Perhaps one of the most encouraging things a procrastinating student can be told is that even someone who studies procrastination for a living can struggle with meeting deadlines.
Professor Timothy Pychyl has been teaching in the psychology department at Carleton for 21 years and he has been studying procrastination since 1995.
Pychyl admits to facing some of the same problems students encounter when it comes to putting off important tasks.
“Even someone who studies it all the time has to use strategies to make sure they don’t give in to feel good,” he said. “Weakness of will is always possible.”
Pychyl’s goal in his research is to find ways in which people can learn to help themselves and overcome their procrastination habits.
“I’m not interested in making us all productivity machines,” he said. “I want people to help themselves live the lives they want to live . . . these are learnable skills.”
Pychyl is currently working with graduate student, Eve-Marie Blouin-Hudon, on a study related to present self and future self.
Research shows when people are shown a digitally-aged photograph of themselves, they are more likely to make different decisions in the present because they feel more connected with their future self.
For the purpose of this study, Blouin-Hudon will help students imagine themselves at the end of the term in order to make better decisions related to their present self.
Pychyl said one of his most interesting studies was with a fellow Carleton psychologist, Michael Wohl, and Carleton graduate student Shannon Bennett.
The study was about self-forgiveness, and Pychyl was fascinated to learn that people who procrastinated but then forgave themselves actually procrastinated less.
“What was surprising to me is that we need self-forgiveness and self-compassion,” he said. “We have to watch we don’t beat ourselves up too much. Once we do, we’re less likely to want to try again.”
Pychyl has published a book called “Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.”
He is working in collaboration with two other scholars on books that will focus on health and strength of will.
Pychyl passes on the skills and strategies he finds in his research by publishing a blog called “Don’t Delay” as well as a monthly podcast called “iProcrastinate.”
Students can participate in some of Pychyl’s studies by signing up through his website, procrasination.ca
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