May 20

Procrastinate Less By Forgiving Yourself

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Without self-forgiveness procrastination can snowball.

People often dislike, criticise and put themselves down for their procrastination.

In a new study, though, Wohl et al. (2010) wondered if this self-blame may be counter-productive. By following 119 first-year students through two midterm examinations, the researchers tested whether self-forgiveness about procrastination before the first midterm was associated with less procrastination before the second midterm...[more]

→ Also check out: how to avoid procrastination.
January 30

How To Avoid Procrastination: Think Concrete. Psyblog

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New study finds procrastination is warded off by considering tasks in concrete terms.

Although procrastination is usually thought of as something to be avoided, this hasn't always been the case. Surveying the history of procrastination Dr Piers Steel finds that before the industrial revolution procrastination might have been seen in neutral terms (Steel, 2007; PDF).

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Psychologists have found that college students consider themselves champion procrastinators with almost half considering it problematic. Adults are not far behind with some 15-20% self-identifying as 'chronic procrastinators'. Meanwhile the rest of us are guaranteed to procrastinate from time to time. So, perhaps psychology can offer some hope in the ongoing fight against procrastination.

...[more] 

           

 Who would have thought pointillism could save us from procrastination?

Summary: how to get things done

  1. To avoid procrastinating on a task, focus on its details and use self-imposed deadlines.
  2. To stick to a task, while actually carrying it out, now it is beneficial to keep the ultimate, abstract goal in mind.
  3. When evaluating progress on a hard task, when the chance of failure is high, stay focused on the details of the task.
  4. Once tasks are easier or the end is in sight, a more abstract, goal focus is once again the psychological approach to choose.


January 19

Procrastination Central

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Collection of research material and fun resources about procrastination, including quotes, links to websites (such as procrastination societies and tests), theories, studies, and more. From a professor of human resources and organizational dynamics who has written scholarly publications about procrastination.

URL: http://webapps2.ucalgary.ca/~steel/Procrastinus/index.php

From LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/23183

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