iProcrastinate Podcast
Why we procrastinate and what we can do about it.
 
Giving in to feel awful?

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.

Direct download: Giving_in_to_feel_awful_.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am EDT

Try harder! Procrastination, agency and willpower

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.

Direct download: Try_harder.m4a
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:11pm EDT

Successful self-regulation is key

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.

Direct download: Habits_and_Inhibitory_control.m4a
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 4:15pm EDT

The Procrastinator's Digest - My New Book

My new book - The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle -  is now available at procrastinatorsdigest.com.  In this podcast, I explain the history of the book as a project for my sabbatical including why I created such a short book and how it is structured. I also add some important notes for non-U.S. orders. I invite your comments at feedback@procrastinatorsdigest.com

Learn more at procrastination.ca

Direct download: The_Procrastinators_Digest_-_book_launch.m4a
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:01pm EDT