First Psychology blog

Over the last few days we’ve been looking at the issue of procrastination, exploring why we procrastinate, and looking at strategies to help us stop doing it.   One of the biggest challenges when trying to manage and overcome procrastination though is the psychological impact that procrastination can have on us.    Depression/low mood and procrastination A 2007 study published in the psychological bulletin suggested that the link between depression/low mood and over-procrastination was very strong. This is perhaps not a surprising finding. If we procrastinate over a task, we may feel hopeless in our abilities or helpless to get things done. That in turn may lead to low mood and depressive symptoms. This can often turn into a bit of a cycle. The more we procrastinate, the more hopeless and helpless we feel, and the less likely to undertake tasks we know we need to do. In other words, we procrastinate more.    OCD and procrastination Procrastination has also been ...

In yesterday’s blog we looked at some of the reasons why we procrastinate: Decision paralysis Time inconsistency Lack of self-belief Today, we’ll be looking at how to actually overcome procrastination – something that impacts us all every day to varying degrees. The first thing to keep in mind when trying to overcome procrastination is that everyone is different so some of the tips discussed here might not work for you. However, it’s worth giving them all a try to see which ones you find most effective. Acknowledge that you’re procrastinating This seems really basic, but it’s the first and most important step towards overcoming procrastination. In order to deal with anything, we first need to acknowledge that we're doing it. Take stock of your day and the past week, how much did you really work, how much did you really invest in the tasks at hand, and how much did you procrastinate? Just to be clear, switching focus to other tasks that really require your attention is not procrasti...

Procrastination is a funny thing. We know the things that are good for us, we know the things we should be doing, yet so often we do something totally different, and even sometimes the total opposite. For example, we know we should exercise more, yet we end up watching box sets on the couch; we know we should eat healthier food, yet we find ourselves eating our third Big Mac of the week; and we know we should tidy the house, but we end up leaving it for days so that it becomes even worse than when we first realised it needed to be cleaned. When you think about it, it doesn’t make much sense, does it? What place in human development does procrastination have? Surely its far too negative for it to be something to gravitate towards, yet all of us procrastinate at some point each day. The big question is, why on earth do we do it? Common reasons for procrastination Decision paralysis We have so many things going on in our lives that when it comes to occupying our time and our head...