Don't Delay

Understanding procrastination and how to achieve our goals.

Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. is an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where he specializes in the study of procrastination. See full bio

April 14, 2009, Procrastination

Comments on "Increasing emotional intelligence, decreasing procrastination"

Increasing emotional intelligence, decreasing procrastination

By Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. on April 14, 2009 in Don't Delay

A study published this month demonstrated that a 4-week program increased emotion identification and management. Our most recent research revealed a strong negative relation between emotional intelligence and procrastination. This may be a new avenue for procrastination intervention. Read More

you've said nothing. you

Submitted by tim m on April 14, 2009 - 7:31am.

you've said nothing.

you haven't even logically linked procrastination with EI.

is this an ad?

Confused

Submitted by Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. on April 14, 2009 - 7:38am.

Hi tim m,
I have no idea what you mean by your post above. If you read other blogs, particularly the one I linked to at the end of this entry, you'll see the relation between emotional regulation and procrastination (self-regulation failure).

Sorry it was difficult for you to see the point. That was certainly not my intention.
tim

Inverse Problem

Submitted by michael webster on April 14, 2009 - 10:18am.

Isn't there an inverse problem to procrastination - people who don't live in the present, constantly delaying gratification and saving for a rainy day?

Inverse problem

Submitted by Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. on April 14, 2009 - 10:33am.

Hi Michael,
In short based on my experience and research, "no." I don't think that "non-procrastinators" live less in the moment or have a problem of delaying gratification too much, but I think that people who procrastinate want to believe this. In fact, the little research that is out there about "flow" and procrastination indicate that procrastinators experience flow less (see http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/200805/procrastination-... )

Why do you think this might be true?
tim

Inverse Problem

Submitted by michael webster on April 14, 2009 - 4:16pm.

Tim;

My own philosophical background enamored me of Aristotlean theory of the mean for virtues.

So when I hear about procrastination as a vice, I immediately wonder about where it is in the mean of two competing traits.

If you are right, and there is no serious problem about delayed gratification, then I have to abandon a standard way of thinking - which might not be so bad.

But isn't hoarding the inverse of procrastination?

EI is an ability that can be taught

Submitted by Anonymous on April 15, 2009 - 11:38am.

Thank you for a very interesting and informative post. The study was very encouraging for lots of reasons. As a person in the working world, I have witnessed companies spend thousands of dollars (and more) on Emotional Intelligence training programs. Most of these have not been rigorously tested and so it is easy to stay skeptical. After all, many people think of EI as something relatively fixed (even if Salovey & Mayer tried to conceptualize it differently--most people are more familiar with Goleman's popular model).

I'm curious about the details of the training program they used and how it compares to the consulting companies who sell the more popular ones to companies, e.g. the Hay Group. Also, I look forward to hearing more about your graduate student's equally interesting study on procrastination. He might be familiar already with the study done on "emotionally intelligent time travel" showing that people with higher EI are better at predicting how they will feel in the future. Since people with EI are better at forecasting their future emotions I could see a definite link to procrastination in that regard.

Procrastination and EI

Submitted by Anonymous on April 17, 2009 - 3:37pm.

Hi,

I am a 38 year old mother of 2 and my procrastination has reached a point in my life that is making me unable to function. My career is a mess and my personal life as well. I feel completely overwhelmed. I'm in debt, owe back taxes, and am at a point where I am basically unemployed. I feel so "frozen" I can't seem to be able to do anything. While doing research, I came upon an article that stated that chronic procrastination might be the result of over strict parenting and I had a lightbulb moment (my parents were so strict that I had to move out of our house at 21 just to be able to go on a date.) I see now that this is how I have been ever since.

Of course, this doesn't excuse me of my bad behaviour, I just need help! Is there any EI training/books that I might be able to get here in the states? Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction...

Resources

Submitted by Tswirleck on April 22, 2009 - 6:56am.

Yes, please do recommend some resources where one could learn to increase one's emotional intelligence.
That would be a terrific help - thanks a bunch!