This is the last podcast of my sabbatical year. Don't worry, I will continue my regular schedule for the summer. This week, I am summarizing a key idea from a chapter in a recent book entitled The Thief of Time: Philosophical Essays on Procrastination. Chrisoula Andreou, a philosopher from the University of Utah, argues that we can use self-control in one area of our lives where we don't procrastinate to help us achieve goals in other areas of our lives where we seem to lack self-control. I explain how this works with the notion of local traits.

To learn more about procrastination, see procrastination.ca​

Donna Karlin, Founder of  A Better Perspective, has pioneered the specialized practice of Shadow Coaching with global political, business and senior organizational leaders in the public and private sectors.  By entering the client's environment, she works with them in translating awareness into practice, essentially fostering the emergence of the Shadow Coach in the clients themselves. In this podcast, Donna and I talk about one of my favourite topics, giving in to feel good. Our conversation provides insight into her coaching process and things we can do ourselves to implement this approach in our own lives.

Want to learn more about procrastination? See procrastination.ca.

It's easy to put off goals for which we don't feel a strong commitment. This is part of the procrastination problem. We can lack strong goal intentions. In this podcast, I discuss how we might strengthen goal intentions and why this is important. I provide some common examples of how this happens in our lives, and I stress the importance of strengthening goal intentions within the context of other strategies that we use to ensure more effective goal pursuit such as implementation intentions and the strategic use of our willpower. Sound too complicated? It isn't. In any case, it's how I got to flossing my teeth more regularly! It's worth a listen.

More information about procrastination is available at procrastination.ca

JOIN ME LIVE IN A CONVERSATION ABOUT "GIVING IN TO FEEL GOOD." In this very short podcast, I announce an exciting upcoming Virtual Conference and a FREE pre-conference conversation session. These events are being sponsored by The DESARA Group. The DESARA Group specializes in business process improvement, and during this time when we're all asked "to do more with less" and to "work smarter, not harder," the DESARA Group is providing an opportunity to step back and "reset" ourselves and how we approach things. The event  is called the The 2010 Productivity Reset.

Taking an opportunity to pause and reflect while benefiting from the expertise of an amazing group of presenters will certainly help to shift and improve on how we are working. I believe that the event will help energize participants and provide new ways of thinking and doing that will enhance personal productivity.

Next Tuesday, June 15 at 11 a.m. Eastern time, I will be participating in a 1 hour, online discussion with Leadership Coach, Donna Karlin. Donna and I will be discussing "Productivity and Decision Making: Stop Giving in to Feel Good." This is a FREE INTERACTIVE SESSION, so you can register and ask questions or comment on what we're presenting together. I hope you'll join us to explore the topic and to consider whether further work of this sort might make the full conference at the end of the month something that you and your colleagues might benefit from.

The links below provide access to more information about the conference organizers and the event itself:
The DESARA Group
The 2010 Productivity Reset (NOTE: If you decide to register for this event, please use this registration link. In doing so, you will be supporting the iProcrastinate Podcasts, as I will receive a commission as an affiliate of the conference).
The Pre-Conference Session with Dr. Tim Pychyl, June 15th 11 a.m. Eastern

This podcast is a little different than my typical post. Today, I use a personal example to discuss the nature of distractions, the subjectivity of procrastination and how the irrationality of procrastination can affect our perceptions of self. Be forewarned that this is me rambling a bit as I think out loud about how we manage our goal pursuit as we muddle through our day-to-day tasks. In the end, I think you'll see that I integrate a great deal of the principles that underlie self-regulation failure and procrastination.