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

October 2, 2009

Discomfort intolerance: Why we might give in to feel good

Irrational beliefs are central to the theory of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), and these beliefs are hypothesized to play a role in procrastination. Here's some research that sheds light on which beliefs are most related to our needless task delay. Read More

October 1, 2009

Economic stimulus spending, an aging workforce: Political procrastination will deepen the debt

The economic hole of indebtedness that we're creating now will be worsened by the baby boomers departing the workforce and the increasing costs of health care to seniors. The issue is political procrastination or ignorance, or both. Read More

September 1, 2009

Quirks of the brain: Procrastination's perfect storm

I enjoyed reading David Rock's blog posting about why all self-help books are the same. I think he clearly identified some of the "quirks" of our brains. His short list paints a picture of the perfect storm for procrastination. Read More

August 17, 2009

A sagacious delay

All procrastination is delay, but not all delay is procrastination.

August 10, 2009

Regulating your emotions

What can we learn from research on self-regulation that might help us with our emotion regulation? Implementation intentions can be used strategically to influence what emotions we might experience. This interests me because regulating emotions successfully can foster more effective self-regulation and less procrastination. Read More

August 3, 2009

Getting into a productive work zone

There may be certain dimensions of tasks that make procrastination more likely. In an achievement-oriented context like school or the workplace, a balance between challenge and skill may be particularly important. Get this balance right, and you may get into your own work zone. Get it wrong, and it could contribute to needless delay. Read More

July 28, 2009

Cherish these moments; they go by too quickly.

As a parent wearily pushes the shopping cart around the supermarket, two kids wiggling their way out of their seats, a passerby (often an older person) smiles and says, "cherish these moments." What parent hasn't heard that before? The comment is the truth, of course, but it means more than the obvious moment. Read More

July 22, 2009

Twitter-speak: Adding a vocabulary item

Tweople know twitter-speak. Here's my addition to the growing dictionary of twitterific terms. Read More

July 20, 2009

Control me or I will control you

Self-control is one of the most important attributes that we can develop. Impulsivity is one of our worse liabilities. A study soon to be published in the Journal of Research in Personality explores the interaction of impulsivity and self-control in the prediction of some common behaviors - eating potato chips and drinking alcohol. Read More

July 12, 2009

Mindfulness and task persistence: Not all self-awareness is a good thing

A new study provides further evidence for the important role of mindfulness in self-regulatory success. The tendency to respond non-judgmentally and to be non-reactive to our thoughts and feelings was related to increased persistence on a difficult task. Read More

Procrastination Basics

Everyone procrastinate sometimes, but 20 percent of people are true procrastinators. They consistently avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions, which, unfortunately, are increasingly available. Procrastination in large part reflects our difficulty in regulating emotions and to accurately predict how we will feel tomorrow, or the next day.

Go to the Procrastination Basics page for more on Procrastination including:

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