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iProcrastinate Podcast — Health
iProcrastinate Podcast

Dr. Timothy A. Pychyl, associate professor of psychology and director of the Procrastination Research Group (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada), provides a series of short talks, interviews and question/answer podcasts that explain why we procrastinate and what we can do about it. An award winning educator, Dr. Pychyl challenges his listeners to explore their daily choices to act or postpone acting on their intentions. Do we head to the gym as intended, or slouch back on the couch thinking “I’ll feel more like a workout tomorrow”? Do we tackle the task now, or do we avoid it arguing to ourselves that “I work better under pressure”? From losing 10 pounds to changing personal habits, Pychyl, a personality psychologist, focuses on the breakdown of intentional action – a problem commonly called procrastination. This series expands on three main themes: 1) irrational delay that sabotages personal productivity, 2) personality attributes that contribute to self-defeating behaviours, and 3) situational factors that undermine our ability to take or sustain action. Drawing on the research literature, topics include: self-handicapping, anxiety, self-regulation, perfectionism, will power, coping styles, effects on health and well-being, impulsivity, temporal discounting, motivation and even purpose in life. Of course, Dr. Pychyl doesnâ€™t leave his listeners with the problem itself. Once these key factors have been established, he turns his attention to techniques that facilitate self change, habit-breaking implementation intentions, as well as strategies that help each of us to â€œcarpe diem!â€? The emphasis is on self-understanding, practical advice and tools for change. We guarantee that you will find this an engaging series of podcasts that will provide you with tactics to increase personal productivity and well-being.

Copyright: © 2005 Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D.

Latest Episodes:

The Dutiful Worrier and the power of reason Mar 08, 2011

Show notes

An interview with Dr. Elliot Cohen provides insight into how our irrational worry can undermine our well-being as well as how reason can be harnessed to help us break free from this "dutiful worry." You can learn more about this by reading Elliot's new book, The Dutiful Worrier.

To learn more about procrastination, check out procrastination.ca or The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.

Irrational thoughts and the power of reason Feb 22, 2011

Show notes

Clinical psychologist Dr. Bill Knaus and philosopher Dr. Elliot Cohen explain how we can more effectively deal with the irrational thinking that defines procrastination. Dr. Cohen is a founder of philosophical counseling in the U.S., and Dr. Knaus is one of the original directors of post-doctoral training in rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT). Together, these counseling experts provide an important perspective on how to reduce procrastination and worry in our lives.

To learn more about procrastination, see procrastination.ca or The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.

Procrastination: A wide-ranging interview about why we procrastinate Feb 18, 2011

Show notes

This week, I am posting an interview that I had with Laurel Graham, a journalism student in the Journalism and Media Studies program at Griffith College in Ireland. Laurel contacted me after reading an article in The New Yorker that discussed my research on procrastination. Our conversation covered many topics that I thought would interest listeners of these podcasts, so Laurel gave her permission to post the interview as part of the iProcrastinate podcasts. I hope you enjoy it.

To learn more about procrastination, see procrastination.ca or check out my new book, The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.

Mindfulness, emotion-regulation and procrastination Feb 04, 2011

Show notes

Dr. Fuschia Sirois (Bishops University) joined me to discuss one of her recent studies entitled, "Lost in the Moment: An Investigation of Procrastination, Mindfulness and Well-being." This was a fascinating discussion of how we often focus on short-term mood repair instead of our intended goal pursuit, and how mindfulness may help us cope more effectively with the discomfort we feel when faced with an aversive task.

To learn more about procrastination, visit procrastination.ca.

Self-control strategies: Triggers, chutes, ladders and other ways to scaffold our success Jan 22, 2011

Show notes

In this fascinating interview, Dr. Joel Anderson (Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences) explains the notion of distributed willpower. Successful people arrange thier lives in such a way as to economize on willpower and to scaffold their willpower strategicially with environmental support. Willpower is not simply an issue of self-control located solely within the person! Professor Anderson explains how important the social context is to understanding human autonomy, and, most importantly for listeners of this podcast, he provides a number of concrete strategies to strengthen our willpower to overcome procrastination. This is a great interview. I know you'll learn a great deal from this talented philosopher and gifted teacher.

If you want to learn more about procrastination, see procrastination.ca.

New Year's Resolutions: How to keep on track Jan 03, 2011

Show notes

Not everyone makes New Year's resolutions, and certainly not everyone who does make one, keeps it. What does it take to be successful with the change we hope for with a New Year's resolution? A readiness for change, realistic goals, a concrete plan, perhaps an implementation intention or two, social support, the strategic use of willpower, a little self-forgiveness and a good dose of courage to try at all. In this podcast, I discuss each of these issues as they pertain to what it means to have intentions that have the vitality, spirit and substance necessary to actually foster change in 2011.

Is Procrastination Weakness of Will? Dec 14, 2010

Show notes

What is weakness of will? Is procrastination a special instance of a weakness of will? These are questions that I pose to the guest this week, Dr. Sarah Stroud, Associate Professor of Philosophy (McGill University). I sought out Dr. Stroud as she wrote an excellent chapter in the recently published book, The Thief of Time: Philosophical Essays on Procrastination (Oxford University Press). I stole the title of her chapter as the title for this podcast, "Is Procrastination Weakness of Will?" I know you'll enjoy this discussion of weakness of will, as Dr. Stroud provides some everyday examples to explain her concepts. I learned a great deal from this interview, and I'm happy to share this philosophical perspective on our understanding of procrastination.

If you want to learn more about procrastination, check out procrastination.ca or my new book, The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Problem

Self-Control Strategies: Change the motivational strength of goals and temptations Dec 02, 2010

Show notes

Strengthening our motivation towards our goals while weakening our motivation towards temptations is important to successful goal pursuit. In this podcast, I summarize strategies that help us make a precommitment to change the choice situation and change the psychological meaing of our choice options. It's not as complicated as it sounds, and the strategies are discussed in relation to practical examples from everyday life.

To learn more, visit procrastination.ca or The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.

Anemic Intentions Nov 16, 2010

Show notes

Note: Poor audio quality. I finally sat down to record a short podcast. Unfortunately, the audio quality isn't very good. It's my fault. I hand held a new recorder that created noise and inconsistent sound levels. In addition, I didn't use a pop filter. You'd think I'd learn! I decided to post this in any case, because I simply don't have the time to re-record it.

The topic is about the nature of our intentions and how making indeterminate or "anemic" intentions may be part of the problem with our goal pursuit and may contribute to our procrastination. I'm sorry that the audio has problems, but I hope it's still worth a listen. I will revisit these ideas when I interview Sarah Stroud (Philosophy, McGill University) about her writing about procrastinaiton as weakness of will. (When I do revist these ideas in a future podcast, I will take this flawed recording down.)

If you want to learn more, see procrastination.ca.

Emotional Intelligence and Procrastination: The central role of self-control Oct 15, 2010

Show notes

This week, we discuss the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in understanding procrastination. Eric Heward joined me for an interview about his recently completed Master's thesis research in which he explored the relation of measures of EI and measures of procrastination. Eric does an excellent job of defining the key terms and providing a summary of his findings. Together, we discussed what this focus on emotions means to our understanding of procrastination and our own work at self-change.

If you want to learn more about our research, see procrastination.ca or my recently published book, The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.

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