I recently interviewed Tim about why we procrastinate, and about what tactics we can use to beat procrastination. What follows is everything I learned.
Before diving into some tactics to stop procrastinating, you should know why you procrastinate in the first place.
According to Pychyl, procrastination is fundamentally a visceral, emotional reaction to what you have to do.
When you put pressure on yourself to accomplish certain tasks, according to Pychyl you "have this strong reaction to the task at hand, and so the story of procrastination begins there with what psychologists call task aversiveness". The more aversive a task is to you, the more you'll resist it, and the more likely you are to procrastinate.
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Why you procrastinate
Procrastination is fundamentally an emotional reaction to what you have to do. The more aversive a task is to you, the more you’ll resist it, and the more likely you are to procrastinate.
Aversive tasks tend to: be boring, frustrating, difficult, lack intrinsic rewards, be ...
Make a task less aversive
When you notice yourself procrastinating, use your procrastination as a trigger to examine a task’s characteristics and think about what you should change.
By breaking down exactly which attributes an aversive task has (boring, frustrating, difficult, meaningless, ambiguous...
Procrastination: why we struggle to start
Procrastination is delaying an intended course of action despite expecting negative consequences for the delay.
Possible causes for procrastination:
- Task unpleasantness. Boring, frustrating and aversive tasks.
- Se...
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