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

June 18, 2009

A writer's advice - Just get started

A freelance writer speaks about the secret to success. His message, avoid avoidance. Read More

June 15, 2009

Anticipating one's troubles: The elusive benefits of negative expectations

"He who suffers before it is necessary suffers more than is necessary" (Seneca, Roman essayist, philosopher, playwright, C. 4 B.C.- A.D.65) A recent study in the journal Emotion provides support for the cost of anticipating one's troubles. It's a cost and kind of suffering procrastinators know all too well. Read More

May 20, 2009

Procrastination and a "good death"

It's common to procrastinate about having some conversations. Death is one of these. The trouble is, "there are many costs of not having this conversation" (Evans, May 19, 2009). Read More

May 15, 2009

Meaning to get to it: Procrastination and the art of life

One of my favorite Canadian philosophers has written in defense of procrastination, or so it would seem. In the end, I think he stumbles around notions of delay and procrastination, finally arriving at the impetus for action noting that, ". . . I might as well stop putting life off for later. Because that's what I've been meaning to do, that's what I've been meaning to be." Therein lies his title, "meaning to get to it." This is profoundly important, I think. Read More

April 15, 2009

Twitter: A giant feathery puff of hype

Here's the problem with talking about social networks. Everybody wants to make them into something that they're not. At least, that's what Ivor Tossell thinks. If you've got 6 minutes and 20 seconds, you'll enjoy this podcast, "Mystery of the social media expert." Read More

April 14, 2009

Increasing emotional intelligence, decreasing procrastination

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

April 9, 2009

Tweeting and the economics of attention

Everyone is all a titter about Twitter at Princeton this Fox News story reports. But the associate director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at the university is reported to have said that he thought Twitter served primarily as a distraction for most of the site's users. Read More

April 8, 2009

Twitter: A Desultory Behavior

It took a major economic meltdown for us to recognize the problem with greed in the free market. I wonder what it's going to take for us to recognize the problem with desultory behavior created by social-networking technologies? Read More

April 7, 2009

Email "addicts" need this creative commitment device

There is an almost irresistible pull to that signal, and although it varies from program to program, it means the same thing, "you've got mail!" It's really a necessary task, but for far too many people it's become a problem. It's not a new problem, but that's part of the problem, email is everywhere, so the problem grows. Here's a simple solution that works. Read More

April 5, 2009

Tween time management: Personality, Gender & School Performance

Time management: the completion of tasks within an expected timeframe while maintaining quality through planning, organizing, prioritizing or multitasking. A study to be published next month provides insight into what this means for 12 year olds. 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.

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