Beating the Procrastination Demons

Introduction

In the 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, the character Mike Campbell was asked about his financial problems and responded with the following vivid description:

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.

“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

While Mike’s problems were financial, the effect of procrastination on our ability to achieve our long-cherished learning goals is similar. From the first time we make the decision to put off starting an assignment or that half an hour of homework, the learning debt starts to grow. Left untended, while we spend the hours doing other seemingly more pressing things, the debt becomes unsustainable, and so we rush to cram the work into whatever time is remaining. And much like a recalcitrant debtor, we try negotiating with our “creditors” to get extensions on assignments or rescheduling the test. Sometimes, with mere weeks to go before the course ends there is no choice but to declare “bankruptcy” and withdraw. Alternatively, by sheer luck a passing grade is achieved, but with actual learning so slight that there is only a shaky foundation to build upon for later courses.

The cold reality is, is that in order to achieve the big goal that debt must be paid. As long as you have the money and time, you can try again, but there is no escaping the period of self-admonishment for missing the opportunity and the time squandered.

Strangely though we all know that this will be the outcome unless we put the work in early and consistently, so why do we keep finding ourselves in the same situation over and over again in our academic, professional, and personal lives?

Throughout history man has imagined himself plagued by demons working to pull him down into the abyss. When it comes to procrastination, it is not just one demon but four brothers that berate and tempt us every day to avoid what we know we have to do. Two are born of anxiety: The Demon of Personal Failure and the Demon of Perfection. And two are born of malaise: The Demon of Fatigue and the Demon of Dispersion. So, who are these Demons and how do we beat them?

Willpower

But before we introduce ourselves to these Demons, it makes sense to consider the strengths and weakness of our main weapon against them: Willpower. According to various studies, greater willpower is linked to improved success in relationships, at work, in health, and even lifespan (Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004), (Kern & Friedman, 2008). Unfortunately, while willpower can be strengthened over time through exercise, the evidence also supports the conclusion that it is a limited resource (Weir, 2012). Therefore, in order for willpower to help us in our fight against the Demons we can’t use it in a full-frontal assault but must apply it tactically against their individual weak points.

The Demon of Personal Failure

This Demon, like all of them, exists as a small voice inside your head. Left unchecked it will happily spend all day telling you that you can’t possibly achieve your goals and the pain you will feel when you fail. Procrastination therefore becomes both a way to avoid this potential future pain and ironically the ultimate cause of it.

The temptation to postpone work is highest when attempting something new and your self-confidence is at its lowest point. Sometimes, it is possible to counter this fear by considering what transferable skills and knowledge you already have. Other times you may have to take the advice of Susan Jeffers, and simply “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway” (Jeffers, 2006). The key lessons from this advice is both that short-term failure is not fatal and that it is only through failure that there is an opportunity to learn and grow.

However, the problem with these approaches is that they focus on reducing fear of the goal and require a lot of willpower to sustain.

The best approach then is to take the advice of the Latin proverb “Fortuna Eruditis Favet” or “fortune favours the prepared mind” and integrate into your mental toolkit the key lesson and some simple low-willpower tactics that allow you to get started immediately. The tools allow a focus on the process of working towards your goal and require much lower willpower to defeat this procrastination causing demon.

One of the best is called the Pomodoro Technique[1]. At its simplest, the core of idea is that you find a distraction free environment (libraries are great for this), work for a defined period of time such as 25 minutes, and then give yourself a reward such as checking your social media accounts or grabbing a cup of coffee. After four rounds of this, you take a much longer break before starting again. Don’t forget to reward yourself as this helps build your willpower strength through achieving success. The goal then is simply to work uninterrupted for just 25 minutes, and who can’t put other things off to achieve this?

To make the best use of this technique you need to have a list of tasks you can focus on in one of your Pomodoro blocks. This way if you finish a task earlier than expected you can start on another one. So, a good use for one of the first blocks of time is plan out the tasks that need to be done to achieve your short-term goal. As you use this technique more and more, you’ll soon be able to estimate how many blocks are needed and this will also help defeat this Demon!

The Demon of Perfection

Have you ever wondered why children can seemingly pick up languages more quickly than adults? While many studies support the conclusion that children’s brains process information in a way that makes the learning process easier (Wlassoff, 2018), one barrier that adults face that children do not, is that as an adult you are highly skilled at expressing complex thoughts in your native language. You know idioms, cultural references, and understand the context behind phrases. Unlike a child though, you know you don’t know these things in a second language, and so every potential interaction with a native speaker provides the opportunity for the Demon to create anxiety and shut down the learning process.

So, this is how this Demon does its work: unlike the former, it doesn’t paint a picture of failure, it simply eats at your motivation by telling you of the shame you will feel at being substandard. Skilled professionals can be most venerable to this demon’s call to avoid the potential shame and procrastinate. This is because they have had years of being respected for their achievements and now with something new, they must start again.

And this is where the key lesson comes into play again, but with a twist: an acceptance that achievement in a field has to be measured against your current skill level, and not against your skill level in a different one. In other words, acceptance that when learning imperfection is to be expected.

For instance, in learning to communicate with a native speaker in a second language, the standard to focus on is not perfection with the grammar and phraseology, but simply the basic purpose of communication: to be understood. Then with every interaction, integrate the lessons of the previous interactions and slowly improve. While may seem difficult, you you have done this before when you learnt your native language as a child.

Similar to language learning, if your goal is to master an academic subject, simply reading through the textbook and the sample exercises will give you an unrealistic impression of how much you really know. The only way to know how far you have progressed is to test yourself and this is where those exercises lurking at the end of chapters can be your best friends. In fact, many studies show that if you are trying to learn something retrieval testing is the best way to learn something new (Karpicke, 2012) (Kornell, Kaiser, Kovacs, & Roediger III, 2009). The best part of them is, that unlike a test or examination, these regular retrieval tests happen in a safe private environment and are relative to your current skill level.

So, no longer should we think of these exercises as boring homework, but as essential tools to helping you learn, and defeating the Demon of Perfection!

The Demon of Fatigue

Any parent of young children can tell you that chronic sleep deprivation leads to poor decision making, but in a 2017 study lead by Dr. Itzhak Fried at UCLA it was revealed how sleep deprivation disrupts brain cells’ communication slowing down perceptions and impeding the ability to perform cognitive tasks (Schmidt, 2017). In fact, when you are very tired, the effect on your ability to perform cognitive tasks is similar to being intoxicated.

In addition to the many health benefits from sleep (Xie, et al., 2013), there have been recent studies showing how improved sleep benefits learning. In a 2007 study for instance, it was found that when test subjects were given the opportunity to sleep after learning a short list of pairs, they were better able to understand the relationship between all items on the list (Ellenbogen, Hu, Payne, Titone, & Walker, 2007).

The problem with this Demon is that once you are sleep deprived every effort you make to counter it, such as drinking more coffee, has only superficial effects. In fact, on a tired brain the demon isn’t even lying when it tells you that working harder will achieve little and that what you really need is a good night’s sleep. After a while no amount of willpower will defeat a physical reality and you will sleep!

 Of course the Demon does his real damage earlier when he tells you tales such as: that watching just one more episode of your favourite TV series when it is already after 11pm will be fine, that a few drinks help you sleep, that you should check your social media accounts to “wind down” when in bed trying to sleep, that checking you Twitter feed at 4am in the morning is perfectly normal. And before you know it, you’re sleep deprived and caught in a spiral continuously making poor decisions that keep you that way.

So, the best approach to stopping this demon is to use your willpower to focus on a better sleep discipline: having regular sleeping hours, avoiding device usage for at least 30-minutes before bed, avoid drinking alcohol just before sleep, etc (Smith, Robinson, & Segal, 2019). Potentially even easier is to make a simple change to your sleeping environment: turn down the temperature. In a 2013 article, Dr. Christopher Winter, MD discusses research that supports an ideal sleeping temperature between 15°C and 19°C, so unless you are elderly, get rid of that extra thick winter duvet and cool down! (Winter, 2013)

If after making changes you are still finding yourself regularly tired and you have managed to eliminate or manage every known cause, you may have an underlying medical condition hindering you and you should talk to a medical specialist. 

The Demon of Dispersion

How many times have you gone to work or to study, found yourself working hard all day, and then at the end felt you really haven’t achieved anything that moves you closer to your goals? Attributed to Benjamin Franklin is the immortal quote: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. And it is this failure that allows our last Demon to do his work and help us find non-productive activities that waste time.

The chief weakness of this Demon is attaining focus through having a plan. These plans can have many approaches, but the key is to have clear simple goals that the tasks can be linked to that allows prioritisation. In an article discussing strategies for engaging students in coursework, the authors note the importance for educators to have clear learning goals for a topic and to link them to the specific value the students will attain from the coursework (Explore Potential Strategies: Students lack interest or motivation, 2019). While focused on learning, this advice applies to plans we make for ourselves – we need to understand why we want to do the activity and what value it will bring.

When goals are longer term, they can seem overwhelming, but with planning goals can be broken down into the major tasks that need to be accomplished and when. Once you have these major tasks mapped out it is then easier to ask the question of each of them: what can I do now to advance progress on an individual task? This in turn creates a list of sub-tasks – ideally tasks that you estimate will take an hour or less to complete. The key on a daily basis then is to choose no more than three of these, prioritise, and put aside focus time that is free of distractions to complete them. If you do this planning the night before, your brain will even start working on the tasks for you while you sleep!

Being free of distractions and having a focus is absolutely key to getting into a state of mind called Flow. In this state people report feeling more creative and experiencing deep enjoyment. Once you are in this state, very little willpower is required to sustain it and studies have found that our ability to retain information is greatly improved (Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1992).

Sometimes though, particularly when we are stuck on a particular problem or task, we need to let our brain subconsciously work on a problem so we can return to it fresh.

Particularly in learning, this is where the technique of Interleaving can be advantageous. Essentially this technique involves doing related tasks in parallel, such as learning different types of tennis serves or mixing up science and math problems in one session. The advantage of this approach is that the different exercises force your brain to seek different solutions rather than just give rote responses. This exercise is believed to support the better learning of critical skills and concepts, and subsequently lead to an improved ability to select and execute the correct response (Pan, 2015).

Conclusion

After meeting our four demons and getting an insight into their insidiousness, it is natural to feel daunted. However, by attacking their weaknesses systematically using techniques and strategies in this article, you will achieve a series of confidence boosting wins. In time with consistency, you’ll find that not only it is possible to keep your procrastination to a minimum, but you’ll also start to have fun when you achieve your goals!

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Csikszentmihalyi, I. S. (Eds.). (1992). Optimal experience: Psychological studies of flow in consciousness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ellenbogen, J. M., Hu, P. T., Payne, J. D., Titone, D., & Walker, M. P. (2007). Human relational memory requires time and sleep. PNAS, 104(18), 7723-7728.

Explore Potential Strategies: Students lack interest or motivation. (2019). Retrieved from Carnegie Mellon University: Eberly Centre: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/solveproblem/strat-lackmotivation/lackmotivation-01.html

Jeffers, S. (2006). Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. New York: Ballantine Books.

Karpicke, J. D. (2012). Retrieval-based learning active retrieval promotes meaningful learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(3), 157-163.

Kern, M. L., & Friedman, H. S. (2008). Do conscientious individuals live longer? A quantitative review. Health Psychology, 27(5), 505.

Kornell, N., Kaiser, D., Kovacs, G., & Roediger III, H. L. (2009). Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance subsequent learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35(4), 989.

Pan, S. C. (2015, August 4). The Interleaving Effect: Mixing It Up Boosts Learning. Retrieved from Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-interleaving-effect-mixing-it-up-boosts-learning/

Schmidt, E. (2017, November 6). Spacing out after staying up late? Here’s why. Retrieved from UCLA: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/spacing-out-after-staying-up-late

Smith, M., Robinson, L., & Segal, R. (2019, August). How to sleep better. Retrieved from HelpGuide: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/sleep/getting-better-sleep.htm

Tangney, J. P., Baumeister, R. F., & Boone, A. L. (2004). High self‐control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success. Journal of personality, 72(2), 271-324.

Weir, K. (2012). What you need to know about willpower: The psychological science of self-control. Washington, D.C.: Amercian Psychological Association. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower.pdf

Winter, C. (2013, October 9). Choosing the Best Temperature for Sleep. Retrieved from HuffPost: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/best-temperature-for-sleep_b_3705049?guccounter=2

Wlassoff, V. (2018, February 14). Why Do Children Learn Foreign Languages So Easily? Retrieved from BrainBlogger: https://www.brainblogger.com/2018/02/14/why-children-learn-foreign-languages-easily/

Xie, L., Kan, H., Xu, Q., Chen, M. J., Liao, Y., Thiyagarajan, M., . . . Nedergaard, M. (2013). Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain. Science, 342(6156), 373-377.

[1] Find out more at https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique.