Iprocrastinate Podcast

Here's a podcast that summarizes why we procrastinate.  Earlier this month, I was a guest instructor for the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD). This study group is part of the professional development important to members of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). During this one-hour teleclass, I did my best to summarize what we know about procrastination. I think this summary has relevance for anyone interested in knowing more about procrastination.If you want to know more about the topic, see procrastination.ca.

Sometimes when we procrastinate on one thing, it seems to prevent us from doing anything at all - at least anything we think we should be doing. This week, I share a listener's story about how the most detrimental effect of his tendency to procrastinate is that it makes him put everything else on hold. I discuss the potential role of anxiety in this process as well as our sense of agency and the importance of making conscious choices.You can learn more about our research at procrastination.ca

With the recent upgrade in the system software at LibSyn, it seems that my first interview with Dr. Bill Knaus was lost in the transfer. I'm posting it again.  This interview from January 9, 2010 was Dr. Knaus (Bill) introducing iProcrastinate Podcast listeners to his work on procrastination. It's an excellent interview for which I have received many positive reviews. Bill is the author of over 20 books, including one of the first on procrastination with Dr. Albert Ellis in the 1970's.

This week, I invited Dr. Bill Knaus to talk about his work with and writing about procrastination. He has provided a lengthy podcast covering a great deal of important material. He focuses specifically on how we can learn to challenge our absolutist beliefs (such as perfectionism) and he moves us towards a "do it now" perspective on our lives. Note that my introduction to the podcast seems to have a strange echo in it. I will correct this in future podcasts. The majority of the podcast is recorded clearly.

Tips and techniques are never enough. What we often need to do to enhance goal pursuit success is to ensure that our goals matter to us. If we don't value a goal, if we don't have a strong commitment to a goal, we're unlikely to pursue it. Today, I discuss an approach to strengthening goal intentions, and, in doing this, I comment on how we can falsely internalize goals that may in fact lead to procrastination.

This week, the focus is on a topic that many listeners have asked to learn more about - anxiety. Dr. Bill Knaus brings his clinical insights to this discussion. Dr. Knaus presents a case study, explains various types of anxiety, relates anxiety to perfectionism (and other types of irrational thoughts), and summarizes strategies for change. If you want to learn more about Dr. Knaus' work, check out his latest book End Procrastination Now. As well, The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Anxiety: A step by step program. (Knaus, W, New Harbinger, 2008) gives readers psychological tools for following through on addressing their parasitic anxieties and fears. It has a chapter on the procrastination anxiety connection. You can learn more about our research group at procrastination.ca

When you're going to set an intention to complete a task, do you: (a) start at today and look forward to the first available opportunity to act, or (b) start at the deadline and look backward to choose a date? I asked this question of my Psychology Today blog readers. They provided some insightful answers that I discuss today in relation to our planning and procrastination. If you want to learn more about our research, check out procrastination.ca.

I'm often asked what someone should do to reduce procrastination. One of my most common answers is, "It's not enough to have a goal intention, you need to have an implementation intention too." Today, I explain what an implementation intention is and how it works to overcome four common problems in goal pursuit.Here is an Amazon link for <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; fo

When we don't get the results we expect or hope for, we can imagine different outcomes, both better and worse. These are known as upward and downward counterfactuals. In the podcast today, I interviewed Dr. Fuschia Sirois from the University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada) who has explored the relation between counterfactuals and procrastination. I've written about one of Fuschia's studies on my Psychology Today blog. You can find it here at Avoiding What Might Have Been.You can learn more about our research at procrastination.ca

This is an extra podcast for the week. The focus is on listener feedback, particularly replies to whether or not I should podcast less frequently. The feedback was unanimous, keep it weekly, at least while you're able to on your sabbatical. I will.Although I'm posting this to address the issue of podcast frequency, the listeners' comments and my feedback may interest you in terms of strategies for dealing with procrastination.You can learn more at procrastination.ca

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.

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, check out procrastination.ca.

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.

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.

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.

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 procrastination, visit procrastination.ca

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.

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 interested in reading it yourself).  If you want to learn more about procrastination, see procrastination.ca.

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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.