Dr. Timothy A. Pychyl, associate professor of psychology and director of the Procrastination Research Group (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada), provides a series of short talks, interviews and question/answer podcasts that explain why we procrastinate and what we can do about it. An award winning educator, Dr. Pychyl challenges his listeners to explore their daily choices to act or postpone acting on their intentions. Do we head to the gym as intended, or slouch back on the couch thinking "I'll feel more like a workout tomorrow"? Do we tackle the task now, or do we avoid it arguing to ourselves that "I work better under pressure"? From losing 10 pounds to changing personal habits, Pychyl, a personality psychologist, focuses on the breakdown of intentional action - a problem commonly called procrastination. This series expands on three main themes: 1) irrational delay that sabotages personal productivity, 2) personality attributes that contribute to self-defeating behaviours, and 3) situational factors that undermine our ability to take or sustain action...
http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com
Fear, competence & autonomy in the prediction of procrastination
An interview with Mohsen Haghbin (Carleton University) about his most recent publication relating fear of failure and procrastination. I had interviewed Mohsen in 2010 when he helped Adam McCaffrey finish the study, but I wanted to do this again with the published paper, because the final analyses revealed some interesting findings about what affects the apparent relation between fear of failure and procrastination.
Mohsen explains that whether or not fear of failure is related to procrastination depends on whether we feel competent and whether we feel a sense of autonomy (choice) with the task at hand. If you like research, you'll get a good understanding of Mohsen's study. If you're seeking to understand why fear sometimes results in procrastination yet at other times fuels motivation, you'll find some of the answer in this study - it depends on other factors!
If you want to learn more about procrastination, visit procrastination.ca or The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.
I close the podcast with a song entitled "Procrastination" by Matt Weidinger.