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STUDENT
DEVELOPMENT
Kalamazoo
College Counseling Center
Never
Do Today, What You Can Do Tomorrow
(or at least what you can convince yourself you can)
Overcoming Procrastination
By
Dr. Alan Hill
The
prices of procrastination are well-known: all-niters, missed
opportunities, poor grades, penalties for late assignments or
arrivals, anger from others for not coming through or getting
the job done, feeling guilty and depressed that you aren’t
accomplishing much, and always feeling behind and under the
gun as assignments pile up. So, there must be some important
payoffs to putting-up with these high prices of putting-off.
Procrastination
Payoff #1: A Pint of Put-off takes the Pressure off.
(“What
a relief! I don’t have to do it now!”)
The
most immediate pay-off of putting-off is the “relief”
from the frustration, tedium, and/or pressure of performing a
difficult, boring, and/or time-limited task. So, like the alcoholic,
who takes a drink to find relief, the procrastaholic takes a "pint
of put-off" to relieve themselves of feelings of frustration,
boredom, or worry about performing a task. By putting-off the
procrastaholic is free to engage in more pleasant activities such
as TV, hanging-out, e-mail or computer games.
However,
as the due date approaches, feelings, such as panic (“I
don't have the time ”), fear ("I'll never get in med
school"), self-anger (“I'm an idiot”), and defeat
(“I’m sunk”) arise. These intense feelings not
only impair one's ability to concentrate and perform the task,
but may trigger more powerful relief strategies including: running
away (“road-trip!”), development of a hostile attitude
(“school sucks”), giving-up (“there’s
no hope”) or continual self-medication with alcohol, pot,
food, sex etc. The inevitable outcome is poor performance and
eventually the procrastaholic “hits bottom” by failing
a course, losing a scholarship, and/or experiencing exhaustion,
constant anxiety or depression.
Procrastination
Payoff # 2: Don't Have to Risk Failure
("I'm
not a failure! I can still do it! I just didn't really try this
time.")
If I believe
that my self-worth, the approval of faculty, parents or peers
and/or a worthwhile life (becoming clinical psychologist, physician,
physicist, writer, etc. ) is dependent upon performing well or
perfectly, I will be terrified at the possibility of not doing
well. Then, better to procrastinate than anxiously entertain these
"terrible" consequences of failure. And when I don’t
do well on the paper or test, I can maintain my self-esteem and
my dreams by attributing my poor performance to “not trying
or not having enough time to do well”.
Payoff
#3: Postpones Success
("Success
is very Scary")
Some procrastinators
put-off to avoid the pain that they believe is associated with
success. So I don’t apply to medical school not because
I fear getting rejected or wish to avoid the tedium of filling
out applications, but because I fear getting accepted. I may get
accepted and then flunk-out, or I may garner an M.D. and set myself
up for a more humiliating failure down the road (e.g., failed
residency) or a success I don’t really want (e.g., “I
like the money but I'll dislike the work”).
Or I may
dawdle with my studying , because if I fear successful completion
of my studying will bring me face to face with other ununsatisfying
aspects of my life such as relationship problems or a lack of
a social life.
Finally,
I may not wish to succeed because my success may please people
whom I am angry at. So I put-off garnering the necessary credits
for graduating as payback to my pushy parents.
OVERCOMING PROCRASTINATION: DO IT NOW !!!
I.
Get Yourself Motivated to Stop Procrastinating:
A. List
all the prices of procrastination, e.g. all-niters, exhaustion,
poor performance, panic, etc.
B. List the payoffs of completing work in a timely fashion,
e.g. more balance in life, better performance, more relaxed,
more guilt-free fun, etc.
C.
Now, compare these lists with the reasons for your procrastination.
II.
Set-up an Anti-Procrastinating Environment
A. Get support:
Tell friends/faculty about your effort to stop and enlist their
support. Seek counseling and/or read the self-help literature.
B. Creative Scheduling Techniques.
1. Contingency
Scheduling: Place more pleasing activity in schedule after
time set aside for less pleasing activities. No Quadstop,
TV, reading Anthro., etc. until I finish reading Econ.
2. Reverse Schedule for Projects: Schedule from ultimate deadline
to present.
3. Unschedule: A weekly calendar of committed recreational
activities that divides the week into manageable pieces with
breaks, meals, scheduled socializing, and play, plus a record
of productive work completed.
4.
Salami Technique: Break down project into small steps.
5.
Swiss Cheese Technique: Use 10 minutes there and 10 minutes
here to get work done.
C. Prime
the pump: Break-up studying time into chunks of 30 minutes.
If you have a hard time getting started, start with just a 10
minute chunk.
D. Find a new place to study without old tempting distractions.
E. Use time tested time management techniques (See: Making
Everything Fit by Dr. Ponto.)
III.
Set-up an Anti-Procrastinating Internal Environment
A. Clean-out
and Replace Procrastinating Self-Statements. Change:
1. "I
have to" to "I choose to or I want to."
2. "I must finish" to "When can I start?"
3.
"This is so big" to "I can take one small step."
4.
"I must be perfect" to "I can be human."
5.
"I don’t have time to play " to "I must
take time to play."
6.
"I should" to " I want to" or "It
would be better."
7.
"This is horrible" to "This is inconvenient.
I don't like it."
8.
"I don't have to" to "It would be better to."
B. Replace
Procrastinating Attitudes with Productive Attitudes, such as:
1. "Accept
what I cannot change", e.g. "24 hours in a day".
2. "First things First ... Follow my Priorities."
3.
"One day at a time" (Focus on Today) "Let-go
of past (shame/resentment) and future (worry/hopelessness).
4.
"Things will work-out."
5.
"Can-do attitude"
6.
"Try to do the job or enjoy yourself, not prove yourself."
7.
"Decatastrophize: "It is not life or death!!!!"
"Just damned inconvenient"
8.
"Give-up perfectionism 'good enough'."
9.
"Don’t quit starting."
10.
"If anything is worth doing its worth doing poorly."
11.
"Do it anyway!"
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