October 12, 2025 • 30 mins
Explores the phenomenon of procrastination, defining it as an irrational delay of tasks despite knowing it's against one's best interest. It introduces the "Procrastination Equation," a formula based on expectancy, value, and time (impulsiveness), to explain why people put things off. The author, a researcher in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, synthesizes findings from over eight hundred studies across various disciplines to understand the causes and consequences of procrastination in personal, academic, and professional life. The text also offers evidence-based strategies for combating procrastination, emphasizing techniques like precommitment, goal setting, habit formation, and attentional control to help individuals overcome this pervasive challenge.
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You can listen and download our episodes for free on more than 10 different platforms:
https://linktr.ee/book_shelter
Get the Book now from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Procrastination-Equation-Putting-Things-Getting/dp/0061703621?&linkCode=ll1&tag=cvthunderx-20&linkId=8767db552f05900507ff56fe1a528b6e&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, let's unpack this. If you've ever felt that familiar
pull to do literally anything else but the one thing
you know you should be doing, then today's deep dive
is definitely for you. That nagging feeling right of undone tasks,
the promises you make to yourself about tomorrow that just
never seem to quite materialize. It's it's a universal struggle.
(00:22):
We all feel it, don't.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
We We absolutely do. And to really understand this, this
pervasive human challenge, our deep daft today is into a
really remarkable book. Peers steals the procrastination equation how to
stop putting things off and start getting stuff done. And
this isn't just a simple self help guide, It's more
like a comprehensive journey framed as a story really to
(00:43):
help you understand and ultimately overcome procrastination. Our mission today
to uncover why we procrastinate, the surprisingly heavy costs it brings,
and then crucially to arm you with scientifically back strategies
to conquer it all without feeling well overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, and what's really crucial to get right from the star,
I think, is that procrastination isn't just laziness. That's a
really common misconception.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
It really is.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
As the book makes clear, true procrastination is an irrational delay.
It's when we voluntarily put off tasks despite knowing deep
down that will be worse off for doing so.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Think about it like this. If your coworker delays a
report because you know they hear the project might get canceled,
that's actually smart prioritizing rational. Or if you put off
mowing the lawn because while your house just caught fire,
that's just common sense, right.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Definitely, those irrational delays, your.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Procrastination is when you know you're acting against your own
best interests. That's the key.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Difference, precisely. And this book tackles that irrational delay from
well pretty much every angle psychology, economics, biology, even history.
It shows us just how deeply ingrained this behavior is.
Whether it's you know, the overflowing kitchen garbage can or
those unread reports piling up on your desk. It's a
journey into ourselves, really.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
So let's start with you, the listener. Where do you
land in the ranks of procrastination? Are you like a
garden variety dilly dallier or are you maybe a bit
more hardcore with tomorrow practically tattooed across your back.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Huh right now?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
The book does offer a short self assessment quiz that
really gets to the heart of it. We won't go
through all nine questions right now, but maybe just take
a second to reflect. How often do you find yourself
delaying tasks unreasonably or regretting not getting to things sooner?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Do you put things off so long that your well
being actually suffers. Do you find yourself doing well anything
but the one thing you know you should be doing.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I think most of us can probably not belong to
at least some of those.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Oh absolutely. The book shows us that if you find
yourself agreeing with those kinds of statements very often, you
might be in the top ten percent of procrastinators, someone
for whom yeah, tomorrow is your middle name. And interestingly,
a higher score likely means you might even be putting
something off right now, perhaps something more urgent than listening
to us.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Guilty is charged.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Sometimes it's what the book calls the procrastination polka, this
kind of dance of constantly postponed little tasks. Maybe it
overflowing laundry basket, dirty dishes, smoke detectors, needing new batteries,
or that gym session you keep rescheduling.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Oh yeah, the gym one hits close.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
To home right. Individually, these are small delays, but the
cumulative effect could really grag you down. Adds up to
a lot of stress.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And there's this common story, isn't there to how this
all plays out, Especially with a big project. You start
out you've got loads of time, but any attempts to
actually engage just fizzle. Suddenly you just don't feel like
doing it. You get distracted. You forward tasked tomorrow again
and again, only to find out every tomorrow has the
same twenty four hours shocking.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I know, it never changes, does it?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
And as the deadline gets closer, you find yourself doing
anything else, cleaning your office, clearing out emails you haven't
looked at in months, exercising, maybe even.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Shopping, productive procrastination exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
You banish calendars, reminders, You kind of distort reality, just
wanting that immediate relief. And even if you somehow pull
off a brilliant performance at the very last minute, there's.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Still that lingering whiff of what might have been, isn't there?
And the self recrimination, the doubt that just clouds everything.
Even the relief.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It's such a classic pattern, it really is.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, and the self deception involved is striking. If we
honestly asked ourselves, you know, did you know the task
would take so long or that the consequences of delaying
would be bad? The honest answer is often.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Well, yes, yeah, but it's hard to admit it is.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And sometimes that line blurs between a genuine choice like
choosing family time over work, which can be valid, and
self destructive in action. Only the procrastinator truly knows which
is which deep down.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Okay, here's where it gets really interesting, because the book
introduces the procrastination equation. This helps understand that even if
the behavior looks the same on the outside, there can
be different reasons for procrastinating.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Absolutely, and to bring this to life, the book uses
these great little stories, these archetypes Eddie, Valerie, and Tom.
Each one represents a key piece of this equation.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Right, let's meet them. Who's first.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Our first character is low expectancy Eddie. So Eddie is
a struggling salesperson. He faces constant rejection. Right, he goes
to seminars, he repeats affirmations, but after another day with
zero sales, he just dreads picking up the phone. Oh,
he basically anticipates only failure, and this feeling just completely
SAPs his motivation, leading him to procrastinate on making calls. Instead,
(05:38):
he'll you know, organize his desks or if the internet,
anything else.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So Eddie's problem is what he expects to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Exactly. It's expectancy. If you believe your goals aren't achievable,
or that your efforts won't pay off, you stop pursuing
them effectively. It's a bit like that classic learned helplessness
experiment with dogs. You know, if you learn that your
actions don't make a difference eventually, you just stop trying.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Okay, that makes sense. Low expectation equals low motivation, got it?
Who's next?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Next up is Valerie without value. Valerie is struggling with
a let's say, municipal politics paper for a course. She
finds it sluggish, deeply, uninteresting, boring. Basically, uh oh, been there, right,
So she puts it off. She chooses more enjoyable things instead,
like texting friends, watching funny videos online, you name it.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So her issue is just she doesn't care about the
task itself.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Precisely, it's value. The enjoyment or appeal a task holds
for you. We naturally, almost automatically put off what we
dislike or find boring. The less value a task holds
for us personally, the harder it is to start. I
think tax is cleaning the basement, slanting the gutters exactly.
For Valerie, boredom is a signal from her brain saying
(06:50):
this is irrelevant, and her mind just drifts to more
appealing alternatives.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Okay, Eddie expects failure, Valerie finds it boring. Who's our
third archetype?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And finally, there's time sensitive Tom. Tom. He delays booking
a hotel room until the very last minute. He gets
distracted by immedium pleasures along the way. He often suffers
because of his tardiness. Maybe gets a terrible room next
to the elevator, or maybe no room at all, even
though he knew he should have booked earlier.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Ah, the classic last minute scrambler.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
That's Tom. He represents impulsiveness and crucially, the timing of rewards.
We tend to value rewards we can get quickly, far
far more than rewards that are delayed.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Even if the delayed reward is much bitter.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Especially then if you consistently choose smaller immediate pleasures over
larger delayed ones. You're probably high on the impulsiveness scale.
It's why planning a big shopping trip for next year
feels abstract, right, just vague ideas like get nice shoes,
But spending money today that involves concrete, meaty plans you
(07:49):
can act on right now. The immediacy makes it feel
more real, more compelling.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Right then now is always more tempting than the later.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Exactly, So, putting these pieces together Eddie's expectancy, valeries value,
and Tom's impulsiveness and delay, the book gives us the
full mathematical formula motivation expectancy eight kate value, delay eight impulsiveness.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Wow, okay, an actual equation for procrastination.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It is, and it beautifully illustrates how our motivation dips
when the certainty or the size of the reward goes down.
That's expectancy and value, and importantly, how it absolutely plummets
when the delay increases, or when our own impulsiveness is high.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So it explains that gap, that intention action gap you
mentioned where I fully intend to do something later, but
when later becomes now.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Poof precisely that that frustrating experience where your heart felt
intention to say work on that budget proposal tonight just
crumbles when the moment of truth actually arrives. Imagine you
value the rays that proposal could bring. But come tonight,
your friends Eddie, Valerie and Tom are texting you from
the bar down the street. O dear That immediate pull
(08:51):
from the bar feels incredibly strong, almost irresistible, compared to
the distant, uncertain reward of your rays. It's like the
deadline for your proposal is on a different planet, and
the bar is right here, right now, flashing neon lights.
The delay factor makes all the difference.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
That makes so much sense. And you said college students
are a prime example of this equation in action.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Oh absolutely, On average, they procrastinate roughly a third of
their days. College is truly a perfect storm for this equation.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well, first, students are generally younger, often more impulsive. But
the university environment itself, it creates the ideal conditions. Essays
are often grueling, low value, the results grades can feel uncertain,
low expectancy, and there's usually a single distant deadline, high
delay right.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That end of term paper doom exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And add to that, where do they study? Often in
dorms which are just rife with temptations like socializing, TV,
video games all immediately available. That just exacerbates the impulsiveness
and delay factors.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So low expectancy, low value, high delay, high impulsiveness. The
equation predicts disaster.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Pretty much, and studies confirm this. Following hundreds of students,
research has found clear links impulsiveness, hating the work, being
close to temptation, and failing to plan all contributes significantly
to procrastination, which in turn is linked to poor performance
and even higher dropout rates. It's the equation playing out
in real time tragically sometimes.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Wow, So okay, what does this tell us about us? Then?
This tendency to procrastinate, it's not just a formula, is
It sounds like it's etched into our very being, like
a battle that's been going on for well ages.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
It's exactly right. When we look at the biological basis,
it becomes clear that we are fundamentally wired for procrastination.
You can think of it as a divided itself. Plato
talked about reason versus brute passion, freud, about the rider
and the horse, right.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
The rational part versus the impulsive part.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Exactly. Modern science sees it more as our impulsive limpic
system dealing with pleasure, fear, immediate rewards, versus our rational
prefrontal cortex responsible for willpower, planning long term goals, and.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
The prefrontal cortex as the newer part. Evolutionarily speaking, it is.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
And interestingly, our individual development actually mirrors the evolution of
our species. Our more advanced abilities like self control and
long term planning, housed in the prefrontal cortex, are the
last to fully emerge as we grow up. Infants, for example,
lack planning and patience. Their prefrontal cortex is still developing.
We slowly gain self control as children, you know, learning
(11:24):
to sit still or play assignment says. But our advanced
planning centers are the last to come fully online, and
often they're also the first to decline in old age.
It's kind of last in first out rule.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
That's fascinating. Does that mean animals procrastinate too? If it's
rooted in older brain structures?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
It seems so. Animals share many human personality traits, including impulsiveness, which,
as we know, is a cornerstone of procrastination, and some
animals demonstrate remarkable planning. Think of scrub jays planning for
future food caches or chimpanzees. There was one santino at
a Swedish zoo who'd calmly collect stones in the more,
(12:00):
wanting to throw at visitors later in the afternoon.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Huh, planning ahead for mischief.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Indeed, and psychologist James Masuur directly demonstrated procrastination in pigeons.
He set up an experiment where they could choose between
starting a task immediately for a small, quick reward, or
waiting a bit to start a slightly harder task for
a much bigger reward. They consistently chose the immediate, easier option,
even though it meant less food overall, they procrastinated on
(12:26):
the bigger payoff.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
So it really is fundamental.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
It suggests procrastination is a fundamental part of our motivational makeup,
dating back millions of years. It's not just a modern
human flaw.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And this isn't just a biological quirk, is it? You
mentioned history? Humanity's been grappling with this for millennia.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Correct, It's not a new problem. As far back as
ancient Greece, Aristotle discussed acrasia which means weakness of will,
and specifically a form called malachia, which translates pretty well
to irrational delay or procrastination.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Wow, Arisota was thinking about.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
This, he was, and this challenge has infiltrated well pretty
much every major religion too. Think of Saint Augustine's famous plea,
please Lord, make me chaste, just not.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Today, right, delaying Rachew exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
The universal reason across many faiths is that we don't
know when will die, so the time to act morally,
to repent is now. You can't put it off. The
underlying idea seems to be that we are perhaps hardwired
with a time horizon that was more appropriate for a
more ancient, uncertain world where immediate survival concerns naturally overshadowed
long term planning.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Okay, this is Here's where it gets truly fascinating and
maybe a bit depressing, because if this tendency is so
deeply edged into our biology and history, modern life seems
almost designed to make it worse, doesn't it traumatically?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So that's a key argument in the book. The free market,
in many ways actively exploits our limbic system, our dry
for immediate gratification. Research comparing studies over time found roughly
a fivefold increase in chronic procrastination since the nineteen seventies.
Fivefold Wow, from what to what for maybe four or
five percent of the population to somewhere around twenty twenty
(14:05):
five percent reporting chronic procrastination. That's huge, it is. And
think about the temptations. The book mentions a writer in
nineteen eleven talking about the seductive siren calls of like
Hammicks and novels. Right. Compare that to today the rise
of Hollywood, then TV with remotes and hundreds of cable channels,
and now video games like Grand Theft, Auto or World
(14:26):
of Warcraft. They are unfathomably advanced, constantly improving, specifically engineered
to keep you hooked. They raise the temptation bar higher
and higher.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
And TV is still king.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Television is still often called the king of distraction. And
then there's social media. Facebook with its hundreds of friends,
constant updates, notifications, pokes virtual gifts. It demands immediate checks,
immediate responses. It trains our impulsivity. Market research plays a
huge role too, creating products. Think about the food industries
addictive sugar, fat and fault combinations and marketing strategies like
(14:57):
buy out, pay later that accentuate immediate pleasure and appealed
directly to our impulsive brain. The goal seems to be
universal proximity to temptation, making the world an inescapable page
of it.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
It really feels like that sometimes, So we can't just
turn our backs on modern life where capitalism or innovation.
The challenge then is figuring out how to cope with
this constant barrage of temptation exactly. But before we get
to the coping strategies, what are the real world costs?
We know it feels bad, but what's the actual damage?
The book uses this powerful example Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the
(15:31):
great Romantic poet.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yes a truly poignant example. He described himself as suffering
from a deep and wide disease in my moral nature.
He left masterpieces like Kublai Khan and Christabel as unfinished fegments.
His famous rhyme of the Ancient Mariner was apparently five
years late.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Five years.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
It shows how procrastination isn't just about missing deadlines. It
can fundamentally damage potential creativity every aspect of.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Life, and this damage isn't just limited to famous poets.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
There was a survey mentioned, Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
A survey of four thousand people. It asked where they
procrastinate most. The top problem areas school, work, and health.
A staggering eighty nine percent reported significant problems in at
least one of those areas, and almost one to ten
struggle badly in all three.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Wow. So let's break that down. What's the impact on
success academically?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
First, academically it's stark. We mentioned students spending a third
of their waking hours procrastinating. This often leads to frantic
all nighters, lower grades than they're capable of, or even
dropping courses altogether. And then there's the infamous ABD phenomenon.
All but dissertation. Estimates suggest half of PhD students never
actually finished their dissertations despite years of investment, and procrastination
(16:44):
is often cited as the primary reason.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
That's heartbreaking? Really, what about careers?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
In careers, the book suggests many procrastinators end up in
the below average less successful group. They struggle more with
job hunts, stay unemployed longer. Work life is often much
less forgiving than college when it comes to deadlines and responsibilities.
There are examples of people being fired for putting off
crucial tasks, costing companies millions.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And financially that must take a hit too.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Definitely, procrastinators often miss out on what Einstein supposedly called
the eighth wonder of the world, compound interest. They play
the grasshopper while others are the ant saving early, delaying,
saving me Jeff to put away vastly more later to
catch up. They're also more likely to be credit card
revolvers carrying heavy unpaid balances, which is frankly where credit
card companies make a lot of their money and don't
(17:34):
forget things like estate planning. Most men apparently postpone writing
wills until their deathbed, which is often too late. Think
of all the famous people who died intestate without a will,
leaving messes for their families Howard Hughes, Martin, Luther King, Junior,
Abraham Lincoln. It creates an ugly possible legacy.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Good grief, so it hits work money. What about health?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Health is a big one. Procrastination leads people to delay
crucial health checkups. Think routine screenings like colonoscopies. Delaying those
can mean missing the chance to catch cancers when they're treatable.
There's literally life and death.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Sometimes, and the emotional toll we touched on the guilt
and regret.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
The emotional cost is perhaps the most personal and painful,
constant guilt, frustration, with poor performance, deep regret. As the
book puts it, procrastinators often fritter away the days with
the small pleasures and end up with nothing to show
for it. That is just a recipe for profound regret
later in life. Quotes from procrastinators in the book describe
(18:32):
feelings of shame, self loathing, feeling like they're fighting a
dying battle. Is really heavy stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Okay, so the costs are huge personally and professionally. Is
there a societal cost too?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
There is. The book offers a conservative estimate for the
US alone over a trillion dollars.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Annually, a trillion mostly.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Through lost productivity. Think about it. If a large portion
of the workforce spends even an hour or two a
day procrastinating, that lost human capital adds up incredibly fast
across an entire economy. In government's procrastinate too, delaying action
on critical long term issues like environmental protection or infrastructure
until it becomes a crisis. The problem often isn't the
(19:12):
lack of information. It's a lack of motivation to act.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Now, wow, okay is a lot. But what's fascinating here
is you said that within the causes we find the cures,
we can actually use the procrastination equation to fight back.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Precisely, that's the hopeful message. We can actively work to
make the procrastination equation work for us, tweaking each variable.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
All right, let's get practical. How do we start. First
part of the equation was expectancy. How do we optimize optimism?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Right? Optimizing optimism addressing low expectancy. It's a balancing act.
Too little optimism, you don't even try too much, you
get complacent, like the hair versus the tortoise. The sweet
spot is believing a win is possible, but knowing it
requires real effort.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
So how do we find that sweet spot?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
One really powerful technique the book suggests is excess spirals.
Start small, focus on tiny incremental improvements, break large tasks
into manageable bits, and plan for early, achievable accomplishments like
deciding to run just one block than maybe two the
next day, and crucially, record your progress.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Why is recording it so important?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Because seeing that progress However, small build concrete evidence for
your brain that you can succeed. It directly boosts your expectancy.
Small winds build confidence, changing that internal narrative from I
can't to maybe I can't. Look I did, Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Success spirals start small build momentum. What else for expectancy?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Another key is wish fulfillment through mental contrasting. This comes
from research by Gabriel Ottingen. You visualize your desired success vividly,
imagine achieving it. But then, and this is the critical part,
you also seriously consider the obstacles you'll likely face.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
To get there, So not just daydreaming about the win exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Research shows that pure positive fantasies just dreaming of without
success can actually sap your motivation because it feels like
you've already achieved it. The power comes from contrasting the
desired future with the current reality and importantly, the obstacles
in between. It forces you to implicitly start planning how
to overcome them.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
That makes sense, dream but plan for the roadblocks. Okay,
So that tackles expectancy. What about the second part? Value?
For Valerie who is just bored right, love.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
It or leave it? Addressing low value. This tackles those boring,
mind numbingly dull tasks that we just dread. One strategy
is games and goals. Try to make tasks more interesting
by counterintuitively, perhaps making them more difficult or game like,
just enough to achieve that state of flow.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Make boring tasks harder.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Within reason, set your own standards, create feedback mechanisms. Try
to beat your previous score or time. The book mentions
a potato chip factory worker who made his job interesting
by collecting unusual shaped chips. Yeah, or competitive swimmers imagining
sharks are chasing them. Remember Tom Sawyer getting other boys
to him to whitewash a fence by framing it as a.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Privilege, ah right, turning work into play.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
The insight is we can often hack our brains to
find engagement and value even in mundane things, if we
frame them differently or add a challenge. Another huge one
for value is to find relevance. Consciously connect the boring
pass to your intrinsic long term.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Goals, like the bigger picture.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Exactly, if you're slogging through tedious coursework, remind yourself why
you're doing it, maybe for a promotion a more enjoyable
future job, a skill you genuinely want. You need that
string of future goals, as the book says, to hook
your present responsibilities onto that bigger why injects value into
the present chore.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Okay, so make it a game or connect it to
something bigger that you actually care about. Good tips for
boosting value. Not a last part, delay and impulsiveness. For
time sensitive Tom, this feels like the hardest one.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
It often is because it's so deeply wired. This is
in good time tackling impulsiveness and delay, and as we discussed,
this is an a problem. Think back to Homer's odyssey
in Ulysses. Resisting the sirens, he had his men tie
him to the mast exactly. That's a perfect example of
the first key technique, pre commitment, or what the book
sometimes calls bondage. You act before the temptation strikes to
(23:14):
make it harder or impossible to give in later. You
bind your future.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Self like Corte is burning his ships.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Whether that actually happened or not, it's the perfect metaphor.
Modern examples maybe leaving your credit cards at home when
you go shopping, using software like Freedom to block distracting
websites for a set period, buying Halloween candy only on
Halloween afternoon, not weeks before.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Setting up obstacles for your future impulsive.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Self precisely, the insight is to create a delay or
a barrier between the impulse and the ability to act
on it. That friction reduces the temptation's overwhelming power in
the moment. There are even websites now like stickcay dot
com where you literally bet money against yourself achieving a goal,
with the money going to a charity you hate if
you fail.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Wow. That serious pre commitment.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
It uses poison, introducing a penalty for procrastinating, But the
core idea is making it harder to give in when
the urge hits by planning ahead.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Okay, pre commitment, what else for time and impulsivity.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Another huge one, maybe the most impactful, according to the book,
is goal setting. But not just any goals. They need
to be specific, proximal meaning near term and challenging but achievable.
Break large daunting tasks down into small, manageable, concrete steps.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Like Joe Simpson on the Mountain.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Perfect example, crawling back with a broken leg, he set
goals of just reaching the next rock, focusing only on
the next twenty minutes using his wristwatch, not the whole
impossible journey at once. The insight here is that breaking
down overwhelming projects into a series of daily or even
mini goals like right for fifteen minutes or put on
(24:49):
workout clothes dramatically lowers the activation energy. It breaks that
motivational surface tension and just gets you started.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Getting started is often the hardest part.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
It really is, so specific. Near term achievable mini goals
are incredibly powerful for overcoming that initial hurdle caused by
delay and impulsiveness.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
So to recap boost expectancy with success spirals and mental contracting,
increase value by making tasks engaging or linking them to
big goals, and conquered delay impulsiveness with pre commitment and
smart goal setting.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
That's a great summary of the core strategies.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Now let's bring it full circle. How did applying these
strategies actually change things for our archetypes Eddie, Valerie and Tom.
Let's imagine how they're getting along.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Okay, let's chick in. So, after Eddie lost his sales job,
he eventually married Valerie. Fast forward a bit. They now
have a toddler. Both have demanding jobs and they were
feeling completely frayed and tattered, just out of control.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Sounds familiar for many couples totally.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Valerie called her sister for advice, who happened to suggest
this very book, so they started applying it. They began
with small, specific, achievable goals, Valerie making time to see
her friends regularly, Eddie committing to hitting the gym twice
a week. Valerie used mental contrasting with Eddie, you know,
imagine how good your muscles will feel after the gym,
(26:09):
or reminding him think how much happier I'll be if
I get to see Sarah.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
This week, using those techniques on each other exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
They also tackled Eddie's work email addiction. They figured out
his habit of checking email fifteen times a day, and
the ten minutes it took to refocus each time was
robbing them of significant family time of the evenings.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
That's a killer, the constant checking it is.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
So. Valerie suggested practical things, creating separate play persona computer
profile just for breaks to keep work stuff separate, and
she gave Eddie a framed photo of their family for
his desk, a tangible reminder of his approach goal more
quality family time rather than just the avoidance goal of
not working.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Little environmental cues.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Right, and the outcome They reported becoming more productive at
work because they weren't constantly distracted or feeling guilty, and
much more relaxed at home. Eddie started cooking more, Valerie
handled the cleaning. They found ways to balance tasks, inject
some value, maybe even passion. They hit the gym together sometimes.
They described it as fighting for a life that works,
(27:11):
accepting that stuff still happens, illnesses, surprises that throws them
off routine. But crucially now they felt they knew how
to push back and get back on track.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
That's a great transformation, our realistic one too. What about
time sensitive Tom? Did he manage to rain in his impulsiveness?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Tom's story is interesting. Remember him stuck at the airport
after a disastrous impulsively planned vacation. He had a moment
of reflection, read the book, and his natural impulsiveness actually
worked for him this time. He got really excited to
apply the techniques immediately.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, using impulsiveness for good.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Right. He went back and purged his office of temptations,
got rid of time wasting websites, maybe deleted games, he
loaded up productivity software. He started setting those specific, timely
challenging goals for everything anyone big on pre commitment.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Like the stick website and simpler.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Initially, he apparently promised his boss his entire year end
bonus if a major report wasn't completed in seven days.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Whoa high stakes, a very high.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Stakes pre commitment, and guess what he delivered it early.
The results were dramatic. He became incredibly productive, started helping colleagues,
showed real leadership potential, and eventually got promoted. And then
he started applying the same principles to motivate his team,
using success spirals with easy quizzes to build their confidence
(28:30):
a vicarious victory by clearly articulating an inspiring vision, making
work projects into friendly competitions, games and goals, celebrating achievements
with team lunches or parties adding value. He realized, as
the book says, that what motivated other people was pretty
much the same as what motivated him.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
That's brilliant, using the equation not just on himself, but
for leadership too.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
These stories really do illustrate it perfectly, don't they. Procrastination
is this powerful tendency, but it's not an inevitability. Understanding
why we do it, the equation, and then consciously applying
these evidence based strategies, we really can manage those internal struggles,
that battle between the limbic system wanting instant gratification and
the prefrontal cortex planning for the future.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
That's the core message. Procrastination is complex, it's deeply ingrained,
and yes, modern life definitely exacerbates it with constant temptations,
but it can be managed. It requires strategically applying the
components of the procrastination equation, boosting expectancy and value while
minimizing the impact of delay and impulsiveness. It's about integrating
(29:34):
insights from psychology, biology, kegonomics, all these different fields to
truly master our own minds.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
So you've learned so much in this deep dive today.
You really are holding powerful insights the answers in your
hands right now. But remember the most critical step, maybe
the one you attempt to put off, is to actually
act on this knowledge. Don't procrastinate on beating procrastination.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
That's the crucial point. And one final thoughts to the
book to leave you with is that an excess of
will power always delay gratification can be just as self
defeating as its absence. Postponing joy constantly can be an unwise,
stifling choice. But and this is the key. Unless we
develop the competence to sustain delay when we need to,
(30:15):
and exercise our will when we choose to, then the
choice itself is lost. We become slaves to impulse. The
goal is into elimitate desire or emotion, but to master
your own mind so you can make choices that truly
align with your deepest aspirations, not just your most immediate impulses.
To live your life as you always wanted to, to be
the person you always wanted to be. Well, you know
what to do, Now do it.
Okay, let's unpack this. If you've ever felt that familiar
pull to do literally anything else but the one thing
you know you should be doing, then today's deep dive
is definitely for you. That nagging feeling right of undone tasks,
the promises you make to yourself about tomorrow that just
never seem to quite materialize. It's it's a universal struggle.
(00:22):
We all feel it, don't.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
We We absolutely do. And to really understand this, this
pervasive human challenge, our deep daft today is into a
really remarkable book. Peers steals the procrastination equation how to
stop putting things off and start getting stuff done. And
this isn't just a simple self help guide, It's more
like a comprehensive journey framed as a story really to
(00:43):
help you understand and ultimately overcome procrastination. Our mission today
to uncover why we procrastinate, the surprisingly heavy costs it brings,
and then crucially to arm you with scientifically back strategies
to conquer it all without feeling well overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, and what's really crucial to get right from the star,
I think, is that procrastination isn't just laziness. That's a
really common misconception.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
It really is.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
As the book makes clear, true procrastination is an irrational delay.
It's when we voluntarily put off tasks despite knowing deep
down that will be worse off for doing so.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Think about it like this. If your coworker delays a
report because you know they hear the project might get canceled,
that's actually smart prioritizing rational. Or if you put off
mowing the lawn because while your house just caught fire,
that's just common sense, right.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Definitely, those irrational delays, your.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Procrastination is when you know you're acting against your own
best interests. That's the key.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Difference, precisely. And this book tackles that irrational delay from
well pretty much every angle psychology, economics, biology, even history.
It shows us just how deeply ingrained this behavior is.
Whether it's you know, the overflowing kitchen garbage can or
those unread reports piling up on your desk. It's a
journey into ourselves, really.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
So let's start with you, the listener. Where do you
land in the ranks of procrastination? Are you like a
garden variety dilly dallier or are you maybe a bit
more hardcore with tomorrow practically tattooed across your back.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Huh right now?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
The book does offer a short self assessment quiz that
really gets to the heart of it. We won't go
through all nine questions right now, but maybe just take
a second to reflect. How often do you find yourself
delaying tasks unreasonably or regretting not getting to things sooner?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Do you put things off so long that your well
being actually suffers. Do you find yourself doing well anything
but the one thing you know you should be doing.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I think most of us can probably not belong to
at least some of those.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Oh absolutely. The book shows us that if you find
yourself agreeing with those kinds of statements very often, you
might be in the top ten percent of procrastinators, someone
for whom yeah, tomorrow is your middle name. And interestingly,
a higher score likely means you might even be putting
something off right now, perhaps something more urgent than listening
to us.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Guilty is charged.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Sometimes it's what the book calls the procrastination polka, this
kind of dance of constantly postponed little tasks. Maybe it
overflowing laundry basket, dirty dishes, smoke detectors, needing new batteries,
or that gym session you keep rescheduling.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Oh yeah, the gym one hits close.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
To home right. Individually, these are small delays, but the
cumulative effect could really grag you down. Adds up to
a lot of stress.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And there's this common story, isn't there to how this
all plays out, Especially with a big project. You start
out you've got loads of time, but any attempts to
actually engage just fizzle. Suddenly you just don't feel like
doing it. You get distracted. You forward tasked tomorrow again
and again, only to find out every tomorrow has the
same twenty four hours shocking.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I know, it never changes, does it?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
And as the deadline gets closer, you find yourself doing
anything else, cleaning your office, clearing out emails you haven't
looked at in months, exercising, maybe even.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Shopping, productive procrastination exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
You banish calendars, reminders, You kind of distort reality, just
wanting that immediate relief. And even if you somehow pull
off a brilliant performance at the very last minute, there's.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Still that lingering whiff of what might have been, isn't there?
And the self recrimination, the doubt that just clouds everything.
Even the relief.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It's such a classic pattern, it really is.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, and the self deception involved is striking. If we
honestly asked ourselves, you know, did you know the task
would take so long or that the consequences of delaying
would be bad? The honest answer is often.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Well, yes, yeah, but it's hard to admit it is.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And sometimes that line blurs between a genuine choice like
choosing family time over work, which can be valid, and
self destructive in action. Only the procrastinator truly knows which
is which deep down.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Okay, here's where it gets really interesting, because the book
introduces the procrastination equation. This helps understand that even if
the behavior looks the same on the outside, there can
be different reasons for procrastinating.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Absolutely, and to bring this to life, the book uses
these great little stories, these archetypes Eddie, Valerie, and Tom.
Each one represents a key piece of this equation.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Right, let's meet them. Who's first.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Our first character is low expectancy Eddie. So Eddie is
a struggling salesperson. He faces constant rejection. Right, he goes
to seminars, he repeats affirmations, but after another day with
zero sales, he just dreads picking up the phone. Oh,
he basically anticipates only failure, and this feeling just completely
SAPs his motivation, leading him to procrastinate on making calls. Instead,
(05:38):
he'll you know, organize his desks or if the internet,
anything else.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So Eddie's problem is what he expects to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Exactly. It's expectancy. If you believe your goals aren't achievable,
or that your efforts won't pay off, you stop pursuing
them effectively. It's a bit like that classic learned helplessness
experiment with dogs. You know, if you learn that your
actions don't make a difference eventually, you just stop trying.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Okay, that makes sense. Low expectation equals low motivation, got it?
Who's next?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Next up is Valerie without value. Valerie is struggling with
a let's say, municipal politics paper for a course. She
finds it sluggish, deeply, uninteresting, boring. Basically, uh oh, been there, right,
So she puts it off. She chooses more enjoyable things instead,
like texting friends, watching funny videos online, you name it.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So her issue is just she doesn't care about the
task itself.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Precisely, it's value. The enjoyment or appeal a task holds
for you. We naturally, almost automatically put off what we
dislike or find boring. The less value a task holds
for us personally, the harder it is to start. I
think tax is cleaning the basement, slanting the gutters exactly.
For Valerie, boredom is a signal from her brain saying
(06:50):
this is irrelevant, and her mind just drifts to more
appealing alternatives.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Okay, Eddie expects failure, Valerie finds it boring. Who's our
third archetype?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And finally, there's time sensitive Tom. Tom. He delays booking
a hotel room until the very last minute. He gets
distracted by immedium pleasures along the way. He often suffers
because of his tardiness. Maybe gets a terrible room next
to the elevator, or maybe no room at all, even
though he knew he should have booked earlier.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Ah, the classic last minute scrambler.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
That's Tom. He represents impulsiveness and crucially, the timing of rewards.
We tend to value rewards we can get quickly, far
far more than rewards that are delayed.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Even if the delayed reward is much bitter.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Especially then if you consistently choose smaller immediate pleasures over
larger delayed ones. You're probably high on the impulsiveness scale.
It's why planning a big shopping trip for next year
feels abstract, right, just vague ideas like get nice shoes,
But spending money today that involves concrete, meaty plans you
(07:49):
can act on right now. The immediacy makes it feel
more real, more compelling.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Right then now is always more tempting than the later.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Exactly, So, putting these pieces together Eddie's expectancy, valeries value,
and Tom's impulsiveness and delay, the book gives us the
full mathematical formula motivation expectancy eight kate value, delay eight impulsiveness.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Wow, okay, an actual equation for procrastination.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It is, and it beautifully illustrates how our motivation dips
when the certainty or the size of the reward goes down.
That's expectancy and value, and importantly, how it absolutely plummets
when the delay increases, or when our own impulsiveness is high.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So it explains that gap, that intention action gap you
mentioned where I fully intend to do something later, but
when later becomes now.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Poof precisely that that frustrating experience where your heart felt
intention to say work on that budget proposal tonight just
crumbles when the moment of truth actually arrives. Imagine you
value the rays that proposal could bring. But come tonight,
your friends Eddie, Valerie and Tom are texting you from
the bar down the street. O dear That immediate pull
(08:51):
from the bar feels incredibly strong, almost irresistible, compared to
the distant, uncertain reward of your rays. It's like the
deadline for your proposal is on a different planet, and
the bar is right here, right now, flashing neon lights.
The delay factor makes all the difference.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
That makes so much sense. And you said college students
are a prime example of this equation in action.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Oh absolutely, On average, they procrastinate roughly a third of
their days. College is truly a perfect storm for this equation.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well, first, students are generally younger, often more impulsive. But
the university environment itself, it creates the ideal conditions. Essays
are often grueling, low value, the results grades can feel uncertain,
low expectancy, and there's usually a single distant deadline, high
delay right.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That end of term paper doom exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And add to that, where do they study? Often in
dorms which are just rife with temptations like socializing, TV,
video games all immediately available. That just exacerbates the impulsiveness
and delay factors.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So low expectancy, low value, high delay, high impulsiveness. The
equation predicts disaster.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Pretty much, and studies confirm this. Following hundreds of students,
research has found clear links impulsiveness, hating the work, being
close to temptation, and failing to plan all contributes significantly
to procrastination, which in turn is linked to poor performance
and even higher dropout rates. It's the equation playing out
in real time tragically sometimes.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Wow, So okay, what does this tell us about us? Then?
This tendency to procrastinate, it's not just a formula, is
It sounds like it's etched into our very being, like
a battle that's been going on for well ages.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
It's exactly right. When we look at the biological basis,
it becomes clear that we are fundamentally wired for procrastination.
You can think of it as a divided itself. Plato
talked about reason versus brute passion, freud, about the rider
and the horse, right.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
The rational part versus the impulsive part.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Exactly. Modern science sees it more as our impulsive limpic
system dealing with pleasure, fear, immediate rewards, versus our rational
prefrontal cortex responsible for willpower, planning long term goals, and.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
The prefrontal cortex as the newer part. Evolutionarily speaking, it is.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
And interestingly, our individual development actually mirrors the evolution of
our species. Our more advanced abilities like self control and
long term planning, housed in the prefrontal cortex, are the
last to fully emerge as we grow up. Infants, for example,
lack planning and patience. Their prefrontal cortex is still developing.
We slowly gain self control as children, you know, learning
(11:24):
to sit still or play assignment says. But our advanced
planning centers are the last to come fully online, and
often they're also the first to decline in old age.
It's kind of last in first out rule.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
That's fascinating. Does that mean animals procrastinate too? If it's
rooted in older brain structures?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
It seems so. Animals share many human personality traits, including impulsiveness, which,
as we know, is a cornerstone of procrastination, and some
animals demonstrate remarkable planning. Think of scrub jays planning for
future food caches or chimpanzees. There was one santino at
a Swedish zoo who'd calmly collect stones in the more,
(12:00):
wanting to throw at visitors later in the afternoon.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Huh, planning ahead for mischief.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Indeed, and psychologist James Masuur directly demonstrated procrastination in pigeons.
He set up an experiment where they could choose between
starting a task immediately for a small, quick reward, or
waiting a bit to start a slightly harder task for
a much bigger reward. They consistently chose the immediate, easier option,
even though it meant less food overall, they procrastinated on
(12:26):
the bigger payoff.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
So it really is fundamental.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
It suggests procrastination is a fundamental part of our motivational makeup,
dating back millions of years. It's not just a modern
human flaw.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And this isn't just a biological quirk, is it? You
mentioned history? Humanity's been grappling with this for millennia.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Correct, It's not a new problem. As far back as
ancient Greece, Aristotle discussed acrasia which means weakness of will,
and specifically a form called malachia, which translates pretty well
to irrational delay or procrastination.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Wow, Arisota was thinking about.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
This, he was, and this challenge has infiltrated well pretty
much every major religion too. Think of Saint Augustine's famous plea,
please Lord, make me chaste, just not.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Today, right, delaying Rachew exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
The universal reason across many faiths is that we don't
know when will die, so the time to act morally,
to repent is now. You can't put it off. The
underlying idea seems to be that we are perhaps hardwired
with a time horizon that was more appropriate for a
more ancient, uncertain world where immediate survival concerns naturally overshadowed
long term planning.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Okay, this is Here's where it gets truly fascinating and
maybe a bit depressing, because if this tendency is so
deeply edged into our biology and history, modern life seems
almost designed to make it worse, doesn't it traumatically?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So that's a key argument in the book. The free market,
in many ways actively exploits our limbic system, our dry
for immediate gratification. Research comparing studies over time found roughly
a fivefold increase in chronic procrastination since the nineteen seventies.
Fivefold Wow, from what to what for maybe four or
five percent of the population to somewhere around twenty twenty
(14:05):
five percent reporting chronic procrastination. That's huge, it is. And
think about the temptations. The book mentions a writer in
nineteen eleven talking about the seductive siren calls of like
Hammicks and novels. Right. Compare that to today the rise
of Hollywood, then TV with remotes and hundreds of cable channels,
and now video games like Grand Theft, Auto or World
(14:26):
of Warcraft. They are unfathomably advanced, constantly improving, specifically engineered
to keep you hooked. They raise the temptation bar higher
and higher.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
And TV is still king.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Television is still often called the king of distraction. And
then there's social media. Facebook with its hundreds of friends,
constant updates, notifications, pokes virtual gifts. It demands immediate checks,
immediate responses. It trains our impulsivity. Market research plays a
huge role too, creating products. Think about the food industries
addictive sugar, fat and fault combinations and marketing strategies like
(14:57):
buy out, pay later that accentuate immediate pleasure and appealed
directly to our impulsive brain. The goal seems to be
universal proximity to temptation, making the world an inescapable page
of it.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
It really feels like that sometimes, So we can't just
turn our backs on modern life where capitalism or innovation.
The challenge then is figuring out how to cope with
this constant barrage of temptation exactly. But before we get
to the coping strategies, what are the real world costs?
We know it feels bad, but what's the actual damage?
The book uses this powerful example Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the
(15:31):
great Romantic poet.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yes a truly poignant example. He described himself as suffering
from a deep and wide disease in my moral nature.
He left masterpieces like Kublai Khan and Christabel as unfinished fegments.
His famous rhyme of the Ancient Mariner was apparently five
years late.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Five years.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
It shows how procrastination isn't just about missing deadlines. It
can fundamentally damage potential creativity every aspect of.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Life, and this damage isn't just limited to famous poets.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
There was a survey mentioned, Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
A survey of four thousand people. It asked where they
procrastinate most. The top problem areas school, work, and health.
A staggering eighty nine percent reported significant problems in at
least one of those areas, and almost one to ten
struggle badly in all three.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Wow. So let's break that down. What's the impact on
success academically?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
First, academically it's stark. We mentioned students spending a third
of their waking hours procrastinating. This often leads to frantic
all nighters, lower grades than they're capable of, or even
dropping courses altogether. And then there's the infamous ABD phenomenon.
All but dissertation. Estimates suggest half of PhD students never
actually finished their dissertations despite years of investment, and procrastination
(16:44):
is often cited as the primary reason.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
That's heartbreaking? Really, what about careers?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
In careers, the book suggests many procrastinators end up in
the below average less successful group. They struggle more with
job hunts, stay unemployed longer. Work life is often much
less forgiving than college when it comes to deadlines and responsibilities.
There are examples of people being fired for putting off
crucial tasks, costing companies millions.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And financially that must take a hit too.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Definitely, procrastinators often miss out on what Einstein supposedly called
the eighth wonder of the world, compound interest. They play
the grasshopper while others are the ant saving early, delaying,
saving me Jeff to put away vastly more later to
catch up. They're also more likely to be credit card
revolvers carrying heavy unpaid balances, which is frankly where credit
card companies make a lot of their money and don't
(17:34):
forget things like estate planning. Most men apparently postpone writing
wills until their deathbed, which is often too late. Think
of all the famous people who died intestate without a will,
leaving messes for their families Howard Hughes, Martin, Luther King, Junior,
Abraham Lincoln. It creates an ugly possible legacy.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Good grief, so it hits work money. What about health?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Health is a big one. Procrastination leads people to delay
crucial health checkups. Think routine screenings like colonoscopies. Delaying those
can mean missing the chance to catch cancers when they're treatable.
There's literally life and death.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Sometimes, and the emotional toll we touched on the guilt
and regret.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
The emotional cost is perhaps the most personal and painful,
constant guilt, frustration, with poor performance, deep regret. As the
book puts it, procrastinators often fritter away the days with
the small pleasures and end up with nothing to show
for it. That is just a recipe for profound regret
later in life. Quotes from procrastinators in the book describe
(18:32):
feelings of shame, self loathing, feeling like they're fighting a
dying battle. Is really heavy stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Okay, so the costs are huge personally and professionally. Is
there a societal cost too?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
There is. The book offers a conservative estimate for the
US alone over a trillion dollars.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Annually, a trillion mostly.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Through lost productivity. Think about it. If a large portion
of the workforce spends even an hour or two a
day procrastinating, that lost human capital adds up incredibly fast
across an entire economy. In government's procrastinate too, delaying action
on critical long term issues like environmental protection or infrastructure
until it becomes a crisis. The problem often isn't the
(19:12):
lack of information. It's a lack of motivation to act.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Now, wow, okay is a lot. But what's fascinating here
is you said that within the causes we find the cures,
we can actually use the procrastination equation to fight back.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Precisely, that's the hopeful message. We can actively work to
make the procrastination equation work for us, tweaking each variable.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
All right, let's get practical. How do we start. First
part of the equation was expectancy. How do we optimize optimism?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Right? Optimizing optimism addressing low expectancy. It's a balancing act.
Too little optimism, you don't even try too much, you
get complacent, like the hair versus the tortoise. The sweet
spot is believing a win is possible, but knowing it
requires real effort.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
So how do we find that sweet spot?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
One really powerful technique the book suggests is excess spirals.
Start small, focus on tiny incremental improvements, break large tasks
into manageable bits, and plan for early, achievable accomplishments like
deciding to run just one block than maybe two the
next day, and crucially, record your progress.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Why is recording it so important?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Because seeing that progress However, small build concrete evidence for
your brain that you can succeed. It directly boosts your expectancy.
Small winds build confidence, changing that internal narrative from I
can't to maybe I can't. Look I did, Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Success spirals start small build momentum. What else for expectancy?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Another key is wish fulfillment through mental contrasting. This comes
from research by Gabriel Ottingen. You visualize your desired success vividly,
imagine achieving it. But then, and this is the critical part,
you also seriously consider the obstacles you'll likely face.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
To get there, So not just daydreaming about the win exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Research shows that pure positive fantasies just dreaming of without
success can actually sap your motivation because it feels like
you've already achieved it. The power comes from contrasting the
desired future with the current reality and importantly, the obstacles
in between. It forces you to implicitly start planning how
to overcome them.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
That makes sense, dream but plan for the roadblocks. Okay,
So that tackles expectancy. What about the second part? Value?
For Valerie who is just bored right, love.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
It or leave it? Addressing low value. This tackles those boring,
mind numbingly dull tasks that we just dread. One strategy
is games and goals. Try to make tasks more interesting
by counterintuitively, perhaps making them more difficult or game like,
just enough to achieve that state of flow.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Make boring tasks harder.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Within reason, set your own standards, create feedback mechanisms. Try
to beat your previous score or time. The book mentions
a potato chip factory worker who made his job interesting
by collecting unusual shaped chips. Yeah, or competitive swimmers imagining
sharks are chasing them. Remember Tom Sawyer getting other boys
to him to whitewash a fence by framing it as a.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Privilege, ah right, turning work into play.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
The insight is we can often hack our brains to
find engagement and value even in mundane things, if we
frame them differently or add a challenge. Another huge one
for value is to find relevance. Consciously connect the boring
pass to your intrinsic long term.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Goals, like the bigger picture.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Exactly, if you're slogging through tedious coursework, remind yourself why
you're doing it, maybe for a promotion a more enjoyable
future job, a skill you genuinely want. You need that
string of future goals, as the book says, to hook
your present responsibilities onto that bigger why injects value into
the present chore.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Okay, so make it a game or connect it to
something bigger that you actually care about. Good tips for
boosting value. Not a last part, delay and impulsiveness. For
time sensitive Tom, this feels like the hardest one.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
It often is because it's so deeply wired. This is
in good time tackling impulsiveness and delay, and as we discussed,
this is an a problem. Think back to Homer's odyssey
in Ulysses. Resisting the sirens, he had his men tie
him to the mast exactly. That's a perfect example of
the first key technique, pre commitment, or what the book
sometimes calls bondage. You act before the temptation strikes to
(23:14):
make it harder or impossible to give in later. You
bind your future.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Self like Corte is burning his ships.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Whether that actually happened or not, it's the perfect metaphor.
Modern examples maybe leaving your credit cards at home when
you go shopping, using software like Freedom to block distracting
websites for a set period, buying Halloween candy only on
Halloween afternoon, not weeks before.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Setting up obstacles for your future impulsive.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Self precisely, the insight is to create a delay or
a barrier between the impulse and the ability to act
on it. That friction reduces the temptation's overwhelming power in
the moment. There are even websites now like stickcay dot
com where you literally bet money against yourself achieving a goal,
with the money going to a charity you hate if
you fail.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Wow. That serious pre commitment.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
It uses poison, introducing a penalty for procrastinating, But the
core idea is making it harder to give in when
the urge hits by planning ahead.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Okay, pre commitment, what else for time and impulsivity.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Another huge one, maybe the most impactful, according to the book,
is goal setting. But not just any goals. They need
to be specific, proximal meaning near term and challenging but achievable.
Break large daunting tasks down into small, manageable, concrete steps.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Like Joe Simpson on the Mountain.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Perfect example, crawling back with a broken leg, he set
goals of just reaching the next rock, focusing only on
the next twenty minutes using his wristwatch, not the whole
impossible journey at once. The insight here is that breaking
down overwhelming projects into a series of daily or even
mini goals like right for fifteen minutes or put on
(24:49):
workout clothes dramatically lowers the activation energy. It breaks that
motivational surface tension and just gets you started.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Getting started is often the hardest part.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
It really is, so specific. Near term achievable mini goals
are incredibly powerful for overcoming that initial hurdle caused by
delay and impulsiveness.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
So to recap boost expectancy with success spirals and mental contracting,
increase value by making tasks engaging or linking them to
big goals, and conquered delay impulsiveness with pre commitment and
smart goal setting.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
That's a great summary of the core strategies.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Now let's bring it full circle. How did applying these
strategies actually change things for our archetypes Eddie, Valerie and Tom.
Let's imagine how they're getting along.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Okay, let's chick in. So, after Eddie lost his sales job,
he eventually married Valerie. Fast forward a bit. They now
have a toddler. Both have demanding jobs and they were
feeling completely frayed and tattered, just out of control.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Sounds familiar for many couples totally.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Valerie called her sister for advice, who happened to suggest
this very book, so they started applying it. They began
with small, specific, achievable goals, Valerie making time to see
her friends regularly, Eddie committing to hitting the gym twice
a week. Valerie used mental contrasting with Eddie, you know,
imagine how good your muscles will feel after the gym,
(26:09):
or reminding him think how much happier I'll be if
I get to see Sarah.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
This week, using those techniques on each other exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
They also tackled Eddie's work email addiction. They figured out
his habit of checking email fifteen times a day, and
the ten minutes it took to refocus each time was
robbing them of significant family time of the evenings.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
That's a killer, the constant checking it is.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
So. Valerie suggested practical things, creating separate play persona computer
profile just for breaks to keep work stuff separate, and
she gave Eddie a framed photo of their family for
his desk, a tangible reminder of his approach goal more
quality family time rather than just the avoidance goal of
not working.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Little environmental cues.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Right, and the outcome They reported becoming more productive at
work because they weren't constantly distracted or feeling guilty, and
much more relaxed at home. Eddie started cooking more, Valerie
handled the cleaning. They found ways to balance tasks, inject
some value, maybe even passion. They hit the gym together sometimes.
They described it as fighting for a life that works,
(27:11):
accepting that stuff still happens, illnesses, surprises that throws them
off routine. But crucially now they felt they knew how
to push back and get back on track.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
That's a great transformation, our realistic one too. What about
time sensitive Tom? Did he manage to rain in his impulsiveness?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Tom's story is interesting. Remember him stuck at the airport
after a disastrous impulsively planned vacation. He had a moment
of reflection, read the book, and his natural impulsiveness actually
worked for him this time. He got really excited to
apply the techniques immediately.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, using impulsiveness for good.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Right. He went back and purged his office of temptations,
got rid of time wasting websites, maybe deleted games, he
loaded up productivity software. He started setting those specific, timely
challenging goals for everything anyone big on pre commitment.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Like the stick website and simpler.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Initially, he apparently promised his boss his entire year end
bonus if a major report wasn't completed in seven days.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Whoa high stakes, a very high.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Stakes pre commitment, and guess what he delivered it early.
The results were dramatic. He became incredibly productive, started helping colleagues,
showed real leadership potential, and eventually got promoted. And then
he started applying the same principles to motivate his team,
using success spirals with easy quizzes to build their confidence
(28:30):
a vicarious victory by clearly articulating an inspiring vision, making
work projects into friendly competitions, games and goals, celebrating achievements
with team lunches or parties adding value. He realized, as
the book says, that what motivated other people was pretty
much the same as what motivated him.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
That's brilliant, using the equation not just on himself, but
for leadership too.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
These stories really do illustrate it perfectly, don't they. Procrastination
is this powerful tendency, but it's not an inevitability. Understanding
why we do it, the equation, and then consciously applying
these evidence based strategies, we really can manage those internal struggles,
that battle between the limbic system wanting instant gratification and
the prefrontal cortex planning for the future.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
That's the core message. Procrastination is complex, it's deeply ingrained,
and yes, modern life definitely exacerbates it with constant temptations,
but it can be managed. It requires strategically applying the
components of the procrastination equation, boosting expectancy and value while
minimizing the impact of delay and impulsiveness. It's about integrating
(29:34):
insights from psychology, biology, kegonomics, all these different fields to
truly master our own minds.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
So you've learned so much in this deep dive today.
You really are holding powerful insights the answers in your
hands right now. But remember the most critical step, maybe
the one you attempt to put off, is to actually
act on this knowledge. Don't procrastinate on beating procrastination.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
That's the crucial point. And one final thoughts to the
book to leave you with is that an excess of
will power always delay gratification can be just as self
defeating as its absence. Postponing joy constantly can be an unwise,
stifling choice. But and this is the key. Unless we
develop the competence to sustain delay when we need to,
(30:15):
and exercise our will when we choose to, then the
choice itself is lost. We become slaves to impulse. The
goal is into elimitate desire or emotion, but to master
your own mind so you can make choices that truly
align with your deepest aspirations, not just your most immediate impulses.
To live your life as you always wanted to, to be
the person you always wanted to be. Well, you know
what to do, Now do it.
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