The conversation today was fascinating, as it went in so many directions. I wanted to take a few minutes tonight to reflect on a few of the themes and a couple of the emails that I've had in reply to today's broadcast. There's no doubt about it, it's a Procrast-i-Nation!
For those of you who missed it, you can hear today's broadcast as an audio stream. There's a NPR blog too that is already well populated with reactions, stories and questions.
Of course, with Dr. John Perry (Stanford University) on air with me today, we got a quick overview of his productive way of turning a procrastination liability into a source of motivation. In an attempt to avoid one "dreaded" task among the many that he could do, John gets lots done. You can find a summary of this approach along with a link to his essay in my previous blog, "Structured Procrastination: When all else fails."
I did mention when John was introduced that he has identified a crucial element to our understanding of happiness. He writes, "Happiness is the product of the pursuit of your goals. . ." This captures very well what psychologists have documented in research. Successful goal pursuit enhances well being, particularly progress on projects that a congruent with our needs and values. It was great to hear from John today. I know you'll enjoy reading his other essays or listening to his radio program, Philosophy Talk.
For those of you who did listen today, you heard three themes emerge, each of which has been a blog topic here on Psychology Today. The first was perfectionism. My reply to various callers who addressed this issue was to underscore the difference between adaptive and maladaptive forms of perfectionism. You can learn more about these forms of perfectionism and their relation to procrastination at the blog "What flavor of perfectionist are you? It matters!".
The second major theme in the discussion was the self-protective or self-enhancing nature of procrastination. We can procrastinate to save our self image. We have discussed this as self-handicapping, and you can learn more about this by reading the blog, "Delay as a self-handicapping strategy: I can protect my self-image by procrastinating?"
Finally, as John noted a few times, as did the host, Neal Conan, procrastination, even structured procrastination, requires a fair bit of self-deception. This is a key issue, I think. It speaks to a basic problem of living inauthentically or in "bad faith. If you're interested in thinking more about this, you can learn more at either of these two blog entries: "The Anguish of Procrastination" or "Existentialism and Procrastination (Part 2): Bad Faith."
I find all of the Psychology Today blogs incredibly interesting. Collectively, these bloggers offer an remarkable resource. For example, in reply to a caller today who asked about performance anxiety and procrastination, I recommended Dr. Jesse Bering's (Queen's University, Belfast) blog entry entitled, "Speech Anxiety and the Illusion of Transparency." If you read even one of his entries, you'll be back for more, and it's the same for the rest of my colleagues. They write well, and they share generously.
Enjoy the reading, learning and soul searching. It is our journey, and it's well worth the time.
Finally, I wanted to share, anonymously, an email that I received directly from a listener today. This listener reflects something important that many people need to hear.
"I just wanted to say thank you for giving this procrastinator a whole new lease on life. All this time I thought that I was alone in beating myself up for procrastinating and feeling that I must somehow be a lazy and shameful person. But the discussion on today's NPR radio program "Talk of the Nation" gave me a whole new perspective. Not only am I *not* the only person who feels this way, but in particular your anecdote about the artist who dismisses anything other than brush-on-canvas work as worthless and wasted efforts really rang true with me. I realized in that moment that I have been too hard on myself! I have been unfairly discrediting all of my brainstorming & creative activities as "non-work" and making myself feel guilty about all of the time spent on what is in fact a necessary process. I work in XXXX, and a lot of what I do requires thoughtful planning & deliberation, brainstorming, networking, and time to let ideas grow, but I had been spending a lot of time beating myself up for not having something to "show" for all that work. Thank you for opening my eyes to the fact that I'm not the only one who struggles with valuing work that is less tangible, more abstract, but nevertheless important work."
The message is clear. Not all delay is procrastination, and what may seem non-productive is often very important work. Self-deception can work both ways. We can deceive ourselves into believing that our truly needless delay is justified, and we can unfairly chastise ourselves over necessary, even sagacious, delay. I hope the discussion today and the blog writing helps you to see the difference in your own life.
