Overcoming Procrastination: A Guide to Breaking the Habit
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Introduction
Good evening, and welcome to tonight's 'January Jump Start' session on overcoming procrastination. Procrastination can be a significant obstacle to achieving our goals, whether in academic settings or everyday life. In this article, we will explore what procrastination is, why it happens, and most importantly, how to overcome this habit and enhance productivity.
What is Procrastination?
Procrastination is defined as the voluntary delay of an important task despite knowing that we will suffer consequences. It’s essential to understand that procrastination isn't merely about being lazy or having a lack of time; it often stems from emotional individuals attempting to manage their feelings regarding the task at hand.
Common Misconceptions about Procrastination
- Procrastination equals laziness: This is a flawed belief. Many procrastinators are not lazy; they struggle with emotional management.
- Working well under pressure: Some people claim they do their best work when they procrastinate, but this mindset can lead to increased anxiety and poor performance in the long run.
The Cycle of Procrastination
Understanding the procrastination cycle is vital for breaking free from it. This cycle involves:
- Procrastination: Reassuring ourselves that we will get it done later.
- Temporary Relief: Engaging in distractions like TikTok or YouTube for short-term mood boost and dopamine release.
- Guilt: Realizing we should be working instead of enjoying distractions.
- Panic: When deadlines are near, we feel overwhelmed and anxious, leading us to procrastinate more.
Breaking out of this cycle requires awareness and a commitment to change.
Why Do We Procrastinate?
Several psychological factors contribute to procrastination:
- Fear of Failure: We might avoid tasks because we are scared of not performing well.
- Fear of Success: Conversely, we may be afraid of the changes that can come with success.
- Emotional Regulation Difficulties: Procrastination often acts as a temporary mood repair, where we choose immediate pleasure over long-term satisfaction.
The Emotional Aspect of Procrastination
Understanding the emotional components tied to procrastination can help alleviate feelings of guilt and shame. Recognizing that it’s an emotional response rather than purely a behavioral one helps frame the approach toward overcoming it.
Strategies to Overcome Procrastination
1. Self-Compassion and Forgiveness
Practicing self-compassion and forgiving oneself for previous procrastination can create a healthier mindset. Understand that everyone struggles, and it's important to acknowledge these emotional responses.
2. Taking Small Steps
Focus on what the next small step is rather than the entire project. For example, if you have a paper to write, start by opening a document and typing your name.
- Chunking Tasks: Break down larger tasks into manageable parts. This decreases the intimidation factor and allows you to track your progress easily.
3. Removing Roadblocks
Identify distractions and create an environment that supports productivity. For instance, if you want to eat healthier, keep nutritious snacks readily available.
4. Creating Positive Habits
Establishing positive habits is crucial. Begin your day by making your bed. Completing even small tasks can provide the dopamine boost necessary to propel you into more significant efforts.
5. Utilizing Positive Self-Talk
Replace negative self-statements with positive affirmations. For example, change “I have to do this” to “I choose to do this.” This shift in language can significantly influence motivation.
6. Understanding Time Management vs. Procrastination
Recognize that time management involves planning and prioritizing tasks effectively, while overcoming procrastination is about emotional regulation. Having a planner can help keep track of tasks, but working on emotional control is essential for avoiding procrastination.
The Importance of Habit Formation
Habits are formed through cues, cravings, responses, and rewards. Understanding these stages can help in creating new, positive habits to combat procrastination.
- Cue: Recognize triggers that prompt procrastination.
- Craving: Understand what emotional need the task fulfills.
- Response: Make it easy to engage in productive actions.
- Reward: Establish a satisfaction mechanism for completing tasks.
Conclusion
In conclusion, overcoming procrastination requires a combination of self-reflection, emotional management, effective strategies, and habit formation. By understanding the emotional basis behind procrastination, taking small, manageable steps, and developing positive self-talk and strategies, you can break the cycle and increase your productivity. Remember to give yourself grace in this journey, and acknowledge that change takes time.
Thank you for joining this session on overcoming procrastination, and I hope you found these strategies helpful! Please don't hesitate to reach out to the Academic Support Center for further assistance.
good evening and welcome to tonight's January jump start you have joined us for overcoming procrastin the
procrastination habit let's get started so my name is Dr Lisa Matic I'm the director of the academic support center
and visit us our office is located on the first floor of the Phillips library in the in the back right side of the
building if you need help finding us please go to the front desk and a student worker will assist you
if you need to make an appointment with a tutor whether it be a writing tutor or a tutor that is specific to the course
that you're taking please go on to OCTA and click on academic support net that is where all the calendars are located
for the different types of tutors that we provide and you can make an appointment there that fits your
so what we're going to do tonight is a few different things first we're going to talk kind of generally about
procrastination and what it is we're going to talk about what we do when we procrastinate what's actually
happening we're then going to get into the why why do we procrastinate we'll then talk about the
procrastination cycle and why it's so hard to break but then we're going to talk about some
more positive things we're going to talk about what works in terms of keeping yourself from procrastinating and then
so no matter what people say procrastination is not about being lazy you will hear people claim that they do
better when they procrastinate and work best under pressure we're going to need to unpack both of
these ideas today one thing I did want to point out before we moved on is that you will see quotes
throughout this presentation I may not stop and read each of the quotes to you but I wanted you to see what some famous
people have said or written about procrastination and how it's affected their own lives you will see Comedians
and famous writers with their thoughts on procrastination so we're going to start off with a little Mark Twain who
so let's talk a little bit more about what is happening when we procrastinate so experts Define procrastination as the
voluntary delay of some important task that we intend to do despite knowing that we'll suffer as a result
procrastination is not waiting it's actually more about delaying it is a decision not to act
and more importantly experts tell us that procrastination is really about emotional management
we'll talk a little bit more about that later so let's talk about some examples what
do we do when we procrastinate if you procrastinate then you always have the excuse of not having enough time
have enough time and it comes out really badly then you've proven yourself correct your sense of your ability to do
things is never really threatened because you didn't think you could do it in the first place
our reasons for delaying and avoiding are rooted in fear and anxiety we're worried about doing poorly actually even
worried about doing well of losing control of looking stupid of having one sense of self or self-concept
and if we happen to succeed when we're procrastinating we feel that much smarter so for example if you wait until
the last minute to work on a paper and you actually get an A on that paper well then you feel pretty smart don't
you because even though you put it off you still did just fine unfortunately that's a trap we'll have
to talk about that so with procrastination what's really happening is that we're prioritizing our
comes into play what we're doing when we procrastinate is actually kicking the can down the
my own procrastination problem with this presentation I've been researching procrastination
and the reasons behind it and this emotional regulation that we're going to talk about since November I was excited
to share this information with you during our January jump start I had bookmarked a bunch of things on my
handouts created by some of the writing tutors at the academic Support Center all of this work was done and yet I
reasons for procrastinating on this project if the Project's about procrastination perhaps I should think
about why I'm procrastinating what I found was that I chose short easy tasks to accomplish instead of working
on this big task this presentation I could say at the end of the day I did these 10 small things aren't I a good
presentation this high stakes task because on Monday I had 430 people and today I have 235 and I had 200 and
I just I was putting off two tomorrow what I could do today what I found was that I would rather
have had that sense of accomplishment from those 10 smaller tasks that I did instead of actually tackling this larger
so putting things off as long as possible is probably familiar to many of us but there's another aspect to
and this fear often comes at night be careful of panic inducing nighttime talk that you do give to yourself
because everything is always more dramatic at night all right so I've come clean now it's
more of these statements that tell me what your avoidance strategies are Tick Tock Runs Out to the be the
beginning winner of this particular poll not surprising I'm also guilty of that oh it's good to see some other cleaners
something portable right we can watch YouTube we can do Tick Tock and Instagram we play video games all that
kind of stuff all on our phone so a lot of this is uh something that we can take with us at
all times oh napping yeah napping's a good one I'm tired I'm gonna take a nap yeah that's a
good or I'm too tired to work on this anybody else have that conversation with yourself
so it seems like Tick Tock is the big winner at 74 uh that's pretty significant but it I can see why right
it's fun it's easy it's fast they don't last very long and we get something of value right most of the
time we're laughing at a tick tock though not all um but we're entertained and that's
definitely a big part of it all right so we can see the results here you can just see overall what everybody
followed by napping in YouTube so I think those are both uh great things to kind of to think about here
um what these strategies mean what's going on here you know I told you that one of my strategies is to clean and
that's pretty weird right most people are not like I'm gonna clean um but when I have something big to do
that's usually where you will find my house to be the cleanest I may not have cleaned out that particular Closet in 10
years but all of a sudden with this presentation looming that closet is really really clean and I took
several bags full of items to Goodwill so let's talk more about the emotional aspects of procrastination I had
mentioned this earlier but let's talk more about this emotional regulation that's going on
so emotional regulation is how we regulate behavior and impulse control to achieve a task or goal
managing our emotions surrounding the tasks that we have to complete when we procrastinate we're actually
involving ourselves in something called a short-term mood repair when we have big tasks in front of us a
lot of us go ugh and that's okay totally understandable but because we're kind of sometimes
procrastination is a short-term mood repair fixer it comes in and helps us here's some biochemistry for you did you
know that when you do something you enjoy you get a dopamine hit but did you know that when you avoid
doing something and choose to do something else you want to do you are giving yourself that dopamine
Tick Tock video whether it's funny or sad or just somebody doing something that gives you a little rush
that little rush is that dopamine and your brain says I like this dopamine makes me happy Tick Tock makes me happy
like watching a tick tock video you're giving yourself that same dopamine hit procrastination makes us feel good
because of those chemical feelings created by dopamine to overcome procrastination we need to
understand that we what we are doing is really attempting to manage our moods we have to break ourselves of the
we've got to get away from those little hits of dopamine so let's talk about the procrastination
cycle as I mentioned it's a tough one and it's hard to break so this procrastination cycle as you can
see here starts with we procrastinate and after we get that short hit of procrastination and we get that dopamine
hit from a tick tock video or the nap or whatever else we choose to do we immediately will then feel guilty
we feel guilty because we know we should be doing something else then if we feel guilty long enough we
begin to panic and this is where that nighttime talk comes in when you talk negatively to yourself
oh my goodness I got to get this done I'm not doing it what's going on then we start to make excuses
well I'll get to it or I have more time tomorrow and then all of a sudden we're procrastinating again
and the cycle continues until we choose to break the cycle procrastinators carry accompanying
feelings of guilt shame or anxiety with their decision to delay this cycle is all about how we are
it's not really that big of a deal I do better under pressure boy we say that a lot don't we
how often do we put other people in front of what we need to do if your friend calls up and says they
need me you drop everything and go and I'm not saying you're a bad person for doing that
one of the other ones that happens most often it's not uh oh that one's misspelled no
wonder nobody was going to choose that one it's not do yet that's what it should say it's not due yet so I have
remember emotional management here right so as the poll highlighted we tell ourselves a lot of different things
about our progress I'm sorry if you tell ourselves a lot of things to put off doing what we need
what we know needs to be done this is all about our emotions we feed into the procrastination cycle with something
called negative talk negative thinking or negative self-talk we feed into the procrastination cycle
with this negative self-talk but yet look at all the things that happen when we're looped into the cycle
so when you think you just can't do it this negative self-talk is really what causes us anxiety it
erodes our confidence and something that was interesting to me was that it disrupts your creativity
I never thought of it that way and this was something that I learned while I was working on this presentation the idea
that if you tell yourself I'm under a lot of pressure I've got to get this done I it really actually
interferes with your ability to create and sometimes we think about creativity in terms of artwork or music but what we
have to think about creativity is that it's part of everything we do every homework assignment that we turn in
requires us to have some creativity involved writing a paper and how you organize it and how you begin and end
your paper requires creativity so if we think about this procrastination when you think you just can't do it and
you're telling yourself that that negative self-talk is actually going to make it much more
difficult to complete the tasks that you needed to do but one thing that a lot of us don't
understand is that long-term procrastination actually has long-term effects on our body we often if if
you're a procrastinator or what we like to call a chronic procrastinator you do it often you will find that you have
again you can have get anxiety or increase the anxiety you already have and the other one is it can play into
giving you a sense of low self-esteem when you procrastinate enough you think I'm just I just can't
or look at me I keep putting it off again that's negative self-talk that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about that
makes you feel bad about who you are so can you see why time management may not be the answer to the procrastination
problem it's not that you aren't making time it's that when you have the time you're
choosing to do something else so I'm not telling you to throw your planners in the garbage or to stop
making to-do lists what I want you to focus in on the fact is that you still need to allot time to get things done
but now we have to have better habits during those times when you're supposed to be working
and we want to keep you or we want to avoid procrastination during those times so time management is different
than procrastination procrastination is all about emotional management how we regulate our emotions but time
management is about how we re-regulate our behavior and our impulse control to achieve a task or goal a time you know a
plan or a time management makes you aware of what you need to get done and the time in which you have to get it
prioritization figuring out what tasks need to be done first and in what order and time Management's also about
adaptation if something comes up then making a move so that items still have the same amount of time allotted to it
in itself is not a habit but the actions that lead up to time management are procrastination is also a habit it's
something that you get into once you figure out that procrastination gives you something emotionally you will tend
happy feeling right so we need to talk about what works we're going to take all that information
about procrastination and what we're actually doing and feeling and we're going to reframe it
so let's talk a little bit first about how we reframe procrastination we know it's a we know it's a habit we know it
has to do with our emotions can we reframe it so that we're getting a different outcome than kicking something
you're going to procrastination or that you have procrastinated I want you to stop and realize what you're doing
remind yourself that the thoughts that led up to your procrastination are really emotional regulation on your part
forgive yourself for wanting to feel good and for wanting to procrastinate give yourself some Grace
with that Grace comes self-compassion which actually increases your motivation feelings it also increases your feelings
regulate our mood without that dopamine hit that we get from putting things off let's talk about this next small step
let's start the tasks that you have to do the assignment whatever task it is that you have to do
start it even if it's the next smallest task the next smallest step ask yourself what is
you move forward you will naturally continue to move forward it's easier to move forward at
that point you've become motivated so I like taking bigger items bigger tasks and chunking them into smaller
bits and bytes and that's because if they're in smaller pieces then it's easier to see with that next small step
is and all of a sudden you'll find yourself doing two or three in a row without even realizing it because you
have propelled yourself forward so let me give you an example you've got a paper due right
the first next small step I should say the next small step that you have to do is you've got to open a Word document or
there you've started your essay next small step you will then realize that that step is
over you'll feel good about that stepping over you'll motivate yourself to start the
to do with removing roadblocks procrastination uh is it's a complicated thing right you need to actually create
let me give you an example let's say you decided that you're going to start going to the gym in the morning
the problem is and I apologize for the dogs barking if you can hear that somebody rang the doorbell
if you get up in the morning and well you want to go to the gym right how many of us roll out of bed and go ugh I don't
want to get up this early oh now I have to go to the gym I really don't want to do this
so in terms of removing your roadblocks if you want to wake up and go to the gym first thing in the morning sleep in your
gym clothes I know sounds silly but the idea is that you've removed a roadblock because if
the alarm goes off and your feet hit the ground and you're already dressed it's much harder to say to yourself
I'm just gonna go back to bed you're up you're dressed you're dressed already now we just need our shoes and keys and
phone when we're out the door remove roadblocks last part here I want to talk about are
so you want to do things each day to start yourself off in the right mindset I want you to learn to control your
bed in the morning I know you've just groaned and rolled your eyes at me didn't you
but what I'm getting you to do is to do a task first thing in the morning that you can cross off
your list of things to do you cross something off at the beginning of the day it will give you that
dopamine hit we've been talking about that same dopamine hit that you enjoy from procrastinating and going on tick
tock but in this case you're getting a dopamine hit for doing something positive it's a positive activity I
promise you it'll make you more productive for the rest of your day all right what are some other things
that work well I'm going to tell you right now about positive self-talk we've already talked about negative self-talk
where we're concerned about the fact that we say things to ourselves that make it even more difficult to get
started but positive self-talk is going to be a little bit different we're going to talk about how positive self-talk
increases your self-confidence and actually will give you better or New Perspectives when things do go wrong
all right so I chose a sentence here that we're going to break down and talk how we can change this negative sounding
sentence to a more positive sounding sentence that's going to help all right so this sentence may not be exactly what
you're thinking about but I'm sure you've said something similar to yourself so I have to finish this long
so we're going to take these two sentences and kind of break them up a little bit we're going to break them up
into these six sections and we're going to talk about how we can take that language and turn it into something
and be less likely to procrastinate all right so the first phrase that the sentence says was I have to and instead
of saying I have to do something is that that makes us feel like there's a burden right when you say I have to it's
generally not a happy thing I have to go get ice cream I don't know how many of us say that I'd like to say that more
do you see how choosing and getting are more positive so what you need to do and when you're
type of talk to yourself think about when you are negatively speaking about a certain topic or task
and when you realize you're you're negatively speaking about it stop and think about what are you actually
saying what emotions are coming with the words that you're saying and then turn it around and say what is
so the sentence talked about I have to finish this long important project right I have to finish instead of finish which
is something in the future that we really can't see right it's very vague I'd rather you think about things about
starting what can be done right now focus in on that now focusing on the small step forward because starting is
something that can happen immediately finishing is still kind of down the road and it's a little abstract it's hard to
get excited about a finish you can't see so I mentioned in that in those two sentences that it was a long project
well instead of looking at it as a long project or a big project or a large paper think of it more about being a
short task a series of short tasks that's where that chunking comes in you know if you look at the fact that you
have to write a 10-page paper in class you can't look at the fact that it's a 10-page paper you've got to break that
well that involves a ton of steps not all of which are very um easy to to identify but if you think
about a long paper in terms of chunking and short tasks you're more likely to start work on them so if you look at
that 10-page paper you say to yourself hey I need to have a title page and I need to have a reference page why don't
I go ahead and at least get those modified all right fine then I have to write an introduction so that should be
on your to-do list I have to write um several body paragraphs that each body paragraph should be on the list
and so even when you're looking at that larger paper if you break it into shorter tests you're more likely to get
the Google Doc putting your name on the page or creating the title page as soon as you've done that you've started your
essay you see word start looks better you're not finished that's okay but you've
started it and then you'll be able with that time management piece on those planners you have find time to work on
the next short task you want to ignore the larger picture you want to be laser focused on the next
thing that you have to do and that's it don't keep thinking about the whole 10 pages later what's the next
small task you need to do this part gets a little weird and people are a little uncomfortable here and let
instead of thinking of things as important or crucial those are words that make us anxious instead I want you
to think about you're going to take that next small step and I don't care if it's messy
I don't care if it's not perfect I don't care if you're gonna have to go back and revise it did you take the step great we
can always go back and fix we don't want to focus on perfectionism because if we do it's going to paralyze
write it down I have been writing papers for a long time I was an English major in college that's all I did
but I guarantee you the first sent the sentences that I wrote down on those first drafts I changed a lot and often
friend that she struggled with writing and you wouldn't know it if you met her highly successful
um you know got this great job she's got several degrees she's but she cannot write anything down on paper unless it's
perfect each sentence has to be perfect before she writes it down she's had to she's been working on this
given up and that's because when she went to start she did not give herself permission to
be imperfect every sentence didn't have to be perfect but she was so uncomfortable with
being wrong that she actually froze and she procrastinated because she hoped her future self
lot of starts and stops things that you wrote yesterday are going to look terrible tomorrow it's just the way it
is even Stephen King said when you write something throw away 50 of it that's pretty hardcore coming from
Stephen King whose books are huge so when we think closely tied to this is this idea of it should be done by now
how many times have we told ourselves that I should have done this already this was why did I wait so long I want
you to change those words to I'll feel terrific and here's why when you talk about the word should it indicates blame
something that should have happened well wait a minute who's to say it should have happened
it didn't should means it's imaginary let's focus in on what we're doing right now
that's reality we got to focus in on that so let's folk and let's turn that should into I'll feel terrific when
with the idea that you're focusing not on how bad you feel right now but on how good you'll feel after you complete that
um this idea that I need to plow through that I've gotta you know dig in my heels I've gotta you know get in there and do
it uh more importantly like think saying self things to yourself like I've got to work all weekend to get this done what
you're doing is putting a lot of action harsh words into your brain and that's having a
negative reaction if you tell yourself I've got to work all weekend what you're doing is saying
I should have done this okay should his blame right we got to get out of these so we've got to think
about getting away from plowing right and think about hey plenty of time for play I'm gonna have lots of breaks I'm
gonna give myself some rewards and if I get this task this first thing done I'm gonna watch three Tick Tock videos of my
own choosing then we're good so now we're getting hey we did something and now we're still
getting a reward okay those are the kind of things we think about if you think about little
kids every time they do something moving forward what do they get stickers right how many of us still like stickers I
still like stickers but it's that idea that you reward yourself along the way it doesn't have to be perfect but you
accomplish the task all right last bit that I wanted to talk about is what works what's another thing
that works to help us avoid procrastinations to help us overcome that so do you see how just changing the
you will not be skipping down the hallways this semester thinking about all the homework you have to accomplish
I guarantee you that but if you see that framing the tasks that you have to do in a more positive light will help you with
position to do what needs to get done it will be less of a burden it'll cause you less anxiety
and so we want to talk about creating good habits to help you with that procrastination is a bad habit let's
all right that's an easy question yeah tough day this is this is always interesting to me
and while you're doing all this and making your choice there I'm going to tell you my dad was in the army
and so even if I didn't want to make my bed when you live in a military house you don't have a choice and he was one
of those people that came and took the quarter and bounced it off your bed and made sure your sheets were nice and
tight let me tell you they never bounce real well for me I I don't know I can make the bed I just couldn't make it
the know and sometimes category and that's okay I'd be surprised if 95 of you said yep I
it's just part of that day all right we're up to 81 so I'm going to go ahead and end our poll we're getting close on
time here so overall the majority of people say no they don't make their bed follow closely
talking about making our bed oops the key here is that we know we need to work on creating good habits and
and we're going to talk more about why these good habits work so I want you to think about
the type of person you want to be it's a new year somebody uh on the radio said it's 23andMe this year which of course
um a lot of people know 23andMe from the DNA testing but I guess they're naming this year 23 and me which I think is
pretty cool so you can begin taking small steps today to reinforce who you want to be by the
end of 2023. for some of you graduation's looming right you want to be a college graduate by the end of this
semester or by the end of December so you can take those small steps to reinforce who you want to be because
every action that you take is a vote or it's a movement towards the type of person you want to become
and so think of it in these terms every time you write a page you are a writer every time you practice
so your identity comes from your habits so I want to talk about the four stages of habit formation this is a the largest
last part that we're going to talk about by the way for those of you keeping score at home the procrastination cycle
and the stages of habit formation are really good questions that might come up on a survey I'm just saying so stages of
either good or bad are formed they don't just appear so what we're going to do is talk about
these stages and how we can create some new positive habits since we're starting off the year so the
first stage is a cue the queue alerts your attention to a habit and Promises a new reward it triggers your brain to
once an action is performed and once a habit is formed it's like it's very unlikely
okay the next stage of habit formation is this craving so the Q tells us there's going to be a reward craving and
what we do for this stage is we have to make it attractive the cue is the first indication that we're close to a reward
the this starts the craving and I don't mean necessarily like you're craving food but I mean craving meaning that
your brain says huh I really want that reward how are we going to get that and so without motivation or desire we
don't act okay you don't want to turn on the TV per se you want to be entertained the
reward is entertainment the the queue is seeing the television the craving oh I see the television oh I
perform I keep the remote in an area where I can see it at all times or or I'm not digging through the couch
similarly if you think about it this way in the morning you don't want to put on makeup or do your facial routine
that's not the desire the reward is to make yourself feel better to in better your appearance to make you feel more
confident that's the reward but the cue is you're in the morning and you look at the mirror and if you have
all of the things that you need close at hand to do those things you're more apt to do that habit
the key too is that if you connect a habit with something you already enjoy it's easier to put into action
so you can kind of bring them together and call it like a Temptation bundle bring different things together you
could also create a ritual this is another way to create a habit you um so create a ritual can help and make
a difficult task more appealing so you just get into a you know into this habit so for example
brushing your teeth um if you hate brushing your teeth find a toothpaste you like and then all of a
song while you brush your teeth now again that creates a craving you know that at the end you'll have listened the
the other part is about ease remember I said it has to be easy to perform you're not going to do it if it isn't easy okay
this is the core of an actual habit it's the thought or action it's the actual habit that you perform okay so it should
be ease of response is the way to look at it so if the action requires more effort then you're willing to expend you
won't do it the other thing though is that you don't want to try too hard uh if you can find
new ways to make the Habit easier to start it's even more helpful so the different ways you can get it to work
that helps we naturally gravitate towards things that are easy and so if you want to start a new habit
can only occur if you're actually capable of doing it if you want to dunk a basketball but you aren't tall enough
to reach the hoop you are out of luck and that is not a habit you're going to be able to do so realize that habits
last one reward so the actual thing at the end that you want the response that you do that ease of response that
response has to deliver a reward remember the cue is about noticing the reward the craving is about wanting the
isn't this weird how our body works this is all biochemistry reward actually teaches our brain too if
you do the action you get the reward anybody remember Pavlov and all of his dogs on the ringing of the Bells and the
what actions satisfy your desires which ones bring you pleasure your brain gets feedback from all of these actions and
feelings of disappointment and pleasure are stored in your brain and your brain evaluates those actions it wants you to
continue to do things you get an emotional high from and stop doing the things that you get nothing from
so the reason procrastination works is that you are getting some high we know now it's dopamine from avoiding and
if you can maximize all four of these steps you can turn it into a habit without a cue the craving and the ease
um without all four of these stages the action is not going to be repeated it won't become a habit
all right here's our last quote for the evening procrastination is like a credit card it's a lot of fun until you get the
of that there my goal today is that you have a better understanding of why you procrastinate
hopefully during our time together you have found some real steps you can take to reduce your procrastination habits
and remember as you practice not procrastinating and as you practice forming new habits give yourself some
so we now know that procrastination means we're putting short-term needs first we want those quick and easy
dopamine hits however we can get them and so we put those things first so things that take longer or long-term
get that dopamine flowing we have to work at it so while you're now that you've had this
time with me I want you to reflect on the reasons why you procrastinate think about your habits and the thoughts
that lead you to procrastinate What feelings have led you to procrastinate in the past how does it
and it makes it less intimidating I promise you look for what's appealing about or what
you want to get out of the assignment that you're doing and not just thinking about the grade at
commit to starting new habits if you feel stuck just simply commit to complete a small task any task and write
it down finish it reward yourself write down on your schedule or to-do list only what you can completely commit
this is a habit for you to start writing it down following it through by doing that you'll slowly rebuild trust in
yourself that you will really do what you say you will do which so many procrastinators have lost
focus on what you want to do not what you want to avoid where are your goals here think about the productive reasons
for doing the tasks by setting positive concrete meaningful learning and achievement goals for
yourself this year be realistic avoid I'm sorry achieve achieving goals and changing habits take
can't meet some things are like I said just out of our control so think more practical what
are things that you can do right now that will be helpful and create new positive habits and be
and don't forget about good positive self-talk notice how you're thinking and talking
today I know this was a long session I hope you found our time together useful if you have any questions or would like
to hear more about how we can help at the academic support center you're welcome to make an appointment with the
tutor using academic support net on OCTA you're also welcome to email me directly I will be here for a few moments uh to
take a few questions before we sign off please make sure to answer the survey questions that will come in the email on
um we had one that just asked if there is two papers due at the same time at the end of the semester do you have any
suggestions on how to help with that that's a tough one because I that's pretty true I was an English major and I
pretty much only had papers due at the end of the semester um it's kind of a combination of things
that's going to do a little bit of time management you need to see how long it's going to take you so you need to look at
the length of the paper the amount of research that needs to go into it and you're going to have to block time
further out you need to write papers start working on papers at least two weeks two to three weeks in advance
so if you've got two papers going at the same time you're going to need to start both of them earlier than what you think
and um I always suggest coming into the academic support center you can talk to us and brainstorm on more than one paper
so my suggestion is come in brainstorm figure out what your outlines are going to be for both of those papers and then
depending on which one or what parts might be shorter you want to tackle things first right like we just said
tonight taking that next short step so figuring out that um you may feel like I can't do both
papers simultaneously that's okay maybe one paper is the first week and week two is the second paper so the papers may be
going on at different times you'd be maybe hitting smaller goals within each paper at different times but the idea is
to make sure that one you do block time to get things done that's realistic and reasonable and if you're not sure how to
do that again come see us we can help you kind of strategize how to do that even before the papers are due
next small steps I can take in each one of these papers to keep propelling me forward because that's the key right
movement forward is what's going to help you continue with your creativity it's going to continue with your motivation
to finish the task so yeah that one really is a kind of a combination of knowing when you have
someone with ADHD that's a really good question actually because uh ADHD is a big part of the
conversation when it comes to procrastination and time management what we do know about ADHD at least what
the research tells us is that people who suffer from ADHD either and and small amounts or in large amounts don't have
um procrastination may be the the loop that feedback loop in your brain about what feels good and what not is doesn't
always work the same way so if you have ADHD you have to just kind of be more hyper aware of what you're doing the
rewards to give yourself at the end may have to be more significant you probably will have to
give yourself a lot more rewards than someone who doesn't have as many issues with ADHD and that's because uh as you
know if you have ADHD that it's that inability to kind of focus because what we want to do is much more appealing
than what we're currently doing and so it almost is taking that next small step to the extreme so every time you do some
even minor step in the direction of getting something done you reward yourself the problem is that you may
then also have to kind of back up the amount of time you give yourself because it may take you longer to complete
something that's it Lisa I think we're oh wait um how do I overcome chronic fatigue to
complete assignments my tiredness often interferes with getting through class word hard to focus and think of written
similarly than ADHD it's almost the other way around right um in that you know sleep and you're
dealing more with a medical thing when you have that kind of chronic tiredness um that's gonna I would
my suggestion uh first is to make sure you're checking in with your health provider that there's not something else
going on because sometimes that could be a chemical thing that you may want to have someone look at and to kind of help
you out the thing that you may want to keep in mind though is your biorhythms when are you more productive during the
in the middle of the night and have like an hour where their brain is just kind of on fire and they get a lot of things
done and so when your roommate or your friend is studying and you are exhausted at that time that may not be the optimal
time for you to study so there is some conversation that you need to have with yourself about when do I feel most
productive when do I feel like things can get done throughout the day and trying to plan those small steps to fit
in terms of if you're writing papers or even writing responses to questions on a Moodle shell or anything like that you
know again The Writing Center is a great place to come and have somebody kind of work through and give you kind of an
idea of like typical outlines of things that you can do and say try to get yourself into that there it's going to
I think that's it Lisa all right thanks Aaron and thanks to all of you especially those last 63 of you sticking