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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:

Still Procrastinating? An interview with Dr. Joseph Ferrari Sep 30, 2010

Show notes

Dr. Joseph Ferrari's new book, Still Procrastinating? The No Regrets Guide To Getting It Done, was published this week by Wiley. Today, I interviewed Joe about his book. He describes his philosophy behind the book and provides an outline of the various chapters.

You can learn more about procrastination at procrastination.ca or download The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle

Is Procrastination Weakness of Will? Sep 14, 2010

Show notes

This week, I discuss an interesting philosophical perspective on procrastination and the notion of "weakness of will." The content for my discussion comes from a chapter written by Sarah Stroud (McGill University) in "The Thief of Time: Philosophical Essays on Procrastination" (2004: Oxford University Press). I took the title of my podcast from her chapter with the same title. It's an interesting topic, and my discussion takes us from the Greek notion of Akrasia up to more recent definitions and understandings of weakness of will. Yes, procrastination is a weakness of will, but there are various issues to consider, particularly this notion of intention.

NEW - My book, The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle, is now available through Amazon and Barnes&Noble at a reduced price! They have agreed to sell the eBook at $2.99, so there is no longer a difference between U.S. and non-U.S. orders (non-U.S. orders should use Amazon, not Xlibris).

Here's more about Dr. Stroud taken from "The Thief of Time"Sarah Stroud is Associate Professor of Philosophy at McGill University in Montreal. Her research interests range across moral psychology, moral and practical reasoning, moral theory, and metaethics; she is currently working on partiality in moral psychology and moral theory. With Christine Tappolet, she coedited Weakness of Will and Practical Irrationality (2003/2007), and she recently contributed the entry on weakness of will to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Her work has appeared in Ethics and Philosophy and Public Affairs , among other journals. She is one of two associate editors of the International Encyclopedia of Ethics , now under preparation for Wiley-Blackwell with Hugh LaFollette as editor-in-chief, to be published in 9 to 12 volumes in 2012.

Optimism, confidence and career change in tough economic times Sep 03, 2010

Show notes

This week the tables are turned. I'm interviewed by Alan Kearns, Canada's Career Coach, of careerjoy.com. Alan asked me to discuss the role of optimism, confidence and managing emotions in the career search process. We did this interview quite awhile ago, but Alan had problems with the sound, so he hadn't posted it. I think this is a good follow-up to last week's podcast about fear of failure and how competence/confidence is important in understanding our response. Do we procrastinate to cope with negative emotions or work hard to avoid a possible negative outcome?

Learn more at procrastination.ca or check out The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.

Fear of Failure Aug 27, 2010

Show notes

This week, we review a recent study on fear of failure and procrastination. Mohsen Haghbin, a senior doctoral student in our research group, explains research that he helped Adam McCaffrey complete as his honours thesis (and which Adam presented this past spring at the Canadian Psychological Association conference). Their study shows that our sense of competence and autonomy are important to consider, as these basic human needs affect the relation between fear of failure and procrastination. This is an interesting and important study that brings together research issues and clinical insights to help us understand when fear of failure may be related to procrastination and when it may actually foster action to avoid potential negative outcomes.

To learn more about procrastination, visit procrastination.ca.

Choose a strategy that fits Aug 20, 2010

Show notes

A very short podcast this week with some reflections about how any strategy for change must be evaluated in terms of your own personal context and needs. Although one strategy may work for some of your procrastinated tasks, just the opposite strategy may be required in other areas of your goal pursuit.

To learn more, visit procrastination.ca

Temptation and procrastination Aug 13, 2010

Show notes

This week, I interview Emrah Eren, a graduate student in our program at Carleton University. Emrah discusses his recent research about intentions, temptation and procrastination. His results are very interesting in terms of what can actually break the link between temptation and procrastination.

To learn more, visit procrastination.ca. To order my new book The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle, use this direct link to Amazon.com or visit procrastinatorsdigest.com to learn more about the book.

The intention-behaviour gap: A useful theory for understanding procrastination Aug 05, 2010

Show notes

If you have been struggling with exercising more or eating more healthily, this podcast is for you. In this interview with Dr. Peter Hall (University of Waterloo), we are introduced to a way of thinking about what influences our behaviour. Peter is a clinically trained psychologist who does research on health behaviours. He and his colleague Geoffrey Fong have proposed an important new theory to explain the processes that affect our behaviour choice including our intentions, habits (pre-potent responses) and self-regulatory capacity (executive function). Please, don't be put off by the theoretical focus or the terms here! Peter does an excellent job of explaining the theory, as well as how we can make sense of our own procrastination from this perspective. He includes strategies for change as well.

You can read the paper "Temporal self-regulation theory: A model for individual health behavior" as a pdf at this link.

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

Giving in to feel awful? Jul 30, 2010

Show notes

In this podcast, I respond to a listener who wrote, ". . .when I'm deep into procrastination, I don't do things that make me feel good, sometimes I seem to fly deep into some sort of personal crisis to avoid my work. Often I don't even realize I'm doing it. . . I think some of my friends see this trait in themselves as well." Today, I discuss why we might do this with a focus on emotions and procrastination.

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

Try harder! Procrastination, agency and willpower Jul 23, 2010

Show notes

Today, I interview Professor Mark D. White (Professor, Department of Political Science, Economics, and Philosophy, College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center, CUNY). Mark discusses his chapter in the recent book The Thief of Time: Philosophical Essays on Procrastination. His chapter is entitled "Resisting Procrastination: Kantian Autonomy and the Role of the Will." Using examples as common as the temptation to eat a donut, Mark does an excellent job of explaining how current theorizing from the perspective of behavioral economics falls short of explaining procrastination and how we need to consider the issue of "will" in this instance of self-regulation failure. In short, Mark explains how we have to "try harder" in order to resist procrastination.

Check out Mark White's blog on Psychology Today: Maybe it's just me, but . . .

You can learn more at procrastination.ca. Check out The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.

Successful self-regulation is key Jul 16, 2010

Show notes

Today, I summarize an excellent new piece of research by Jeffrey Paulitzki (University of Waterloo). Jeffrey just defended this research for his doctoral degree. He did an outstanding job. The focus of his research, and my podcast, is how we need to understand both habits and self-regulatory ability in goal pursuit. Although intentions do predict behaviour, both our habits and our executive function (self-regulatory ability) are crucial to our success. I also introduce listeners to Temporal Self-Regulation Theory. You will hear more about this in future podcasts as well, because it is a good framework for thinking about goal pursuit and the gap between intention and action that we know as procrastination.

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