Too Much To Do: The Foot-in-the-Door Technique
When I help students figure out how to get through a week or two of multiple assignments for different classes, I teach them my version of the Foot-in-the-Door technique. I learned the technique when I was in my Social Psychology class in graduate school. The idea,...
Tips for Success in College (and Beyond): Volume I
The majority of my patients are college students, and working with this group of people is a great privilege. I get to watch people grow in leaps and bounds and rework and refine their personal styles of interacting with the world as they go. I have found that...
Undoing Control
We don't really ever have as much control as we'd like or as much as we think we need. We spend a lot of time and energy trying to forget that. We try to permify the present by compiling mementos, snapping pictures, filing things, writing in journals, and perfecting...
Techniques to Try: Use the Emergent Task Planner
It is amazing what a single sheet of paper can do. When I tell my patients to download the free version of the Emergent Task Planner, many don't bother, thinking, perhaps that this is just another task to fall behind on or to forget. Those who listen and use the...
The Importance of Having Patience for Yourself
Patience. Not my middle name. If it were my middle name, I would have been named incorrectly. Although I was not given the benefit of patience for myself by birth, I think I have learned a good deal about the process of developing patience as an adult. In my own...
Practicing Gratitude
Procrastinators can have a difficult time getting around to feeling grateful. They may be chronically stressed, perpetually depleted, constantly bemoaning their plight. Feeling grateful may just seem like a ridiculous waste of time. I think the trick about feeling...
Step of the Day: Take Care of Something or Someone Else
One of the most defining things about Procrastination is that it is isolating. When we begin to Procrastinate, we take ourselves away from other things we want to be doing and other people we want to be with. And so, it makes sense that one of the best actions you...
Don't Be Afraid To Change Tacks
Some definitions of the word "tack" in The Free Dictionary are: "The act of changing from one position or direction to another." "A course of action meant to minimize opposition to the attainment of a goal." The phrase "to change tacks" refers to the action...
Techniques To Try: Utilize Your Morning Energy
I have been recommending my patients learn how to use their morning time more productively for a long time. In working with many Procrastinators, I had noticed most struggled with finding time during the day to work and then also lost additional time trying to find...
Escape from Idea Purgatory
[Tweet "One idea brought to fruition is worth 1000 in idea purgatory."] I am so pleased right now. A moment ago, I tried a new plug-in called "Click to Tweet" for my blog. And as you can see from the Tweet invitation above, it worked. When I installed the plug-in,...
Hiding
Hiding is a pretty critical part of being a Procrastinator. By describing some of the different types of hiding Procrastinators do, I hope to help you figure out your own modus operandi so you can start living without hiding again soon. Hiding in Plain Sight...
What Constrains Us
This post was written (and published earlier this week) as a guest post for Positive Workspace, a wonderful site replete with useful and thoughtful information and resources on developing a positive relationship to work. I hope you like it. It’s funny how sometimes...
When Disorganization Leads to Procrastination
There are some days when it is not our Procrastination that causes delay, but our disorganization. It may be those ink cartridges that keep running out. It may be you can't locate the flash drive your work is on. It may be your checkbook is not where you thought...
Step of the Day: Allow Yourself Some Breathing Room
Procrastinators tend to be involved in messy situations. Maybe not so much illicit affairs as much as having one project blend into another, and another, and another. There are many reasons for this, such as: problems setting start and finish times difficulties...
What To Do When You Feel Depleted
Sometimes we get overwhelmed by what we have planned for ourselves. When those times come around, we often believe we have no way around what is happening to us. It is when we feel most stuck that we need the most help. Here are a few things you can do when you...
Step of the Day: Tie Up a Loose End
Our capacity to focus is a precious and limited resource. One way to protect your ability to concentrate on larger issues is to take care of more minor issues that have been sticking around on your To Do List for quite some time. This may seem counterintuitive as we...
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