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

March 27, 2009

Academic delay of gratification, motivation and self-regulated learning strategies

Competing intentions. We all have them; Exercise as we intended, or spend another night as couch potato. A recent study on academic delay of gratification sheds some light on the self-regulatory skills and learning strategies that successful students use to delay gratification. Read More

March 26, 2009

Self-affirmation: A strategy to reduce self-control failure

The research evidence across four new studies reveals the importance of affirming one's sense of self to bolster our depleted self-control. I think this research underscores the deeply existential issue of self-affirmation and "courage" in relation to the self-regulation failure we know as procrastination. Read More

March 25, 2009

Proactive Coping: A strategy for self-regulation and enhanced well-being

Master Ugway to Master Shifu: "One often meets one's destiny while on the road taken to avoid it." A research article soon to be published in Personality and Individual Differences provides empirical evidence for Master Ugway's wisdom. Aspiring for a positive future, as opposed to coping by trying to avoid a negative future, predicts well-being. Two key competencies are central to this finding. Read More

March 24, 2009

"Don't Delay's" 1st birthday: It's time for a change

My blog has its first birthday today, with this, my 100th post. It's been an interesting year of writing. Now it's time for a change. Read More

March 23, 2009

Problematic Internet Use, Internet Procrastination and Flow

Is the time you spend online so excessive that it disrupts your social life or causes you physical harm? Are you using the Internet to avoid doing your real work? Do you get so "hooked" that you lose track of the amount of time that you spend online? Read More

March 22, 2009

A unified framework for addiction: Decision-process vulnerabilities and procrastination

Based on a framework for addiction recently published in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, philosopher, Chrisoula Andreou, has offered up ideas to consider in our understanding of procrastination.

March 21, 2009

Parenting Style and Procrastination

Blame it on our parents. It's a common theme. Is it true for procrastination? Is parenting style related to adolescent procrastination? Yes, and there are some interesting gender differences. Read More

March 20, 2009

Biased planning and procrastination

Successful pursuit of our goals begins with goal setting. The thing is, we're overly optimistic, often setting unrealistic time estimates for goal completion. One form of this optimism is known as the "planning fallacy." Read More

March 19, 2009

A procrastinating student defends her position (and my reply)

Andrea Millet wrote a piece that was published in the cordweekly.com yesterday. In it, she defends the last-minute efforts of the procrastinator. She writes, "Procrastination can be a helpful tool - it's not a fault but instead a skill, a carefully perfected strategy for motivation and focus." The problem is, she couldn't be more wrong. Read More

March 18, 2009

A Panda's lessons about goal setting

Master Shifu to Po, "You actually thought you could learn to do a full split in one night? It takes years to develop one's flexibility, and years longer to apply it in combat." Goal setting - without realistic goals, we're set up for failure before we start. 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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