Wellbeing Services - How to Just Do It Booklet

How to Just Do It

Help yourself to overcome procrastination

By Josie Bannon and Sarah Lane

It can be hard to ask for help with procrastination, particularly at University when everyone else may look like they are just getting on with things. Well done in taking the first step towards trying to tackle the problem.

This booklet is aimed at anyone who struggles with procrastinating or ‘putting things off’. It includes a student example to illustrate different ideas and techniques. All the techniques in the booklet are based on the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy approach. We will talk more about this later in the booklet. CBT has a lot of research to show that it can be very helpful for a range of problems. You may be working through the booklet on your own or with the support of a practitioner from the Wellbeing Centre. It can also be helpful to talk to someone you trust such as a family member or a friend so you have their support as well.

If you are working with a practitioner it is likely you will have regular sessions where you can talk through how you have got on using the different techniques and any problems that may have arisen. You can talk together about how to solve these problems and progress with the techniques.

Tackling procrastination can be a difficult and challenging process and there may be times when you feel as though you aren’t getting anywhere. Just remember that we all have good days and bad days so try not to let the bad days feel as though you have taken ‘two steps back’.

If you are seeing a practitioner at the wellbeing centre then you can talk this through with them and work out the best course of action. If not then you may want to get in touch to access some support in using these techniques.

The idea of this booklet is to give you the information you need to help yourself tackle procrastination. This means that you need to have a go at all the techniques to find out which ones are the most helpful for you.

Defining procrastination...

“…making a decision for no valid reason to delay or not complete a task or goal you’ve committed to, and instead doing something of lesser importance, despite there being negative consequences to not following through on the original task or goal.” Centre for Clinical Interventions.

Is it Common?

l Procrastination is a normal human behaviour.

Procrastination can be intentional…but it may happen almost automatically and can become a habit so you may not notice yourself doing it.

l Approximately 20% of adults are chronic procrastinators.

l In university 75-95% of people have problems with procrastination.

l It can be mistaken for laziness.

What do people put off doing?

People may procrastinate with anything. In university students will often put off studying, writing an essay or course work. However, people may also procrastinate in other areas such as household chores, health, finance, social activities, activities associated with family and relationships, self development, decision making and work.

What people do when they procrastinate…

People do a variety of things when they procrastinate. These can include: pleasurable tasks, socialising, distractions (e.g. sleeping, eating, drinking), lower priority tasks and daydreaming.

Amy’s example

Amy is a second year Biology student. She always leaves her work right up until the last minute. She has tried to start earlier but finds that she ends up looking on Facebook or day dreaming. She has started going out with her friends instead of trying to start work early. She gets really frustrated with herself because she knows that she can do better than that.

Some positive and negative consequences Amy gave about procrastinating...

“When I sit down to work I feel horrible. By procrastinating I can avoid that feeling.”

“I procrastinate by going for a coffee with friends which I enjoy.”

“If I don’t do very well then I can say that I left it until the last minute.”

“I end up feeling more stressed because I know that the work still needs to be done.”

“The work load continues to pile up.”

“I don’t allow myself to have days off where I can go out and enjoy myself.”

“I can become very critical of myself for not being able to get on with the work.”

“I often get worse grades because I leave my work until the last minute.”

“Sometimes I punish myself if I haven’t been able to get any work done that day.”

Worksheet

What tasks do you put off doing?

What do you do when you procrastinate instead of the task you aim to do?

What are the positive and negative consequences when you procrastinate with tasks?

Positives

Negatives

Thinking about procrastination

Procrastinating can impact on all three of the areas below then each area can have a ‘knock on’ effect on other areas. For example, if you think that you are not going to be able to do well on a piece of work, then you might experience feelings of discomfort when the work is set and avoid these feelings by putting off doing the work until the last minute. A result of leaving the work until the last minute might be that you don’t do as well as you had hoped which might reaffirm your thoughts that you will not do well with work set.

Thoughts

Thoughts are often negative or unhelpful such as predicting the worst or thinking that you won’t be able to do it.’

Feelings

Feelings of discomfort when attempting the task or when the task approaches. Negative feeling associated with putting the task off.

Behaviour

Not doing the task and instead doing other less important things. Not allowing breaks or enjoyable things in your schedule.

The above diagram shows how you can get ‘trapped’ in a vicious cycle that can become a downward spiral. This can be very difficult to break out of and this is where Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be helpful. The term ‘Cognitive Behavioural Therapy’ refers to techniques that focus on changing thoughts and behaviours.

How does your procrastination affect you?

Have a go at filling in your vicious cycle.

Behaviour

Thoughts

Feelings

The techniques in this booklet are based on the idea of this vicious cycle. Because breaking down the vicious cycle into these three areas, will make it possible to tackle procrastination by focusing on one specific area at a time. This booklet includes techniques focusing on thoughts and behaviours as a way of breaking the cycle.

Setting yourself goals to work towards...

Consider how procrastinating is affecting your life. What goals could you set yourself to work towards over the next few months? When setting goals try to make sure they are specific and realistic, this way you will be able to measure when you have achieved them.

Setting and monitoring goals can be really useful as it can keep you focused on what you want to achieve and it can help you to know when you have reached that point.

I can do this now (circle a number)

Revisit these each week and circle the relevant number. This will help with monitoring your progress towards your goals.

Amy’s goal

Amy initially set herself a goal to not procrastinate over her assignments, however it is difficult to measure this. Making goals SMART can help.

Setting SMART goals

Specific – Be as clear as you can. You may want to stop procrastinating but ask yourself what stopping procrastinating means you will be able to do e.g. finish assignments three days before the deadline.

Measurable – How will you know when you have achieved this goal? Is there an end point?

Achievable – It needs to be something you are able to achieve in the time frame, as otherwise it will seem too daunting or overwhelming. People who set goals that are too big can feel like they have failed when they can’t achieve them. It is better to start small and build up. Is your goal a small enough step?

Relevant – It needs to be relevant to you; it should match your values.

Time bound – You should have a clear idea of when you want to achieve this goal by. GOAL ONE: Today’s date:

To start assignments within a week of them being set..

Thoughts that can lead to procrastination

I’m too tired.

If I try really hard and still don’t do well, people will think I’m stupid.

I’m not going to do very well.

I will wait until I have enough motivation to do the work well.

Often the thoughts that lead to us procrastinating are based on truths. It’s true that we might feel very tired, unmotivated and uninspired, or that we don’t have enough time to get it all done in one go. However, it is the thoughts that we attach to these truths, the unhelpful conclusions we draw, that can cause us to procrastinate. Below are some examples of the truths and associated unhelpful conclusions that might lead to procrastination. Have a look and see if any relate to you.

I am

I have

I don’t feel inspired I will wait until I

I have other things to do I’ll do it once those things are finished

I don’t have enough time to get it all done I will wait until I have

I work better under

Dispelling the illusion of perfect conditions

Unfortunately there is unlikely to be any time that is ideal for doing something we don’t feel like doing. It might be more helpful to think ‘now is as good as any other time to make a start’. Once we have begun a task, even in a small way, our motivation often increases and this helps us to then achieve our goal. Also by taking action, many of the initial obstacles will often resolve themselves and we will feel capable of seeing the task through to completion.

Below are some questions you can ask when you notice yourself procrastinating over a task. Think about each one and write the answer down for future reference.

I can say all that now but it might be harder when I have something I need to do!

What are the reasons that it is better for me to put off this task?

What are the reasons that it is better for me to start this task now?

Is it possible to make a small start on some parts of the task now, despite conditions not being ideal?

Can I be certain that there will be a better time to do it later?

What is the likely outcome of starting the task now?

What is the likely outcome of not starting the task now?

Challenging Amy’s conclusions

It can be helpful to go through all of the questions in the table below, that way you have all the information together and you can always refer back to it any other time you notice yourself procrastinating over a similar task. Below is one of Amy’s examples when she was procrastinating over starting an essay because she thought that she would miss out on the fun happening at that point in time. Fill out your own on the next page.

The truth: I will miss out on the fun happening now.

Old unhelpful conclusion: I can always wait until nothing much is happening.

Answers to questions: It is true that I will miss going out with my friends tonight.

Delaying doing the work is likely to make me feel more stressed as this is what has happened in the past.

There may not be a time before the deadline when nothing much is happening.

If I do go out, this coursework will just play on my mind and prevent me

from fully enjoying myself.

If I make a start I will feel more relaxed when I next go out.

The truth: I will miss out on the fun happening now.

New helpful conclusion: If I get some work done I can reward myself with other fun later.

Procrastination excuse

Challenging unhelpful conclusions worksheet

Possible helpful conclusions

It will be important for you to come up with your own helpful conclusions to challenge your procrastination. Changing thought processes can take time and it won’t happen over night. The best thing to do is keep the previous worksheet handy so you can look over it and remind yourself of the answers to the questions. Try to go over the helpful conclusion again and again, until it’s easier to bring to mind, you might even want to stick it to your wall!

The truth

I am really tired

Helpful conclusion

But I can still make a small start right now and then rest I don’t want to do it now

I will miss out on the fun happening now

I don’t have everything I need

But later won’t be any better, so I may as well try to get started

But if I get some of it done, I can reward myself with other fun later

But I can still try to make a start on some bits of the task I have plenty of time

I don’t feel inspired

I have other things to do

But better to stay on top of it now than leave it to the last minute

But if I get started the inspiration may follow, I can’t just wait around for inspiration to arrive

But they are not more important and can be done after this I don’t have enough time to get it all done But that doesn’t mean I can’t get some of it done now

I work better under pressure

But it is still worth making a start now, because if I leave things too late it can backfire

Tackling negative predictions

When we feel anxious or stressed, it is common to make negative predictions about what’s going to happen in the future. Predicting the worst tends to lead us to engage in unhelpful behaviours like procrastinating. When we put a task off we are never able to test our predictions and find out what actually would have happened if we didn’t procrastinate. If the outcome was different to what we predicted, this could really help to break the cycle. Behavioural experiments are a good way of testing negative predictions in a systematic way. The steps involved in this process are detailed below:

1. Identify a belief – A belief or thought might be quite vague or general. If you are going to test it out then you will need to reduce it down to something specific that can be tested experimentally.

2. Make a plan to test the belief – Be as specific as possible. What, where, when and with who will you test this. You will also need to create a hypothesis about what you predict is going to happen.

3. Carry out the experiment – This might feel very uncomfortable and anxiety provoking. But remember that a bit of anxiety is to be expected and you are just experimenting to find out what happens.

4. Evaluate the result – Record what happened in the experiment. What was the outcome? Is the outcome open to interpretation or is it conclusive?

5. Draw conclusions – What do the results mean? How do they relate to the original prediction / hypothesis? What does this tell you about your belief? Are you able to test this belief further with any more experiments?

A. Is there another explanation for what happened?

B. What else was happening at that time? What other variables may have affected the outcome?

C. Are there other ways of viewing what happened?

D. What could I learn from the experience to improve or change things in the future?

What if the findings support my belief / prediction?

Amy’s behavioural experiment

Below is an example of an experiment that Amy tried to test out her unhelpful conclusions:

I’m too tired, I won’t be able to get any work done now.

That I might be able to get some work done, despite being tired.

I’m going to wait until the next day that I have had a bad nights sleep and go to the library to try and do any assignments that I have set at the time, I’ll just try to work on one thing. I’ll do this on my own or with a friend if they want to come. I will try to work on the assignment for the morning and a few hours in the afternoon.

Step 4: What things may get in your way? How will you overcome these?

If a load of friends are going in to town or doing something fun, then I need to tell them that I am doing an experiment and that I can’t come, in fact, I’ll let friends know before hand so they don’t try to make me come with them.

Step 5: Record what happened when you carried out the experiment

It took me a while to get going with the assignment, but after an hour or so I started to focus on a literature search and actually found quite a few articles. I had a nice break to get some fresh air and then tried to read some of them. This was hard but I did find that I could read the abstracts to work out how important they were.

Step 6: What can you learn from this? How much do you believe your original prediction?

Well, it’s obvious that I am able to do some things. There might still be certain things which are difficult but at least I could gather what I needed and do a good bit of preparation for the essay. I don’t believe the original predication now.

Behavioural experiment worksheet

Step 1: Negative thought or belief to be tested How much do you believe this prediction? (0-100%)

Step 2: What is an alternative prediction? How much do you believe this prediction? (0-100%)

Step 3: Experiment design – What will you do to test the prediction? Where? When? For how long? With whom?

Step 4: What things may get in your way? How will you overcome these?

Step 5: Record what happened when you carried out the experiment

Step 6: What can you learn from this? How much do you believe your original prediction?

Some ideas

for experiments...

Belief / prediction Unhelpful conclusion

I’m better at working under pressure.

There’s not enough time to get it all done.

I will leave it to the last minute.

I can’t think what to do for a behavioural experiment?!

I am very tired.

I will wait until I have plenty of time to do it.

Doing the work will just make me even more tired. It would be best to wait to do it until after I have rested.

Behavioural experiment

Try leaving some tasks until there is little time to do them and plan and work on other tasks so they are completed at least a couple of days in advance of their deadline. Compare these approaches to see which works best for you.

Try starting some tasks only when you have enough time to complete them in one sitting and other tasks using chunks of time as they become available. Compare these approaches to see which works best for you.

Rate fatigue on a scale of 0-10 before doing a task. Spend 20 minutes doing the task. Re-rate fatigue and compare to the initial rating. Reflect on what you’ve achieved in the short amount of time you’ve worked on the task.

Practical strategies for overcoming procrastination

We have looked at how to challenge the unhelpful thoughts that lead to putting a task off, now we are going to focus more on practical strategies that can be helpful. We will go through a number of different ideas, some of them might relate well to you and others may not. Just give them all a go and see how you get on.

To do list

l Write a ‘To Do’ list of the tasks to be done. This could be for the day, week, month, term...whatever works for you.

l Consider how realistic the list of tasks is for the time allocated.

l If it isn’t realistic, see which tasks can be postponed for a later date.

l Number the activities according to what is most urgent and important.

l If having a long list is too stressful then only think about activities by the day.

Grade tasks

l Break each task into all the small steps involved in its completion e.g. writing an essay, literature search, reading, writing, editing, etc.

l This can make large tasks seem less overwhelming and small tasks seem more straightforward which may motivate you to get it over and done with.

l Think of the first step, then work forward through the series of steps involved until the task is completed.

l For big steps, see if there is any way to break them down further.

l Also if the tasks are smaller you can do them in far less time so you won’t need to wait until you have large gaps of time to complete them.

Practical strategies for overcoming procrastination

Tell the time

l People who procrastinate often underestimate how long a task will take and therefore do not allocate enough time or overestimate, which puts them off doing it.

l It can be helpful to practise estimating how long you think tasks you usually underestimate or overestimate will take.

l Then time how long they actually take and keep a record of this for future reference.

Set time restraints

l Just 5 minutes – initially commit to just a small amount of time to get started on a task.

l Set time limits – Set a specific amount of time to work on a task then stop rather than extending if you can.

Ordering tasks

l Start with the worst first – particularly good for small but dreaded tasks e.g. phoning someone you don’t want to speak to.

l Using momentum – start doing a task that you like and that energises you and then without a break quickly switch to a task that you have been putting off.

Practical strategies for overcoming procrastination

Finding your optimum

l Prime time – choosing your most productive, energised or creative time of day.

l Prime place – What type of environments do you get more done in and what types of environments have more distractions? Seek out environments with minimal distractions.

Remembering

l Remember-then-do – For small irritating tasks that often get forgotten, do them as soon as you think of them.

l Reminders – If forgetting is a significant factor then use visual reminders and prompts e.g. mobile phone.

Visualisation

l Visualise yourself doing the task.

l Bring to mind a very vivid picture.

l In this visualisation, notice any obstacles arising which get in the way of the task and imagine successfully overcoming these and completing the task.

l Focus on the positive feelings of the task being complete.

l Use the momentum from the visualisation to start the task in reality.

Practical strategies for overcoming procrastination

Focusing

l If you feel unsettled when trying to start a task, close your eyes and focus on your breath.

l Try to lengthen each in and out breath and slow your breathing to steady it.

l Breathe from your belly rather than your chest.

l Spend 5-10 minutes focusing on your breath then return to the task.

l Come back to focusing on the breath again if you feel unsettled at any time.

Plan rewards

l Plan rewards and time for having fun.

l Often the activities which we could use to reward ourselves (e.g. socialising) are the same things that distract us and cause us to procrastinate in the first place.

l The more you plan regular rewards for your achievements, the less you will feel like you are missing out.

l Letting these rewards be guilt-free, by having planned them and fitted them around work that needs doing, is critical.

l Rewards, leisure and pleasure help to replenish energy.

Scheduling

Scheduling may feel like it actually contributes to the stress you feel around getting things done. If a schedule is too full or unachievable then this will be the case. It may also feel daunting to see all the things which you need to do, if this is the case then you should try scheduling described below.

Scheduling

l Try keeping a detailed diary.

l Enter in existing commitments and usual routine.

l Fit ‘chunks’ of tasks that need to be completed around these tasks.

Unscheduling

l Schedule in existing commitments and usual routine but do not plan the steps towards the tasks that you had been procrastinating about.

l This will help you see where you have blocks of time to devote to the tasks you have been putting off.

l When you reach one of these blocks of time, then look at your prioritised and graded list and decide what to work on during the time.

l Once you have worked solidly on a task for 30 minutes, write it into your schedule, you can then look back at the schedule to see what you have done as opposed to what you haven’t done.

Staying well

Well done on getting to the end of How to Just Do It! It can be helpful to look back over the weeks you have been working on these techniques and think about what has been the most helpful. There is no way of knowing if procrastination will be a problem for you again in the future, but hopefully working through this booklet has equipped you with some ways of coping if you do feel that way again.

What have you learnt?

Which techniques have worked best for you?

What are your signs of procrastination? (Thoughts/feelings/behaviours)

What areas are you going to work on?

Are you going to talk to anyone else about what you are working towards?

Well done for working through How to Just Do It!

It is worth keeping an eye on your procrastination. It is perfectly normal to put things off sometimes but if you find that procrastination is impacting on your wellbeing then you should try to do something about it. The important thing is that you have learnt some skills that you can use to manage procrastination.

You might feel as though you’re still not where you want to be in terms of your procrastination. This is completely normal, it can take time for these techniques to reverse the vicious circle of thoughts, feelings and behaviours. If you found that they have made any difference at all, even if it’s small, this is encouraging. Just keep

up the good work and as time goes on you will notice it getting easier. You might also find further Cognitive Behaviour Therapy helpful.

It can be helpful to schedule in a day a month where you can focus on YOU! Where you can have a look back through this booklet to remind yourself of the different techniques and only do activities that are enjoyable and don’t involve any stress. If you schedule it in you’ll be more likely to do it, these things can easily get lost or forgotten about otherwise.

Josie Bannon and Sarah Lane (Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners)

Wellbeing Centre

University of Exeter

exeter.ac.uk/ wellbeing

References

Page 4: Speech bubble quote and bullet point statistics – Centre for Clinical Interventions, http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/ docs/Procrastination%20Module%201_Understanding%20Part%201.pdf.

Pages 10 and 14: Tables – Centre for Clinical Interventions, http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/docs/Procrastination% 20Module%204_Dismissing%20Excuses.pdf.