Perhaps the most frequently read essay on the Internet about procrastination, is Professor John Perry's (Stanford University) piece entitled, "Structured Procrastination." In this podcast I summarize Prof. Perry's argument and reflect on its strengths and the limitation of this approach. I know you'll like it, as Prof. Perry writes about how we can harness our task avoidance to actually get things done! In Perry's words, "what could be more noble than using one character flaw to offset the bad effects of another?"

You can read Prof. Perry's essay at structuredprocrastination.com (you can even buy the t-shirt!).

You can learn more about procrastination at procrastination.ca.

When I'm asked for strategies for more successful goal pursuit, I usually begin with the notion of implementation intentions. In this podcast, I explain the difference between goal intentions and implementation intentions, with a particular focus on the what, why and when of implementation intentions. This explanation is followed by a summary and discussion of two recent studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of implementation intentions.

I know each of us can make use of implementation intentions in our day-to-day lives. I hope you enjoy this introduction to the concept and its function.

You can learn more at procrastination.ca or at this blog entry at Psychology Today.

This is the last in the three-part series on willpower. Today, I discuss research that shows how we might bolster our willpower when we feel depleted. I end the discussion by providing 8 concrete strategies or "tips" to enhance your willpower and self-regulatory strength. You can find the references for this research at my Psychology Today blog. If you haven't yet, check out procrastination.ca for more information.

Willpower is a limited resource that we can exhaust quite quickly. In this podcast, I summarize the approach taken to this research and some key findings. The implications of this limited resource approach is important for understanding self-regulation failure with procrastination (as well as problems with smoking, drinking, junk food consumption, impulsive spending, even whether you'll likely to leave the dirty dishes in the sink). This is the second in a three-part series on willpower. I'll finish this discussion on August 17th. (Note: I posted this as a MP3 file. If you prefer the M4A format, please let me know.) For the Psychology Today blog and relevant references use this link.

In order to understand procrastination, a form of self-regulation failure, we need to consider successful self-regulation. This podcast provides a beginning to this discussion. I review two key elements in successful self-regulation: goal setting and paying attention to the goal we set. This discussion includes tips to more effective goal setting as well as some thoughts on why attention plays such an important role in self-regulation. If you get interested in attention in self-regulation, you might also want to review the previous podcast on Mindfulness Meditation and Procrastination (October 27, 2007).