Procrastinating and the Emotions involved.

   The following article popped up on Flipboard. A news gathering app on my phone. It's a bit of a cheat to just copy and paste something but it's a good piece.

   Timothy Pychyl's web site has even more interesting stuff 

http://http-server.carleton.ca/~tpychyl/

There's a small section in the middle that's a bit faint. Sorry about this but copying and pasting on to this blog isn't always straight forward for yours truly.

To Stop Procrastinating, Start by Understanding the Emotions Involved

Time management goes only so far; the emotional reasons for delay must also be addressed.

By 

SHIRLEY S. WANG

Updated Aug. 31, 2015 11:44 p.m. ET

Putting off a work or school assignment in order to play videogames or water the plants might seem like nothing more serious than poor time-management.

But researchers say chronic procrastination is an emotional strategy for dealing with stress, and it can lead to significant issues in relationships, jobs, finances and health.

In August, researchers from Stockholm University published one of the first randomized controlled trials on the treatment of procrastination. It found a therapy delivered online can significantly reduce procrastination.

Psychologists also are studying other ways people might be able to reduce procrastination, such as better emotion-regulation strategies and visions of the future self.

Scientists define procrastination as the voluntary delay of an action despite foreseeable negative future consequences. It is opting for short-term pleasure or mood at the cost of the long-term. Perhaps we didn’t finish preparing a presentation on the weekend because we had house guests. That is just intentional delay based on a rational decision, says Timothy Pychyl (pronounced pitch-el), a psychology professor at Carleton University, in Ottawa, who has published extensively on the topic.

The essence of procrastination is “we’re giving in to feel good,” Dr. Pychyl says. “Procrastination is, ‘I know I should be doing it, I want to, it gets under my skin [when I don’t].’ ”

Ben Lockwood, a 39-year-old office manager in Chippenham, about 100 miles west of London, knows the feeling all too well. Even though he isn’t a lazy person, he says, he struggles with procrastination at work and in his personal life. He says he feels paralyzed by wanting to do everything perfectly, which then makes him feel anxious about getting started.

Instead of looking for a new job, he might go to the gym—a move researchers call “moral compensation.” That is when procrastinators do something to make themselves feel good or productive in order to avoid the task that needs to get done.

Mr. Lockwood says this pattern of behavior fills him with self-loathing. “I think I’d rather tell someone I robbed a bank than tell them I procrastinate,” he says.

Chronic procrastinators often hold misconceptions about why they procrastinate and what it means, psychologists have discovered. Many chronic procrastinators believe they can’t get started on a task because they want to do it perfectly. Yet studies show chronic procrastination isn’t actually linked to perfectionism, but rather to impulsiveness, which is a tendency to act immediately on urges, according to Piers Steel, an organizational-behavior professor at the University of Calgary.

TO PROCRASTINATE LESS, START BY DOING THIS

Tips from research led by Timothy Pychyl, Piers Steel and Alexander Rozental.

·         Break a long-term project down into specific sub-goals. State the exact start time and how long (not just “tomorrow”) you plan to work on the task.

·         Just get started. It isn’t necessary to write a long list of tasks, or each intermediate step.

·         Remind yourself that finishing the task now helps you in the future. Putting off the task won’t make it more enjoyable.

·         Implement “microcosts,” or mini-delays, that require you to make a small effort to procrastinate, such as having to log on to a separate computer account for games.

·         Reward yourself not only for completing the entire project but also the sub-goals.

People may assume anxiety is what prevents them from getting started, yet data from many studies show that for people low in impulsiveness, anxiety is the cue to get going. Highly impulsive people, on the other hand, shut down when they feel anxiety. Impulsive people are believed to have a harder time dealing with strong emotion and want to do something else to get rid of the bad feeling, Dr. Steel says.

Some people claim they purposely leave things to the last minute because they work better under stress, but true procrastinators get stressed out by the delay. It’s arguable whether the quality of their work is actually better than if they had started earlier, according to Dr. Pychyl.

Experts say the consequences of chronic or extreme procrastination can be serious: Marriages break up, people lose jobs and often feel like impostors. Fuschia Sirois, a psychology professor at the University of Sheffield, in England, recently began studying the effects of procrastination on coping with chronic illness.

The mental-health effects of procrastination are well-documented: Habitual procrastinators have higher rates of depression and anxiety and poorer well-being.

Less is known about physical effects, and especially serious health problems. In a recent paper, Dr. Sirois and colleagues found procrastinators with hypertension and heart disease were less likely to engage in active strategies for coping with the illness, such as finding meaning or taking action, such as arranging to exercise with a friend. They were more likely to adopt maladaptive behaviors, like being avoidant or blaming themselves for the illness and trying to forget it.

In addition, procrastinators often seem unable to see as clearly into the future about their choices and behaviors as non-procrastinators—a phenomenon she calls “temporal myopia.” Their vision of their future selves is often more abstract and impersonal, and they’re less connected emotionally to their future selves. Temporal myopia may be largely due to their high levels of stress which can shift their focus to more immediate rather than distant concerns.

“A lot of us think, I’m doing it for me” and that in the future we’ll benefit because of what we’re doing now, says Dr. Sirois. But procrastinators aren’t as good at envisioning this. Dr. Sirois, Carleton’s Dr. Pychyl and others are testing interventions for helping procrastinators better envision and connect with their future selves.

Focusing on time management alone will help procrastinators, but only so much, the scientists say. The emotional regulation component must be addressed as well.

Dr. Sirois and Dr. Pychyl also have focused on short-term mood repair as an anti-procrastination strategy. They teach people to recognize that they might have strong emotions, such as anxiety, at the start of a project but to not judge themselves for it. The next step is just to get started, step by step, with a narrow focus.

At Stockholm University, researchers set out to test whether a self-help treatment could have an effect on more-severe forms of procrastination, as the research in this area was lacking. Though there are many self-help books and experimental lab studies, the group wanted to design an intervention that, if shown efficacious, could be rolled out widely, such as via the Internet, said Alexander Rozental, a clinical psychologist and doctoral student who was an author of the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Some 150 participants were self-reported high procrastinators and were randomly assigned to complete the intervention, either by themselves, with the guidance of a therapist or to a wait-list control. The treatment program consisted of 10 weekly modules.

One component focused on goal setting, such as breaking down long-term goals into smaller and more-concrete sub-goals. Instead of saying one was going to work on a paper on Tuesday, participants were taught to be specific and divide it into manageable sub-goals: I am going to work on a paper for one hour at 11 a.m.

The intervention also employed a reward system. Participants would give themselves something positive, whether a cup of coffee or a break after accomplishing mini-goals, rather than wait until finishing the overall goal.

Another module involved exposing procrastinators to stressful feelings or thoughts in brief but gradually longer periods. The goal there is to help them feel that they are better able to manage their emotions and not to instinctively follow them.

The results showed that after intervention with both guided and unguided self-help, people improved their procrastination, though the guided therapy seemed to show greater benefit. The researchers, who have continued following up with the participants, will look at one-year outcomes later this year to see if the results were maintained.

They also are conducting a study of college students receiving either group therapy or Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy, where they will look not only at self-reported procrastination but also at real-life outcomes including academic grades and use of alcohol and drugs, Mr. Rozental says.

In Calgary, Dr. Steel’s lab is testing and helping to develop new software with a Hong Kong company, Saent, that helps by delaying the loading of websites such as Facebook for 15 seconds or so, using “micro-costs” such as requiring a password before surfing the Web. Sometimes these little bits of effort are all that are necessary to deter procrastinators from distraction, Dr. Steel says.

Mr. Lockwood, the procrastinator from the U.K., has developed his own strategies for helping him delay tasks. Since he’s had to pay late fees before for not paying bills on time, for no reason other than he didn’t put the check in the mail, he now makes sure he’s always stocked with stamps and envelopes at home and has online bill pay set up for as many places as possible.

But he wishes he could shake his procrastination in other areas of his life. He says his girlfriend is always planning their vacations because he has a hard time getting started and is reluctant to ask for time off. But he actually enjoys the act of planning trips. He says one day he would love to surprise her by coming up with the idea and doing the planning.

“If you’re an occasional procrastinator, quit thinking about your feelings and get to the next task,” says Dr. Pychyl. “But if you’re a chronic procrastinator, you might need therapy to better understand your emotions and how you’re coping with them through avoidance.”

Write to Shirley S. Wang at shirley.wang@wsj.com

Onwards and upwards in pursuit of fulfillment ;-)))

Optimism.

   I am an optimist by nature. How do I know? well if I look back as far as I can remember, I've always been buoyant, hopeful and positive about the future and all it holds, . Even when it would have been best for me not to. My optimism can lead me to take on too much. Sometimes it's best to give up or pass by some things and sometimes, some people. It may be possible in and with, time. To come back to those things and those people.
    After taking on too much or letting things bunch up the optimist inside me disappears for a couple of days till the heat dies down a little. Miserable me has to pick up the pieces of that lost direction and purpose and sometimes I just sit there and wonder what to do next. Not for long but enough to cause a problem or two and set things back a little.
   The optimist in me shouldn't feel bad and at fault. I just need to remember to get involved in less. Just what's in front of me.

Onwards and upwards in pursuit of fulfillment :-)))  

Really, really STUPID.

   After several (relatively) jolly posts. I have one that isn't. I got a parking ticket in a place where I and others have parked before. Which is a bummer at the best of times but then I didn't pay it within 14 days and now it's double the original £55. Getting the ticket was bad enough but it came on the day the wrong tiles for the job I'm on, arrived. I phoned the supplier and they said that's what I ordered. Check your email. What email? It was in my junk file. Now I've only ever had one code number for the tiles. It's on the sample the client gave me. So they made the mistake but I didn't look in my junk file, so didn't spot it and correct it in time. My mistake and an admin charge of £150 (10% of the order value) to pick up the wrong ones and deliver the right ones. Two avoidable errors on my part and my bank account down £260.
   There are far worse things that could of happened but avoidable things like those above really really eat into me and colour the proceeding few days (in the past) a morning (yesterday) and (right now) as I write this. Finding a way past things like this has been a real problem for me. Tiny errors become huge and up till now I haven't found a way of getting past it. I have read and been told that you have to forgive yourself and move on. The trouble with that is "me" the victim is forgiving "me" the perpetrator and I'm not sure or convinced that perpetrator me isn't going to go and do more dumb things. While I'm toiling this over in my mind, I hear the word "apologize" float out of the radio. Now maybe that will work. Perpetrator of dumb things me, apologizes to victim of dumb things me and promises to really try and not make the dumb mistake again. Victim me says "ok and I'll keep an eye out for stuff like that too." So now both me and me are friends again and can look back on how £260 made us a better, stronger person. Well until next time.

Onwards and upwards in search of fulfillment :-))) 

Scotland, sculpture and sleep.

   My new tiles, a few postcards, two secondhand books and a couple of tired picture frames found in a charity shop are now back home with me in Maison Margate by the sea.
   Scotland was brilliant. I revisited places. Found new ones and missed a couple I would of liked to have seen but that's now for another time.
   I also came across the "Kelpies." They are mythical shape shifting water spirits. Inhabiting the lochs and pools of Scotland. Usually appearing as a horse but not always. The Loch Ness monster is a Kelpie.  

The artist responsible for these two 30 metre high sculptures is Andy Scott ( yeah, I smiled at that too) Andy's vision, was for something representing the lost history of heavy industry in the Falkirk area of Scotland. 

   Falkirk is the meeting point of the Union canal from Edinburgh and the Forth and Clyde canal from Glasgow. So an important cross roads between Scotland's two principle cities during the Industrial Revolution. Barges laden with one thing or another would make the journey back and fourth and what dragged the barges up and down those canals? Horses. Not only are these two sculptures magnificent, representing the heavy industrial past of the area but they represent the future too. The cutting edge technology that helped create them and the pride and abilities of a new Scotland that helped inspire their creation. If further evidence of that were needed, just a short walk away is the Falkirk Wheel. The Falkirk Wheel is a boat lift. Replacing the 30 odd lock gates that used to get you from the Union to the Forth and Cylde. There are many boat lifts in the World but the Falkirk is the only rotating one. I've included a couple of you tube clips. One of the wheel in action and one of the construction of the "Kelpies."

https://vimeo.com/90747645

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX6kJKjg4y0

It's time to sleep.

Onwards and upwards. In the pursuit of fulfullment :-)))

   

Travelling to better places.

   I've noticed recently, I'm in a better happier place. I can't put my finger on why.  Which is slightly annoying. I expected to have a Eureka moment and a brass band at the door, bunting and cake. All my issues would dissolve as the answer to that nagging question popped into my head. However it seems things don't work that way. Change happens slowly and it's multi faceted. Small unconnected things I'm doing to try and improve things seem to all mesh together at some invisible point and then I realise I'm feeling better!
   Don't run away with the idea that all is perfect. There are still things I get wrong or do badly but the list isn't as long as it used to be. I still annoy people but tend not to annoy myself as much. Which is a plus, seeing as I seems to be with myself 24/7. Other people I can avoid till they calm down.
   In other news ..... I'm off to Scotland for a few days. Primarily I'm going there to pick up some tiles I brought on eBay for a ridiculously small amount of money. Spending a ridiculous large amount of money on petrol, getting there and back. However I get to see a friend in Wigan (half way between me and the Scots) and she wants to come along for the ride. We'll visit a few galleries and places of interest along the way and meet up with my Cousin, who is looking after the ridiculously cheap tiles. They are an unusual colour and I think there's just enough boxes to do the hallway of Maison Margate. I like the idea of things having a story. In future, each time I pop along the hallway it may remind me of my trip. I brought an old front door recently. Again very cheaply and again spent a bit on petrol to collect it. It has spent it's life, about 100 years, keeping the elements at bay and watching the Sun disappearing into the sea near St Ives in Cornwell. The furthest west you can get in this Country. Soon it will be protecting me from the elements and watching the Sun come up from the furthest point east you can be in this Country. It will matter to no one but me and the door.

Onwards and upwards in the pursuit of fulfillment :-)))

A very late "Post."

   This has been sitting in the edit department for a while now. Work has kind of got in the way of things but it has it's place in my history. So here it is.
   Mad girl and I split up after our holiday in Febuary. All very amicably. We chat on the phone often and I've been over to finish some tiling and stuff. There are a couple of small things we don't seem to manage to get right and we'd much prefer to be friends than bounce along like we have been.
   I've been getting on with work and looking after myself quite nicely since. That helped move things on. Unexpectedly  a couple of months later an ad appeared with my emails for an online dating site. I did this once before. Then it wasn't the right time for me. I was a bit needy.ow I'm in a much better place. So I filled in the required boxes, wrote an amusing profile that highlighted all my faults. There's nothing worse than someone pointing out your faults, so I got in there first and added a few more for good measure. A couple of profile pictures and hey presto.
   There's a few things to be aware of. Anybody who doesn't have a profile picture, anybody seriously younger than you and anybody who can't spell or know the basics of grammer. It's usually a scam of some kind.
   So I did a search of the local area. Lots of diabolical selfies and profiles that were more a shopping list of things required and not required from any potential suitor. Soulmates are very high on most lists. Now if you didn't manage to find your soulmate first time around, when the market was full of young free and single people. Do they really think there's much chance now? Given that most in the market will be second hand and carrying more baggage than your average holiday jet.
   There's also something called "dating diaries" where you can read comments left by the opposite sex. These are mostly in the form of long moans and instructions to follow. Our pictures and profiles are rubbish, lieing about our their age (more on that later) and not reading the diarest's profile properly. Durrrrr we're talking about men here. We don't read instructions or the information on medicine bottles when we're ill. Once we've seen your picture and worked out you don't live miles away, we've all the information we need. The diarist are shooting themselves in the foot here. We may not read their whole profile but we've homed in on the moaning and have crossed them off the "possibles" list straight away.
   I'm really enjoying the absurdity of it all. Profile pictures fall into several categories. Some good selfies and some very bad ones. Or the pictures with the ex cut out and just his arm hanging over their shoulder like a weird hallowen scarf. Then there are the pictures taken from several miles away or pictures of the person with her friend/sister etc and you're not sure who's who. Or and this is very strange. A picture of a cat/dog/horse. Is that some kind of strange secret code?
   Then there are the profiles.  Where every women around my age proclaims they like nothing better than walking along an empty beach. I'd love to know which beach, because it sure as hell isn't the one at the end of my road (pictured above). Somewhere in this country is a stretch of coastline, knee deep in single women my age looking for Mr Right.
    I have met one woman. She sent me a message primarily because I didn't look the same as the other men (I'm not sure that's necessarily a good thing) and my profile was "funny". We sent messages back and forth and I looked her up on Facebook. On the dating site she said she was two years younger than me. On Facebook she was a year older than me and when we met I'd say she was probably a couple of years older than that. Still no problem, she was interesting, chatty and we had a great afternoon visiting a couple of exhibitions and shared a beer afterwards then both headed off separately for home. No sparks but a nice day. I couldn't really get the lying about the age thing out of my head. I appreciate nobody likes to get old but what if we'd hit it off. When would the right time be, to own up??? I guess when she realised I didn't own a Ferrari or live in a mansion.

Onwards and upwards. In search of fulfillment :-)))  

Washing up.

   For someone who lives on their own, I generate a lot of washing up. I guess it's a man thing. Just like being pregnant is a woman thing. I've met a lot of pregnant woman in my time and quite a few behave like they are the only ones that have ever been pregnant and about to give birth.  Man cooking, is much the same. We believe we have created something never seen before. When in truth the only thing never seen before is the mountain of washing up we have created. I have made a potato and leek soup and a pork and bean stew. Which I'll take back to London for lunch at work this week. I'm staying with a friend while working and because I made enough Pork and beans to see me through a nuclear apocalypse, we started on it last night. She's a very good cook and thought it tasted fine but then she had had a couple of glasses of wine before I arrived. So I'm not get carried away.
   As far as works concerned this week I have a lot of staining to do. Years ago a decorator friend showed me how to mix paint, spirits and oils to get a stain that exactly match the colour you were painting a wall or door or whatever. It's been a useful little trick. So the cabinet doors on the kitchen I'm installing will match the room doors. In fact the whole cabinet inside and out will match the doors. My client wasn't too sure if this was going to work. So yesterday she got a train from her main house down to the London house, a 200 mile round trip. So she's really keen or she doesn't trust me. Either way all is well. She likes the effect. I've include a picture but I have to say it's difficult to see, there is now a blue veining running through the oak. You might be able to see it if you zoom in. Maybe it will be easier to see when its all done. Then you can all come round and take a look.
   I had an aunt who believed she had a Red Indian spirit guide watching her. Even as a nine year old I thought it strange that a Red Indian ghost had traveled all the way to West London to protect my batty aunt. The coming of the internet introduced me, not personally you understand, to a whole host of people who thought they had Red Indian spirit guides. Where there really that many Red Indians. John Wayne dispatched quite a lot of them if memory serves me right and I can't believe they would be prepared to come back in the afterlife to protect us. Seeing how we were responsible for their near extinction. Now forgive my flippancy. In some quarters my description will be thought of as rude and in bad taste. I know Indigenous peoples or Native Americans is the correct way but my batty aunt wouldn't know what we were going on about and the next part of this wouldn't have had such a rambling lead up. My long distance friend Pres reads the blog occasionally and picked up on the fact that I was having a bit of a self inflicted tough time. So he phoned and we spoke for about an hour and he's regularly been texting to check I'm ok. Now he's not dead or an Indigenous American but alive and kicking and of Indian (Asian) descent. So I have a spirit guide too. Watching over me, which I much appreciate.

Onwards and upwards. In search of fulfillment :-)))

In memory of Molly a much missed friend of my friend and his family.