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Friday, January 5, 2024

Procrastination

Procrastination

Contents

Reasons to procrastinate. 1

To avoid failure. 2

To avoid success. 2

To avoid the imperfect. 2

To avoid losing your identity. 2

To avoid losing control 2

To avoid feeling lonely \abandoned. 2

To avoid doing demeaning tasks. 2

To avoid distress. 2

What maintains procrastination. 2

What gets in the way of tackling procrastination. 3

Your identity. 4

How procrastination can be helpful 5

Steps to Change. 5

Preparing to change. 5

Understanding. 5

Motivating. 5

Troubleshooting. 5

Changing procrastination. 5

Approach. 5

Plan Preparation. 6

Plan Implementation. 6

Feedback\Learning. 7

Rejuvenating\Rewarding activity. 7

Helpers. 7

Organising. 7

Managing. 7

 

 

Reasons to procrastinate

 

To avoid failure

If you didn’t try then you can never fail

To avoid success

Success might be unpleasant, from increased responsibility or how you fear other people could treat you by rejecting you or insulting you . The process of success might also be unpleasant, i.e. competition where you fear you could alienate people.

To avoid the imperfect

There can be a desire to do things perfectly and because that is hard therefore the task is put off

To avoid losing your identity

If you do something for someone else it can diminish your sense of yourself  and can lead to what it means to be you wont be respected, so you avoid doing the task and feel more yourself.

To avoid losing control

Not doing a task you don’t want to do asserts your control\power in the world

To avoid feeling lonely \abandoned

You always have things to do, as procrastination means tasks take longer

To avoid doing demeaning tasks

If you have a powerful belief in your specialness, and ability you might then want to procrastinate  tasks that don’t accord with that belief. This could be because the feelings of dong things that are less that you think you should be doing, or feeling a failure are very powerful for you maybe because you haven’t often felt them.

To avoid distress

·         Pleasurable tasks feel timeless and it feels very painful to do things that aren’t like this

·         Any of the above reasons produce distress that can then want to be avoided

 

 

 

 

What maintains procrastination

The task to be done produces distress (for some reason), a history of procrastination produces extra distress associating the task with the distress of procrastinating about it.  Now being stressed, and the threat part of your brain is activated it becomes harder to do the task. So the procrastination is maintained by the negative reinforcement of avoiding the unpleasant feelings of distress , and by the strengthening of the beliefs about the task e.g. “I cant do it” supported by the decrease in ability due to the stress. Given the avoidance of the distress then procrastination is also maintained as the skills of managing distress aren’t developed.

In turn tasks can be associated with all the unpleasant thoughts\feelings and behaviours. So as the similar task\situation is faced then there can be all the memory of previous similar tasks coming back and a priming of way of paying attention\thinking\feeling as there is an expectation of what the task will be like. The brain through repeition wires neural pathways, so when I see x, then I think y, then I feel z.

What can help reduce the maintenance of procrastination is to start to break the neural pathways. So when you get stuck in procrastination take a break (mind\body) which can then give other experiences related to the task.  Likewise starting small and getting some success in terms of doing the task and concentrating can also rewire as it reassociates the task with non procrstinatory experience.

 

 

What gets in the way of tackling procrastination

If you stop procrastinating, what new problems or situations would you have to face that you don’t have to contend with now?

My illusions could be shattered . . .

What if I finally do my best, but I’m mediocre?

I might not be able to achieve what I always thought I could.

 I couldn’t feel superior if I found I was in the same boat as others.

 

There’s always more to do . . .

I’ll turn into a workaholic.

I’ll take on more and more responsibilities and put my own needs last.

 I’ll find there’s even more to do than I thought.

It will never end.

 

My relationships would change and not for the better . . .

 It’s lonely at the top; I’d lose my friends.

 People will compete with me and try to cut me down.

My flaws will be obvious and no one will like me.

Everyone will be envious of me.

I’ll be too different from my family.

 

I’d lose control over my life . . .

I’d have to accept a lot of other people’s routines and expectations.

I’d have to learn new things and be a novice again.

I’d rather be the expert.

 I’ll be taken over by this new culture.

People will demand more and more of me—and I can’t say “No.”

 

Life would seem boring . . .

 I would miss the excitement and challenge of “cutting it close.”

I wouldn’t be inspired and I’d be less creative.

Things done early will seem too easy.

That’s no fun!

 

I’d be completely responsible for myself . . .

 I couldn’t blame other people or circumstances for what I do or don’t do.

What would it be like to be completely on my own without getting everyone to help me at the last minute?

 I’d have to make a lot of difficult decisions about how to spend my time.

 

 I wouldn’t be a nice person anymore . . .

If I’m successful, I might turn into a pompous ass.

I’d become self-righteous and disdainful of those who still procrastinate.

I might be dull, less fun, no longer a unique person.

I’d start to feel competitive with everyone else.

 

Maybe I don’t deserve this . . .

I’d have to acknowledge that I’m worth something.

I haven’t punished myself enough for procrastinating.

I’d be even more disappointed in myself if I started to procrastinate again.

 

Your identity

There can be things you see as your identity that make it harder to let go of procrastination

1.       The loveable clown

2.       The saint: always looking after others but putting my needs off

3.       The renaissance man: knows about everything but never can attend to one thing

4.       The miracle worker: can pull it out of the bag in the last 5 mins (but I created the problem)

5.       The blank slate: I don’t know what I want in life, so cant direct my energy

 

How procrastination can be helpful

·         It can show that you don’t want to do what you are doing and there could be good reasons for this that procrastination is pointing to you acting against your values.

 

 

 

Steps to Change

 

Preparing to change

 

Understanding

Establish procrastination areas:

Establish procrastination patterns and themes.

Establish procrastination style: what do you do

 

Motivating

Evaluate Procrastination

External costs: e.g. problems at work

Internal costs: e.g. LSE

 

Troubleshooting

As you set yourself tasks to help you change you will hit resistance and procrastination. When you do use this to understand more about procrastination.

 

Changing procrastination

Approach

Aim build confidence, by getting some success.

Break tasks into small achievable steps

Use an energising activity at start of tasks and a pleasurable\meaningful activity at end of tasks to energise and stimulate the work.

Aim to increase your understanding of yourself, your procrastination and achievement whatever happens

Plan Preparation

Write down why you procrastinate (Write 5 parts of it, e.g. fear of failure, fear of being controlled)

Write down the emotions that encourage you to procrastinate (I feel x when I need to do y)

Write down what keeps you procrastinating: Fears if you didn’t procrastinate (see above)

Write down 5 costs (internal and external) of procrastination

Write down 5 benefits of reducing procrastination

Write a plan for tackling procrastination (general energiser, specific procrastination reducer with rewards, general pleasure\meaning enhancer, this wrapped in a learning\feedback mechanism )

Learn emotional acceptance technique

Have a log book\learning journal

 

Plan Implementation

Start of day: Run

Plan:

Break task into small time chunks

Think about how you can distract yourself and if you need to make some time for those things later in the day.

Establish rejuvenating\rewarding activity around it

Write or say what is important about doing this task (internal motives, external incentives)

Write or say how I can make this task more interesting\motivating (how quickly I can do it, what I can learn etc?)

Task implementation

Do task, if successful take a rejuvenating break/get a reward (Exercise? Movement? Music? Change of scene?)

If having difficulty with task then write or say the meaning of the difficulty (e.g. fear of failure), notice the emotion that goes with this. Do some emotional management or compassion excercisea then return to task.

 

End of day: Pleasurable\Meaningful activity

 

 

Feedback\Learning

Have three sections

Understanding procrastination, thoughts and emotions

Helpers and hinderers

Troubleshooting

Either at end of day, end of task or during difficulty write down any increase of wisdom in any of the areas

 

 

 

Rejuvenating\Rewarding activity

Mindful: A sacred pause: connecting to the moment, what it feels like in your body, emotions, feelings, sensations what sounds you notice,

Exercise: Some exercise: walking outside, moving around the house, doing a yoga pose, doing an exercise

Relaxation: Progressive muscle relaxation, Soothing imagery, Soothing breathing

Compassion: Notice whats gone well to encourage and support, and offer compassion to any difficulties or struggles.

Social: Message a friend

 

 

Helpers

Organising

Set a timer for the task on your phone

Write a plan for the day at the start of the day

Create a regular time during the day to do certain things, e.g. look for houses, socialise etc

Break things into very small bits, use one minute time allocations

Well being: ensure you are getting enough sleep\eating well\socialising\having pleasure and meaning

Create an “Unschedule” a weekly plan of all the things you are going to do, notice what you feel about that and then see what time you have for what you should do or if you need to adjust the schedule

 

Managing

What can you delegate?

What can you say no to?

What can be good enough rather than perfect?

What do you love doing: do more of it!

How can you schedule your day to maximum effect (hard tasks first, small task firsts get some motivation?)

 

 

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