationships 101 Micro Class magic on how to make airplane mode your friend.
Disconnect to Connect
“Minimizing distractions is an important part of curbing our online procrastination. To stay really connected to our goal pursuit, we need to disconnect from potential distractions like social-networking tools. This means that we should not have Facebook, Twitter, email, or whatever your favorite suite of tools is running in the background on your computer or smartphone while you are working. Shut them off.
Ouch. I know—it is really tempting to find some excuse to keep it a ‘business as usual’ approach here, but if you are committed to reducing your procrastination, this is something you really need to do. You must shut off everything except the program you need to do the task at hand. This means you can plan your ‘ebreaks’ more consciously—again, this is an example of predecisions that help us break unconscious habits. Procrastination is certainly a habit for many of us.”
Predecisions.
Another word for that is “precommitment.”
We explored the Idea in some of our Notes on the science of willpower.
Here’s how Baumeister puts it in Willpower: “The essence of this strategy is to lock yourself into a virtuous path. You recognize that you’ll face terrible temptations to stray from the path, and that your willpower will weaken. So you make it impossible—or somehow unthinkably disgraceful or sinful—to leave the path. Precommitment is what Odysseus and his men used to get past the deadly songs of the Sirens. He had himself lashed to the mast with orders not to be untied no matter how much he pleaded to be freed to go to the Sirens. His men used a different form of precommitment by plugging their ears so they couldn’t hear the Sirens’ songs. They prevented themselves from being tempted at all, which is generally the safer of the two approaches. If you want to be sure you don’t gamble at a casino, you’re better off staying out of it rather than strolling past the tables and counting on your friends to stop you from placing a bet. Better yet is to put your name on the list of people (maintained by casinos in some states) who are not allowed to collect any money if they place winning bets.”
The more we decide in advance what we want to do and set up the conditions to make that outcome more likely, the more we increase the odds of having our behavior match our intention.
Turn off the unnecessary programs. If you don’t need the Internet on, turn off your Wi-Fi. Force yourself to take an extra step to break your precommitment.
And get rid of your procrastination in the process.
In short, disconnect to connect to your highest self and your most important goals!
(P.S. Same predecision/precommitment rules apply to food: Don’t buy the junk food! If it’s not in your house, your way less likely to eat it, eh?)
Expect to Stumble + Be Nice to Yourself When You Do
“This self-change process is uneven. We truly do feel like one day we leap ahead and the next day we fall back. Although we have to be committed to change and firm in our efforts to be strategic, we also have to be kind to ourselves during this challenging process. We all face setbacks, disappointing moments, and frustrations with our apparent lack of progress. Your attitude toward these setbacks and yourself will be extremely important to your continued progress. Be kind but firm with yourself, and be willing to forgive yourself when you do not live up to your own expectations.
One of our recent studies was about this issue of self-forgiveness and procrastination. It has important implications for each of us as we take the self-change journey. What we found was that self-forgiveness for procrastination was related to less procrastination in the future.”
Know (!) that you will face setbacks.
That’s part of the process. (For everyone.)
As George Leonard tells us in Mastery (see Notes), sometimes it’s two steps forward and one step back. And, sometimes it’s two steps back and one step forward. That’s the path of mastery.
How you communicate with yourself when (not if!) you fall short of your goals is going to determine how quickly and gracefully you master this part of your life
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