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| Copyright: JD |
An article IOL recently explored procrastination from many different perspectives, including the now already famous Tim Urban’s Ted speech (the owner of the blog Wait But Why) about this issue. Inside of it, many several interesting ideas are presented, including the key notion which states:
“Interestingly, research suggests that one of the most effective things that procrastinators can do is to forgive themselves for procrastinating. In a study by Pychyl and others, students who reported forgiving themselves for procrastinating on studying for a first exam ended up procrastinating less for a second exam.”
Here, the essential aspect of procrastinating is presented, exceedingly similar to the basic premise of my eBook Using Psychology to Stop Procrastinating. But, at the same time, this is also the spot where the paradoxical nature of the entire article (and general public attitude to procrastination) is shown – from the first moment, right in the title, the article begins its quest for the answered on the “why do some people procrastinate” issue, which is a faulty starting point.
Counseling psychology some time ago came to the conclusion that the answer to the question of “why” is always a combination of nature and nurture, which lead to a life experience that shapes us. The same is true for the occurrence of procrastination. But, as the article mentions, the resolution does not come from finding an answer to the question why a person procrastinates, but how do they do it and what do they desire to do about it in the here and now.
Forgiving oneself represents integrating an experience, and not allowing it to steer the course for the upcoming time period. In this simple but hard to attain emotional response, the students from the IOL article can really procrastinate less for their second exams. In other words, it is acceptance through awareness and with it, the universal key to overcoming procrastination can also be found. For more on the same notion, check out my already mentioned eBook on resolving procrastination.
“Interestingly, research suggests that one of the most effective things that procrastinators can do is to forgive themselves for procrastinating. In a study by Pychyl and others, students who reported forgiving themselves for procrastinating on studying for a first exam ended up procrastinating less for a second exam.”
Here, the essential aspect of procrastinating is presented, exceedingly similar to the basic premise of my eBook Using Psychology to Stop Procrastinating. But, at the same time, this is also the spot where the paradoxical nature of the entire article (and general public attitude to procrastination) is shown – from the first moment, right in the title, the article begins its quest for the answered on the “why do some people procrastinate” issue, which is a faulty starting point.
Counseling psychology some time ago came to the conclusion that the answer to the question of “why” is always a combination of nature and nurture, which lead to a life experience that shapes us. The same is true for the occurrence of procrastination. But, as the article mentions, the resolution does not come from finding an answer to the question why a person procrastinates, but how do they do it and what do they desire to do about it in the here and now.
Forgiving oneself represents integrating an experience, and not allowing it to steer the course for the upcoming time period. In this simple but hard to attain emotional response, the students from the IOL article can really procrastinate less for their second exams. In other words, it is acceptance through awareness and with it, the universal key to overcoming procrastination can also be found. For more on the same notion, check out my already mentioned eBook on resolving procrastination.
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