Murray State University psychology professor Dr. Michael Bordieri says 1 in 5 adults and as much as 70 percent of college students report procrastinating, or putting off unpleasant tasks. It can be difficult to break procrastination habits but Bordieri says you can exercise your self-control like a muscle to more readily engage in tasks. Tracy Ross speaks with Bordieri about defeating procrastination on Sounds Good.
There are several methods for exercising your self-control muscles. One method is Grandma’s Rule, as Bordieri calls it, where you reward yourself after doing something less than fun, like eating your vegetables and following with desert. You can practice doing a little each day of what you don’t want to do to build a pattern of not procrastinating. You can also publicly share your intent of doing something to give yourself some accountability. However, Bordieri says it is important not to let such sharing create feelings of shame or guilt which he says make you more likely to put off tasks.
When dealing with tasks that offer only long-term gratification, like earning a college degree, Bordieri says it can be helpful to link the present activity to the long-term goal by making statements to yourself about why the task matters to you. He says this practice may increase your productivity and the liklihood of finishing the task.
And then there’s lack of motivation. Bordieri says many people will wait until they feel like doing something before they do it. But he says motivation comes and goes and you don’t have to feel like doing a task before you can engage in it. Actually, he says the more people engage in something the more they will feel motivated to continue. The most important part is to keep going even when you don’t feel like it. Bordieri says pushing through an undesirable task helps people learn that feelings and motivation don’t have to dictate what they can and can’t do, they can decide for themselves.
