PROCRASTINATION

Workshop

Yaniv Phillips, Ph.D.

Counseling and Psychological Services
 I. What do people do when they
procrastinate?
What is your style of procrastination?

 I surf the net

 I raid the refrigerator.
 I read books.
 I start calling up my friends.
 I work on something that’s less important.
 What is your style of procrastination?
(cont.)

 I become obsessed with cleaning my

desk.
 I go out jogging.
 I sit and stare.
 I keep doing research.
 I watch the TV.
 What is your style of procrastination?
(cont.)
 I read the newspaper.
 I go to sleep.
 I go shopping.
 I check and write e-mails.
 I listen to music.
 What excuses do you use when
you procrastinate?
 I’m too tired right now. I’ll take a rest and
then I’ll feel more like doing it.
 I don’t have enough time to do it all right
now, so there’s no point in starting.
 I’ve got plenty of time to do it later.
 I’ve got to organize my desk first.
 It’s too nice a day to spend on this.
 Excuses (cont.)
 I don’t have the proper equipment.
 I’ve been working so hard—I deserve a
break!
 It might not be good enough.
 If I wait, I can do a really first-class job.
 I’ll wait until I’m inspired.
 Excuses (cont.)
 I need to exercise first.
 I need to keep up with what’s going on in
the world, so I’d better read the
newspaper.
 It’s too late in the week to start.
 Why mail it Friday? No one will look at it
until Monday anyway.
 Excuses (cont.)
 If I wait long enough, they’ll forget about it.
 I’ll call later when the rates go down.
 Why bother to ask? The answer will be
“no” anyway.
 I’ve done the worst part of it: the final step
will be a breeze.
 Two hundred years from now, will this
really matter?
 The Cycle of Procrastination
 1. “I’ll start early this time.”
 2. “I’ve got to start soon.”
 3. “What if I don’t start?”
• a. “I should have started sooner.”
• b. “I’m doing everything but…” (at least I’m getting
something done)
 The Cycle of Procrastination (cont.)

3. (cont.)
• c. “I cannot allow myself to enjoy anything.”
• d. “I hope no one finds out.”

 4. “There is still time.”

 5. “There is something wrong with me.”

 The Cycle of Procrastination (cont.)

 6. Final choice: To do or Not to do

Path 1 Path 2
Not to do To do
c.I can’t do this. a. I can’t wait any longer
d.Why bother? b. “This isn’t so bad, why
didn’t I start earlier?”
c. Just get it done: all night
cramming.
 The Cycle of Procrastination (cont.)

7.“I’ll never procrastinate again!”

 What are your assumptions about
yourself?
 What is your procrastination code?
 I must be perfect.
 Everything I do should go easily and
without effort.
 It’s safer to do nothing than to take a risk
and fail.
 I should have no limitations.
 If it’s not done right, it’s not worth doing at
all.
 What is your procrastination code? (cont.)

 I must avoid being challenged.

 If I do well this time, I must always do well.
 Following someone else’s rules means I’m
giving in and I’m not in control.
 I can’t afford to let go of anything or
anyone.
 If I expose my real self, people won’t like
me.
II. Procrastination is tricky because
it usually involves:

 Hidden maneuvers--such as when you do

too much research because you’re
avoiding the writing--so it might be hard to
recognize that there is procrastination
happening.
 A vicious cycle- avoiding the task leads to
guilt, fear of consequences and stress and
the wish to avoid facing these unpleasant
feelings makes you walk away from the
task.
 Addressing Procrastination
 2-part approach:
 A. Recognizing all the parts of your
procrastination persona—see the hidden
maneuvers so they can be addressed.
This part focuses on behavior, and
strategies to change it.
 Addressing Procrastination (cont.)

 B. Begin to understand underlying

causes, which feed each person’s own
vicious cycle. Without some focus on
these root causes, the behavioral
strategies will not have long-lasting
success.
 III. Why do you procrastinate?
(Root causes)
 Fear of Failure
 1. If I really try to write this, I/they will finally see I
am not as promising/ special/brilliant as my
parents/professors/ home town always thought I
was.

 2. I cannot live up to my brother’s/father’s

brilliance/success.

3. I will disappoint my uneducated parents who

worked so hard to help me get here.
 Why do you procrastinate? (Root causes)
(cont.)
OR Fear of success

 1. I feel guilty surpassing my mother/father.

2. I always had it easy and my sibling struggled. If I get this s/he

will really feel shame/left out.

 3. In my family, the males were the successful ones, so if I (female)

get there I leave my mother and sisters behind.

 4. I’ll lose friends/ will become a workaholic/ will lose my

independence/ will become too predictable/ will become dull.

 5. I would have to make a lot of difficult decisions on my own.

IV. Strategies: a. Work to identify
underlying fears.

1. Do you procrastinate on matters in which you

are supposed to excel or in which you have
little experience?
2. Are you aware of particular anxieties about
the things you postpone?
Identify underlying fears (cont.)
3. What would happen if you stopped
procrastinating? How would you then deal
with situations and other people differently?

4. What if you do your best and you do not

excel?

5. What are the dangers of your improving and

succeeding?
 What is your procrastination
code?
I must be perfect.
 Everything I do should go easily and without effort.
 It’s safer to do nothing than to take a risk and fail.
 I should have no limitations.
 If it’s not done right, it’s not worth doing at all.
 I must avoid being challenged.
 If I do well this time, I must always do well.
 Following someone else’s rules means I’m giving in and
I’m not in control.
 I can’t afford to let go of anything or anyone.
 If I expose my real self, people won’t like me.
What is your style of
procrastination?
I surf the net
I raid the refrigerator.
I read books.
I start calling up my friends.
I work on something that’s less important.
I become obsessed with cleaning my desk.
I go out jogging.
I sit and stare.
I keep doing research.
I watch the TV.
I read the newspaper.
I go to sleep.
I go shopping.
I check and write e-mails
 What excuses do you use when
you procrastinate?
 I’m too tired right now. I’ll take a rest and then I’ll feel more like doing it.
 I don’t have enough time to do it all right now, so there’s no point in starting.
 I’ve got plenty of time to do it later.
 I’ve got to organize my desk first.
 It’s too nice a day to spend on this.
 I don’t have the proper equipment.
 I’ve been working so hard—I deserve a break!
 It might not be good enough.
 If I wait, I can do a really first-class job.
 I’ll wait until I’m inspired.
 I need to exercise first.
 I need to keep up with what’s going on in the world, so I’d better read the newspaper.
 It’s too late in the week to start.
 Why mail it Friday? No one will look at it until Monday anyway.
 If I wait long enough, they’ll forget about it.
 I’ll call later when the rates go down.
 Why bother to ask? The answer will be “no” anyway.
 I’ve done the worst part of it: the final step will be a breeze.
 Two hundred years from now, will this really matter?
 Time management—project
planning and follow through
 A.Plan your daily schedule—Write down
everything you will do on that day. Make
sure to estimate the length of time you will
engage in each activity and write when
you will start it and when you will end it.
 Tuesday’s schedule
 Planned schedule  Actual schedule

 7am  7am
 8  8
 9  9
 10  10
 11  11
 12pm  12pm
 1  1
 2  2
 3  3
 4  4
 5  5
 6  6
 7  7
 8  8
 9  9
 10  10
 11  11
 12am  12am
 1  1
 Time management—project
planning and follow through (Cont.)
 B. Write down what you actually did. Again, try
to be as specific in detailing all your actual
activities as you can, especially the length of
time you actually engaged in each one of them.

 C. Compare your plan with what you actually

did. What did you over- or under- estimate in
your anticipated schedule, as compare with how
long things actually took you?
 5. To make change, you need to:

a. Go slowly and gradually.

b. Communicate with others

c. Expect setbacks. Progress takes time.

 d. Pay attention to your resistances—it can

teach you something important about yourself.
 Setting and Achieving goals
 a. Set a concrete, specific and observable
goal.
 b. Select only one behavioral goal--and
only one-- for the next 2 weeks.
 c. Small steps. Break down your goal to
mini-goals.
 d. Take a photo of your progress.
 e. Stick to a Time Limit you set for your goal.
Following through with your project
 a. Watch for your excuses.

 b. Self-Monitor your Thinking—One step at a Time.

 c. Don’t Abandon the Project– Get Past the First Part.

 d. Reward Yourself for progress

 e. Be flexible about your goal

 f. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be done.

 Time Management Strategies
Estimate time correctly and realistically.

 a. Practice telling time-- the schedule

exercise should help with this goal.
 b. Anticipate interruptions.
 c. Don’t spread yourself too thin
 d. Identify your prime time—admit you
have limits.
 e. Enjoy your free time and plan for it.
 Self-esteem and its relationship
to procrastination
 Self-worth = Ability = performance
 “If I perform well, that means I have a lot
of ability, so I feel good about myself.”
 Performance is so central to your self-
esteem.
 Self-esteem and its relationship
to procrastination (Cont.)
 Self-worth = Ability =/=
(Procrastination) Performance.
 By procrastinating, you can continue to
believe that your ability is greater than
your performance indicates.
 Who are the people who have
influenced you?
 Who among them represent your models
for success?
 What about them made you think of them
as being successful?
 How did they treat you? How did they
treat themselves?
 who are the people who have
influenced you? (Cont.)
 Who among them are your models for
failure?

 Write a list of your models; write down
your ideas about them and how you think
they’ve affected you and your
procrastination.
 The role of your family in
shaping who you are
 What were your family expectations from
you and what were their messages to
you?
 What are your current expectations of
yourself?
 See whether some of these early
assumptions and expectations of you
became part of your inner “parental”
voices.
 The role of your family in
shaping who you are (cont.)
 can you separate your family attitudes
toward you from your own expectations of
yourself?
 Can you take your family attitudes as only
one point of view out of many?
 How important to you are their
expectations from you?
 5 primary familial themes
 1. The pressuring theme
 The “nothing you did is good enough”
attitude or the “everything you did was
extraordinary” attitude.
 Procrastination is used to avoid any risk of
failure.
5 primary familial themes (cont.)
 2. The Doubting theme
 In contrast to the pressure to achieve, this family
expresses uncertainty in your ability to
accomplish much. The “you don’t have what it
takes to succeed” attitude.
 a. Procrastination is used to confirm these
doubts or
 b. Proving the family wrong and becoming a
perfectionist. Procrastination is used to protect
against your own doubts in yourself, especially
fearing the “horrible” truth: that you can’t do it.
5 primary familial themes (cont.)
 3. The Controlling Theme
 The controlling parents are invested in their
child’s successes but they often ignore the
child’s own wishes. Independence is
discouraged
 procrastination is used as a passive form to gain
some control and power over your life.
 procrastination is used to express defiance
against other people’ attempt to control them.
5 primary familial themes (cont.)
 4. The Clinging Theme
 Family encourages dependency and parents are
experienced as a lifeline to their child survival.
 The child becomes a “parentified child,” and is expected
to take care of her parents’ physical and emotional
needs.

 A. Procrastination is used to protect against feeling

separate, more independent or different from one’s
family.
 B. Procrastination is used to prevent feeling close to
other people.
5 primary familial themes (cont.)
 5. The Distancing Theme
 No development of emotional closeness between family
members; little interest in sharing inner thoughts,
emotions and experiences with each other. Children feel
that they are a burden, an intrusion, and that their needs
are unwanted or intolerable.
 A. Procrastination is used to avoid seeking help from
others.
 B. Pressure to be Perfect leads to perfectionism.
Procrastination is used to protect against increasing fear
of whether you can actually reach the targets you’ve set.
 In all the 5 familial themes
 The child is not treated as a multi-dimensional
person, and certain human qualities are ignored
or undervalued.
 A child may come to believe that he will be loved
if:
 I am the perfect child (pressuring);
 I don’t threaten you with my success (doubting);
I follow your rules (controlling);
 I take care of you (clinging);
 I don’t demand too much from you (distancing).
 In all the 5 familial themes (cont.)
 As an adult, she may say to herself: I can
only feel good about myself If:
 I can be perfect;
 I don’t stand out too much;
 I don’t let anyone push me around;
 I am attached to someone else;
 I’m separate from everyone.
The Secret Battle for Autonomy
 Many people procrastinate because they
want to feel they are in control of things.
They use procrastination to fight a battle
for independence and autonomy.
 Their self-worth is defined by Not doing
the task. Their ability refers to how well
they are able to resist control or restriction
of their autonomy.
The Secret Battle for Autonomy
(cont.)
 Self-worth = Ability (to be autonomous and
defy control) = Performance (on my terms via
procrastination)
 It is difficult to change because it is not only a
battle for control but also a battle for self-worth
and self-respect.
 In your procrastination, can you find an element
of “not wanting to follow the rules” or “why
should I do it my advisor’s or teacher’s way?”
Uncovering the secret agenda
 The procrastinator is powered by a secret
agenda.
 It is important to work to uncover this
agenda in yourself, since, as we know, it
ultimately destroys, rather than builds,
success.